The following bills of interest saw action last week in the House and Senate--

Senate

Terminate COVID-19 Emergency: House Resolution 836 (Diamond-R-Lebanon) that would terminate the COVID-19 disaster emergency issued by the Governor was amended and reported out of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee was passed by the Senate and concurred in by the House.

On June 10, Gov. Wolf said he would be taking the Senate and House to court because the resolution does not provide for presentment to the Governor for him to sign or veto as the state constitution requires.

Gov. Wolf also said House Resolution 836 does nothing to end the Department of Health’s orders under a separate law requiring a phased reopening of businesses and requiring schools and businesses to follow mitigation measures.

All those measures remain in place, according to the Governor.  He did go down a laundry list of benefits that would end if the emergency declaration was ended including for unemployment compensation, school meal programs, telemedicine, medical workers, PennDOT waivers, mortgage foreclosures and eviction moratorium and more.  Read more here.

The Senate Republican Caucus did not wait for Wolf to act and filed a petition with Commonwealth Court the same day asking the court to “command” the Governor to end the COVID-19 disaster emergency.  Read more here.

On June 12, Gov. Wolf then went to court too, but jumped over Commonwealth Court and went directly to the PA Supreme Court to try to uphold his disaster declaration. Read more here.

Terminate COVID-19 Emergency: Senate Bill 1166 (Ward-R-Westmoreland) that would amend the constitution to require the General Assembly to reauthorize emergencies declared by the Governor was passed by the Senate and now goes to the House for action.

Low-Head Dam Safety: House Bill 1003 (Gillespie-R-York) further providing for marking and other safety measures related to low-head dams (House Fiscal Note & Summary) was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Repeal 2 Regs For Every New One:  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. The bill was reported out of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee by a party line vote-- Republicans supporting-- and is now on the Senate Calendar for action. Read more here.

Office Of The Repealer:  Senate Bill 251 (Phillips-Hill-R-York) would create a new bureaucracy-- Independent Office of the Repealer-- to review existing regulations from all state agencies and make recommendations to the General Assembly and Governor for the repeal or revision. The bill was reported out of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee by a party line vote-- Republicans supporting-- and is now on the Senate Calendar for action. Read more here.

Expensive Third Party Permit Reviews:  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.  The bill was reported out of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee by a party line vote-- Republicans supporting-- and is now on the Senate Calendar for action. Read more here.

Shielding Violators From Enforcement: 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.  The bill was reported out of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee by a party line vote-- Republicans supporting-- and is now on the Senate Calendar for action. Read more here.

Ohiopyle Land Exchange: House Bill 2045 (Dowling-R-Fayette) providing for a land exchange between DCNR and the Borough of Ohiopyle (House Fiscal Note & Summary) was reported out of the Senate State Government Committee and is now on the Senate Calendar for action.

NO Action: Lyme Disease Insurance Coverage: House Bill 629 (Rapp-R-Forest) requiring health care policies to cover the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and related tick-borne illnesses (House Fiscal Note & Summary) was passed over in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

NO Action: Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week: Senate Resolution 330 (Martin-R-Lancaster) designating the week of June 7 - 13 Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week (sponsor summary)  was not acted on.

House

Pipeline Emergency Plan: House Bill 2293 (Quinn-R-Delaware) requiring any public utility [pipeline] delivering natural gas liquids through a high consequence area must make available the public utility's emergency response plans upon written request to the following: secretary of the Public Utility Commission, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the county emergency management director where the high consequence area is located (House Fiscal Note & Summary) was reported from the House Appropriations Committee and passed by the House.  The bill now goes to the Senate for action.

Take Carbon Pollution Reduction Authority Away From DEP: House Bill 2025 (Struzzi-R-Indiana) to take away DEP’s authority to enact any program to reduce carbon pollution emissions (RGGI) was reported out of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee and referred to the House Rules Committee as all bills are this time of year.  Read more here.

Waste Processing Exemption: House Bill 1808 (Mackenzie-R-Lehigh)-- to exempt a garbage processing plant from DEP’s waste facility regulations was amended to narrow the focus of the bill to processes recycling post-use polymers and reported out of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee and referred to the House Rules Committee as all bills are this time of year.  Read more here.

NO Action: Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week: House Resolution 897 (Everett-R-Lycoming) designating the week of June 7 - 13 Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week (sponsor summary) was not referred to Committee or acted on.

6/15/2020