Here are the Senate and House Calendars for the next voting session day and Committees scheduling action on bills of interest as well as a list of new environmental bills introduced--

Bill Calendars

NEW: Click Here for expected action on bills by the full House [Republican].

NEW. Click Here For Next Week’s Legislative Schedule [Democrats]

House (June 8): House Bill 188 (Quinn-R-Montgomery) providing for an eminent domain bill of rights for projects like pipelines; House Bill 247 (Oberlander-R-Clarion) would amend Act 13 to authorize an accounting mechanism to allow for the drilling of longer unconventional gas well laterals; House Bill 827 (Fritz-R-Wayne) requiring the Delaware River Basin Commission to reimburse property owners for drilling rights if the Commission adopts a ban on fracking was reported from the House Appropriations Committee (House Fiscal Note and summary); House Bill 1106 (Puskaric-R- Allegheny) requires DEP approval of any permit regulating air quality, waste, erosion and sedimentation and dam safety and encroachments within 30 days without regard to public review of permits, creates a new bureaucracy in the form of a “referee” to decide disputes between DEP and applicants over application completeness (Part of House Republican EnergizePA natural gas subsidy package) Click Here for more; House Bill 1874 (Grove-R -York)-- was amended to authorize any regulated entity at any time to request a review by the little-known, and even less frequently used Joint Committee On Documents to determine if any “published or unpublished document”-- including permits, produced or issued by DEP or other agencies- Read more here.; House Bill 2004 (Ortitay-R-Allegheny) gives the General Assembly authority to reallocate monies from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund between participating agencies, instead of having an allocation fixed in law (sponsor summary) Read more here.; House Bill 2293 (Quinn-R-Montgomery) further providing for emergency plans by natural gas liquids pipelines (sponsor summary);  House Bill 2416 (Everett-R- Lycoming) that would stop any proposed or final environmental or other state agency regulation from being finalized until at least 90 days after the March 6 COVID-19 emergency declaration by the Governor is terminated (House Fiscal Note & Summary); House Resolution 758 (Matzie-D-Beaver) designating April 2020 as Pennsylvania 8-1-1 Safe Digging Month (sponsor summary); Read more here;  Senate Bill 703 (Scarnati-R- Jefferson) which also expands the authority Joint Committee on Documents to determine whether “published or unpublished” documents of agencies should be promulgated as a regulation- Read more here.<> Click Here for full House Bill Calendar.

Senate (June 8): Senate Bill 5 (DiSanto-R-Cumberland)-- that authorizes the General Assembly to kill any final regulation by doing nothing Read more here ; Senate Bill 258 (Dinniman-D- Chester, Killion-R-Delaware), a bipartisan initiative to improve emergency response to pipeline incidents; Senate Bill 284 (Killion-R- Delaware, Dinniman-D-Chester) require pipeline companies to provide current emergency response plans to PUC; Senate Bill 609 (Brooks-R- Crawford) that would require a review of economically significant regulations every three years Read more here;  Senate Bill 679 (Yaw-R-Lycoming) directs the Environmental Quality Board to develop regulations that authorize counties to adopt a program for “stream cleaning” and maintenance and the removal of obstructions and flood-related hazards from our local waterways (sponsor summary); Senate Bill 763 (Bartolotta-R- Washington) would eliminate the annual public report on subsidence damage from underground coal mining. <> Click Here for full Senate Bill Calendar.

Committee Meetings  This Week

House: the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee holds two meetings this week: the first to consider House Bill 2025 (Struzzi-R-Indiana) to take away DEP’s authority to enact any program to reduce carbon pollution emissions (RGGI) [Read more here] and the second to consider House Bill 1808 (Mackenzie-R-Lehigh)-- to exempt a garbage processing plant from DEP’s waste facility regulations, House Bill 2219 (James-R-Venango)-- would add a representative of the coal refuse energy industry to DEP’s Mining and Reclamation Advisory Board [Read more here].  <>  Click Here for full House Committee Schedule.

