HARRISBURG — A surprising pick for speaker of the Pennsylvania House has some lawmakers and good-government groups hopeful the chamber might finally adopt less partisan rules.

At the beginning of each two-year session, lawmakers pass rules that govern the state House and Senate. Those rules can dictate how committees are organized, who can call a vote on bills, and even mandate lawmakers to publicly share expenses.

The rules rarely change, and when they do, the edits are written in private by the majority party, sometimes with input from the minority party and sometimes without it. Then rank-and-file lawmakers are given the rules hours before a vote takes place, leaving little time to read them, let alone understand their impact.

The state Senate passed its rules on Tuesday, maintaining a status quo that gives the majority party — in this case, Republicans — much of the power.

But in the state House, where the partisan split is razor-thin, there’s hope that new Speaker Mark Rozzi of Berks County will be open to adopting meaningful change.