On April 13, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre) announced the Senate plans to return to session this week to consider legislation they said will provide a safe path for re-opening the state’s economy shutdown by the COVID-19 virus and issued this statement--
“The Senate plans to return to Session this week to send legislation to the Governor’s desk that will put forth a fair and responsible process to re-open businesses across our Commonwealth.
“Throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency we have endeavored to work together in a bi-partisan manner to do what is in the best interest of our Commonwealth. Unfortunately, it has become abundantly clear that the Governor’s waiver process for employers to remain open during this time has been extremely flawed and lacks transparency.
“We must keep our communities safe while also helping workers get back to their jobs. The decisions of how to successfully implement plans to re-open our economy will rest with the legislature of Pennsylvania and not with liberal governors from other states.”
This announcement came a few hours after Gov. Wolf announced he was working with the Governors of five other states-- New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island-- to develop a regional plan for reopening the economy and reducing COVID-19 mitigation measures which they all said is weeks away.. Read more here.
The House plans to be in voting session April 14 to consider House Bill 2376 (Roae-R-Crawford) would open all retail stores during COVID-19 emergency (sponsor summary) and House Bill 2400 (Turzai-R-Allegheny) would reopen all private and public construction during COVID-19 emergency (sponsor summary).
The House State Government Committee met Monday and voted along party lines to report out House Bill 2388 (Mihalek-R-Allegheny) which would reopen car dealers for car sales.
These three bills all require the reopening businesses to follow CDC guidelines for operations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Gov. Wolf has opposed these bills as being premature and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine saying the state’s priority now must be to save lives and then livelihoods.
The Senate is likely to consider Senate Bill 327 (Argall-R-Schuylkill) on a concurrence vote in House amendments.
The bill would create a legislative-executive-judicial branch COVID-19 Cost And Recovery Task Force to identify urgent needs during the emergency that requires executive, legislative or judicial actions, develop a recovery plan and do a final report on the pandemic six months after the emergency is over (House Fiscal Note & Summary).
Related Articles:
Dept. Of Health Reports 17 New Deaths Due To COVID-19 [Posted: April 13, 2020]
No comments:
Post a Comment