Senate: the State Government Committee meets to consider House Bill 2045 (Dowling-R- Fayette) providing for a land swap with Ohiopyle State Park and Ohiopyle Borough;  the Intergovernmental Operations Committee meets to consider Senate Bill 119 (DiSanto-R- Cumberland) would amend the Regulatory Review Act to require the arbitrary repeal of at least two existing regulatory requirements for every new requirement proposed by any state agency.  This “regulatory replacement request” must be approved by the Independent Regulatory Review or by a majority vote in both the Senate and House before a regulation is promulgated; Senate Bill 251 (Phillips-Hill-R-York) would create a new bureaucracy-- Independent Office of the Repealers-- to review existing regulations from all state agencies and make recommendations to the General Assembly and Governor for the repeal or revision;  Senate Bill 252 (Phillips-Hill-R- York) would require all state agencies to establish a third party permit review program to provide for the review of permits delayed beyond arbitrary deadlines set in the legislation.  The bill also requires the establishment of a permit tracking system with additional bureaucratic requirements;  Senate Bill 253 (Phillips-Hill) would create yet more bureaucracy in each state agency called an Agency Regulatory Compliance Officer to arbitrarily establish policies for waiving fines or penalties for violators of regulations and law administered by the agency.  The only requirement in the bill for a violator to be eligible for a waiver of fines or penalties is for “the regulated entity must report to the regulatory compliance officer the steps it has taken or will take to remedy the violation.” The Regulatory Compliance Officer is authorized to issue an opinion within 20 business days of a person’s duties under a regulation for the agency and that opinion, or the failure to provide an opinion, could be used as a “complete defense” in any enforcement proceeding initiated by the agency and evidence of good faith conduct in other civil or criminal proceeding.  So not only would agency enforcement actions be blunted, any actions taken by citizens to enforce environmental or other statutes would be as well [Read more here]; the Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee meets to consider House Resolution 836 (Diamond-R-Lebanon) that would terminate the COVID-19 disaster emergency issued by the Governor, Senate Bill 1166 (Ward-R-Westmoreland) that would amend the constitution to require the General Assembly to reauthorize emergencies declared by the Governor.  <>  Click Here for full Senate Committee Schedule.

Bills Pending In Key Committees

Check the PA Environmental Council Bill Tracker for the status and updates on pending state legislation and regulations that affect environmental and conservation efforts in Pennsylvania.

Bills Introduced

The following bills of interest were introduced last week--

Blocking Regulations/Citizen Advisory Committee Meetings: Senate Bill 1147 (Yaw-R- Lycoming) which would block all proposed and final regulations from publication and prohibit any state agency citizens advisory committee meetings for the duration of a disaster emergency declared by the Governor. Read more here.

Banning Local Bans Of Single-Use Containers: Senate Bill 1159 (Arnold-R-Lebanon) would ban local bans of single-use containers during the declared COVID-19 disaster emergency (sponsor summary).

General Assembly Renewal Of Disaster Emergency: Senate Bill 1160 (Mastriano-R-Franklin) requiring the General Assembly to reauthorize a disaster emergency (sponsor summary).

COVID-19 Liability Protection For Businesses: Senate Bill 1161 (Phillips-Hill-R-York) to provide liability protection for businesses from COVID-19-related legal actions (sponsor summary).

Disaster Emergency Constitutional Amendment: Senate Bill 1166 (Ward-R-Westmoreland) amending the constitution to require the General Assembly to reauthorize a disaster emergency.

Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week: Senate Resolution 330 (Martin-R-Lancaster) designating the week of June 7-13 as Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week (sponsor summary).

House and Senate Co-Sponsorship Memos

House: Click Here for all new co-sponsorship memos

Senate: Click Here for all new co-sponsorship memos

Session Schedule

Here is the latest voting session schedule for the Senate and House--

Senate

Senate recessed to the call of the President Pro Tempore

June 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30

House  [Updated]

House is on a 12-hour call

June 8, 9, 10, [15, 16, 17]  22, 23, 24, [25, 26, 29, 30]

September 15, 16, 17, 29, 30

October 1, 5, 6, 7, 19, 20, 21

November 10

6/8/2020