ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – The Pennsylvania House democrats want to bring attention to the difficulties of being a public defender. House Democrats have introduced a bill to mark March 18th as “Public Defender Day.”

Lawmakers say public defenders often deal with limited resources, heavy workloads, and low pay. Pennsylvania also does not provide any state dollars to public defender offices.

“Public Defenders are an integral piece to the constitutional. So, when we support funding for indigent defense and public defender offices, it’s not to say that we’re pro-crime, not to say that we’re against district attorneys. It’s not to say that we’re being harsh on victims. None of that. None of that. We want a system that works; works across the board,” Rep. Dan Miller said.

In Governor Shapiro’s budget, he asked lawmakers; to invest ten million dollars allocated to public defenders more for resources.