Biography

Pat Browne was first elected to the state Senate in a Special Election in April of 2005 and was re-elected in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 to represent constituents in the 16th Senatorial District. Before being elected to the Senate, Pat represented constituents of the 131st District in the House of Representatives for 10 years and was the first Republican elected to serve that district.

Senator Browne serves as part of the Senate Leadership team as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, being elected by his Senate Republican Colleagues for the 2021-22 Legislative Session. This is the fourth legislative session his colleagues have elected him to serve as Majority Appropriations Chair. He had previously served in leadership as Senate Majority Whip during the 2011-12 and 2013-14 Legislative Sessions. Before that, he served as Caucus Administrator, appointed to that position by Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati.

Besides being Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Pat is also a member of four other Senate committees: Aging and Youth, Finance (where he serves as Vice Chairman), Law and Justice and Local Government. He is also Co-Chair of both the Arts and Culture Caucus and the Early Childhood Education Caucus.

Pat was recognized by his peers for his leadership in education finance initiatives by being appointed to serve as Co-Chair of both the Basic Education Funding Commission, which developed a new effective and fair formula for funding public education, and the Special Education Funding Commission, which developed a new formula for distributing special education funding to school districts.

He also served as Co-Chair of the Public School Building Construction and Reconstruction Advisory Committee (commonly known as PlanCon), which was charged with reviewing and making recommendations related to the program for state reimbursement for construction and reconstruction and lease of public school buildings.

Pat received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from Temple University. Prior to his legislative service, he was employed with the accounting firms of Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse as a tax manager and senior tax/audit associate, respectively. In addition to being a CPA, he is also a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Born and raised in Allentown, Pat attended Allentown Central Catholic High School. He still resides in the state’s third biggest city with his wife, Heather.