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Weekly Recap–Week of October 21, 2024

Oct 25, 2024

Weekly Recap

This week marked the final scheduled voting session of the year for both chambers. The House and the Senate will be back in Harrisburg the week of November 12. Those session days are typically for administrative duties and leadership elections for the 2025-2026 legislative session. However, we can’t rule out additional action on bills before this two-year session officially wraps up on November 30. At that point, all bills that failed to be signed into law must be reintroduced starting in January.

While committee meetings were limited, several public hearings took place throughout the week, offering insights into legislative matters that may emerge in the next session.

On Tuesday, the House Gaming Oversight Committee held an informational meeting on betting integrity.

Wednesday, the House Children and Youth Committee held an informational meeting on sharing the findings related to both the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) Complex Case Task Force Report and the Department of Human Services (DHS) Blueprint Reports. Additionally, the Senate Aging and Youth Committee held a joint public hearing with the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on HB 2064 (Hogan, R-Bucks), which would require financial institutions and its designated representatives to report suspected financial exploitation of older adults. Finally, the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a public hearing that focused on low carbon, clean fuel and waste.

A lot of back and forth between chambers resulted in many bills being sent to the Governor for his signature. Those bills include:

  • HB 450 (Freeman, D-Northampton), which would amend the Main Street Act by extending the duration of basic grants for administrative costs associated with the hiring of a Main Street Manager for up to an additional 5 years to a total of 10 years.
  • HB 843 (Miller, D-Allegheny), which would make changes regarding urban search and rescue task forces.
  • HB 1409 (Kulik, D-Allegheny), which would extend the Fish and Boat Commission’s power to set fees from 2025 to 2035.
  • HB 1509 (Nelson, D-Philadelphia), which would expand the membership of existing boards of inspectors for county jails and allow Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties to establish a board of inspectors.
  • HB 1608 (Cephas, D-Philadelphia), which would provide Medical Assistance (MA) coverage to certified doulas for providing services to an individual covered under MA during pregnancy, labor and delivery and up to one year postpartum and require the Department of Human Services to establish the Doula Advisory Board.
  • HB 2132 (Daley, D-Philadelphia), which would establish the Pennsylvania-Ireland Trade Commission and make changes to the Entertainment Economic Enhancement Program.
  • HB 2160 (Sappey, D-Chester), which would amend the First Class Township Code to provide for an expedited process to fill township vacancies.
  • HB 2185 (Fleming, D-Dauphin), which would require the Department of Health to develop type 1 diabetes informational materials for parents and guardians.
  • HB 2265 (Donahue, D-Lackawanna), which would increase the maximum allowable compensation for borough officials and mayors.
  • HB 2378 (Abney, D-Allegheny), which would exclude savings bond principal and interest from the income eligibility determination in the PACE and PACENET programs.
  • HB 2381 (Markosek, D-Allegheny), which would allow a licensing board or commission under the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs to promulgate one-time temporary regulations that are necessary for the implementation of each interstate licensure compact enacted by the General Assembly.
  • HB 2610 (Malagari, D-Montgomery), which would remove the requirement that cremation equipment have an interlock system.
  • SB 267 (Brooks, R-Mercer), which would add urgent care centers to the list of safe havens where a parent may surrender their newborn.
  • SB 365 (Bartolotta, R-Washington), which would amend the Workers’ Compensation Act to provide first responders with coverage for a post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI).
  • SB 867 (Kearney, D-Delaware), which would update the city classification process and permit Scranton and Third Class cities to remain in their current classification regardless of population changes unless they qualify for, and actively choose, a change of class.
  • SB 920 (Langerholc, R-Cambria), which would establish a statewide sexual assault evidence tracking system.
  • SB 1160 (Mastriano, R-Adams), which would designate March 29 of each year as Vietnam War Veterans Day in the Commonwealth.
  • SB 1132 (Brown, R-Monroe), SB 1133 (Brown, R-Monroe), and SB 1134 (Brown, R-Monroe), which would amend the First Class Township, Second Class Township, and Borough Codes respectively to authorize local governments to waive the limitation on a tax that supports ambulance, rescue and other emergency services so that more than half of the revenue may be used for compensation of personnel in any calendar year.
  • SB 1232 (Pennycuick, R-Montgomery), which would amend the Workers’ Compensation Act to provide for the direct deposit of compensation payments.
  • SB 1237 (Baker, R-Luzerne), which would make several changes to the Underground Utility Line Protection (PA One Call) Law, including eliminating the current sunset date of December 31, 2024.

In Other News

  • Governor Shapiro announced a historic plan to revitalize downtown Pittsburgh with targeted investments from the state, local government, the private sector, and philanthropic organizations.
  • PennDOT adopted new guidelines for the operation of highly automated vehicles (HAVs) on roadways for the purposes of operations and testing.
  • DCED Secretary Rick Siger announced the launch of the new $10 million PA Mixed-Use Housing Development pilot program to develop mixed-use projects with a residential housing component.
  • The Commonwealth Financing Authority approved 208 investments in Pennsylvania school facilities, totaling $175 million, under the new Public School Facility Improvement Grant Program.
  • The Department of Health announced investments of more than $3.2 million to combat the drug-related overdose epidemic through 13 organizations that will help residents connect with the care they need.

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