Weekly Wrap
Both the House of Representatives and Senate were in session this week, as the first bill of the 2019-2020 legislative session reached the Governor’s desk. S.B. 113 (DiSanto, R-Dauphin) would require the forfeiture of pension benefits for public employees that are convicted or plead guilty or no contest to any job-related felony offense.
Other bills receiving final votes in the House and making their way to the Senate for consideration include:
- H.B. 324 (Gillespie, R-York), which would establish a microenterprise loan program to assist startup entrepreneurs.
- H.B. 441 (Sonney, R-Erie), which would provide for wind power generation systems on preserved farmland.
- H.B. 752 (Turzai, R-Allegheny), which would remove the current price per acre restriction on Game Fund money used to purchase land in Allegheny County for game lands.
In addition, the House Transportation Committee reported out H.B. 30 (Petrarca, D-Westmoreland), which would increase the optional contribution amount by vehicle registrants from $3 to $6 for The Governor Robert P. Casey Memorial Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Trust Fund.
Tuesday had its fair share of informational meetings, as the House Aging and Older Adult Services Committee heard from Thomas Snedden, director of the Bureau of Pharmaceutical Assistance, on the PACE and PACENET programs and Medicare Part D. The House Commerce Committee and House Labor and Industry Committee held a joint informational meeting on the Auditor General’s performance audit report on the Pennsylvania Workforce Development System. Lastly, the House Judiciary Committee received testimony from Pennsylvania judges on the state of the criminal justice system.
On the House floor, members unanimously passed H.B. 751 (Roae, R-Crawford), which would make water and wastewater public utilities solely responsible for funding the income taxes on taxable contributions in aid of construction and customer advances for construction. The utilities shall also record the income taxes paid in accumulated deferred income taxes for accounting and ratemaking purposes.
Sticking with the House, the House Human Services Committee reported out H.B. 316 (Owlett, R-Tioga), with a request to re-refer the bill to the House Children and Youth Committee. The bill would establish a task force focused on the impact of opioid abuse on children. The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted favorably on H.B. 247 (Oberlander, R-Clarion), which would provide for a process and accounting mechanism to allow well bores to cross multiple units provided the operator has the right to drill wells on the units via leases with all landowners/members of the units.
Moving to the upper chamber, the Senate State Government Committee reported out S.B. 372 (Scavello, R-Monroe), which would update and modernize provisions of the History Code relating to archives. Furthermore, the Senate Education Committee reported out S.B. 115 (Killion, R-Delaware), which would establish a program for CPR instruction for high school students; S.B. 144 (Martin, R-Lancaster), which would provide funding to intermediate units to purchase telepresence equipment to support homebound students facing serious medical conditions; and S.R. 34 (Dinniman, D-Chester), which would establish a Global Education Task Force to analyze students’ preparedness to compete in today’s global economy.
The House finished up the week on Wednesday by finally passing H.B. 64 (Readshaw, D-Allegheny), which would authorize state professional and occupational licensing boards to allow carryover of excess continuing education credits. Also, the House Urban Affairs Committee held an informational on qualified opportunity zones in Pennsylvania. Buchanan attorney Lisa Starczewski was among the testifiers.
The Week Ahead
Both chambers will be in Harrisburg again for three session days.
Monday, the House Labor and Industry Committee will consider two bills that amend Pennsylvania’s Construction Code Act. The first, H.B. 349 (Heffley, R-Carbon), would require municipalities have at least two or more third-party agencies under contract for Uniform Construction Code administration. The second, H.B. 422 (Delozier, R-Cumberland), would create a building code official trainee program. The House Labor and Industry Committee held a public hearing on H.B. 349 last week.
The House Health Committee will consider three bills:
- H.B. 33 (Dunbar, R-Westmoreland), which would re-enact the general assistance cash benefit program.
- H.B. 427 (Benninghoff, R-Centre), which would prohibit health plans covering treatments for Stage IV, metastatic cancers, from excluding or limiting drugs for patients if the drugs are FDA-approved and consistent with best practices.
- H.B. 629 (Rapp, R-Warren), which would require health insurers to cover treatment plans for Lyme disease or related tick-borne illnesses as prescribed by a patient’s healthcare practitioner.
On Tuesday the House Human Services Committee will hold a public hearing on adolescent substance use care, challenges and opportunities. Also, the House Commerce Committee will hold an informational meeting on the Department of Community and Economic Development’s workforce programs.
In the Senate, the Senate State Government Committee will have a public hearing on S.B. 48 (Gordner, R-Columbia), which would delay the impending mass decertification of current voting machines until an appropriate plan between the Governor and the General Assembly and the method by which it will be paid for can be agreed to.
The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee will consider three bills by Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Susquehanna). First, H.B. 828 would reform how the Department of Environmental Protection regulates oil and gas operations by extending the term for well permits from one year to three years, allowing for a single well permit to apply to multiple wells on a single pad, and allowing the final location of a well location to within 50 feet of the specific location identified in a well permit application.
The other two bills deal with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC): H.B. 827, which provides that impacted landowners in the DRBC be entitled to compensation calculated in the same manner as is used to determine value in any other eminent domain action; and H.B. 829, which would clarify the role of the DRBC as it relates to protecting waters in the Delaware River Basin region.
The House Gaming Oversight Committee will consider H.B. 826 (Marshall, R-Beaver), which would expand the current 50/50 program to collegiate teams and permit the use of credit cards and debit cards when purchasing 50/50 chances.
Wednesday, the Joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee will meet to release the following reports: “Performance Audit on the PA Fish and Boat Commission” and “The Impact of Tavern Gaming on the PA State Lottery”. The House Professional Licensure Committee will also meet to hold an informational with a briefing from the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs Commissioner Ian Harlow on the Department of State’s PA Licensing System (PALS).
The House Finance Committee will consider H.B. 706 (Greiner, R-Lancaster), which would permit the administrator of a decedent’s estate to elect to file a combined annual income tax return for an estate and revocable trust. Finally, the House Aging and Older Adult Services Committee will consider:
- H.B. 375 (Goodman, D-Schuylkill) would remove the value of federal veterans’ disability payments and the value of all state service-connected payments from income eligibility calculations for the PACE and PACENET programs.
- H.B. 684 (Sonney, R-Erie) would exclude the cashing of savings bonds for seniors 65 and older as being counted toward income when applying for lottery-funded programs.
- H.B. 754 (Thomas, R-Bucks) would extend the current Social Security cost-of-living adjustment moratorium until December 31, 2021.
- H.B. 775 (Diamond, R-Lebanon) would require the Department of Aging to cross-reference its list of beneficiaries with death records maintained by the Department of Health on a monthly basis.
A full list of committee meetings can be found here:
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