PA Capitol & COVID-19 Weekly Report: Wolf Issues Stern Warning On Illegal Reopenings; 12 More Counties Moving To Yellow Phase
Gov. Wolf started last week calling actions by state lawmakers and local officials supporting “illegally” reopening their counties and ignoring COVID-19 shutdown orders “selfish,” “unsafe,” “morally wrong,” “cowardly” and a “surrender” to the coronavirus that has killed over 4,000 of our loved ones, our friends and our neighbors.
He went on to outline how businesses would risk losing their operating and liquor licenses and potentially their insurance coverage for operating illegally. He added employees of companies opening prematurely will continue to get unemployment and counties would not receive discretionary federal funding provided in the CARES Act. Read more here.
At the same time, Gov. Wolf praised Pennsylvanians who are “fighting for our lives.”
Senate and House Republicans reacted in two ways, first by saying the Governor has lost the willingness of the people to be governed and was using language that was “beneath the dignity of the office of the Governor.” Read more here.
This in spite of the fact a new poll released Tuesday found 72 percent supported Gov. Wolf’s handling of the pandemic, like previous polls. The poll was taken April 27 – May 4. Read more here.
Then Republicans proceeded to take final action on a bunch of bills opening up selected businesses statewide– from dog groomers to real estate offices.
They also passed Senate Bill 327 (Argall-R-Schuylkill) creating a General Assembly-heavy task force to guide the COVID-19 response, authorizing counties to reopen whenever they wanted to and a freeze on finalizing all new regulations.
But, in a rare show of bipartisanship, members of both parties passed a bill allowing liquor establishments to sell take-out mixed drinks curbside.
There seems to be little doubt about what Gov. Wolf plans to do– veto the ones inconsistent with his COVID-10 reopening plan.
Wednesday some House Republican lawmakers, led by conservative Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), called on every district attorney in the state to intervene on behalf of business owners who want to reopen in defiance of Gov. Wolf’s shut down order by withdrawing citations and not prosecuting shut down order violators. Read more here.
Rep. Metcalfe went a step further Friday announcing plans to introduce a resolution to impeach Gov. Wolf over his handling of the COVID-19 response saying his actions violated fundamental rights of Commonwealth citizens. Rep. Metcalfe has introduced resolutions before to impeach various officials. Read more here.
Senate Republicans also took Gov. Wolf to court over what they believe is his failure to comply with a subpoena for documents related to the process for getting waivers from the business shut down orders. Read more here.
Other Republicans in Yellow Phase counties are now talking about how to loosen restrictions in those areas even further by, for example, allowing restaurants to reopen their dining-in areas. Read more here.
President Trump visited the Allentown area Thursday praising workers at a medical equipment distributor and supporting those who are urging the state to reopen faster. It was not lost on anyone Pennsylvania is critical to his reelection efforts. Read more here.
The Republican fight with Democrat Tom Wolf has implications for the state’s future as well. Read two perspectives here–
— AP-Marc Levy: In PA, Democratic Governor Aims To Contain Republican Revolt
— NYT: Republican Defiance Of PA’s Lockdown Has 2020 Implications
Gov. Wolf ended the week by announcing 12 more counties had met his metrics for reopening in the Yellow Phase, including Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata, Mifflin, Perry, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Wayne, and York.
Republican lawmakers and local officials in Beaver and York counties, in particular, had been agitating to reopen early.
This now means 49 of the states 67 counties are in the Yellow Phase.
For those counties remaining in Red Phase, the Governor’s stay-at-home orders remain in effect until June 4.
Republican Senate and House members continued their efforts to get counties they represent reopened, but in some cases– like in Cumberland and Lancaster— the efforts resulted in more local controversy with those against reopening prematurely showing local opinion is far from unanimous.
Other State Actions
State government took these other actions last week as part of its pandemic response–
— PA Launches Federal Program For People Who Have Exhausted Their Unemployment Benefits
— Dept. Of Health Announces Plan For Additional Testing For Nursing Homes, Staff
— PA National Guard to Help Beaver County Nursing Home With COVID-19 Outbreak
— National Guard Helping Scranton Nursing Home
— DCED Awards Additional $12 Million In COVID-19 Working Capital Access Grants
— AP: Students Expected To Return To School In Fall, Ed Secretary Says
— PA Receives $532 Million In One-Time Federal Funds To Support Schools
— PennDOT Extends Expiration Dates On Vehicle Registrations, Vehicle Inspections, Other Products
— Auditor General Provides Update Of Business Waiver Program Audit
— Gov. Wolf Declares May 22 1-4-3 Day Of Kindness In Honor Of PA’s Fred Rogers
Death Toll
The number of deaths from COVID-19 increased from 3,707 on May 10 to 4,418 on May 17. The number of people testing positive for the virus went from 56,611 on May 10 to 62,234 on May 17.
Unemployment
As of May 14, a total of 1,854,724 Pennsylvanians have filed for unemployment since March 15, the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. That number is up 61,507 from May 8.
The Department of Labor and Industry reported issuing 15.7 million unemployment payments totaling nearly $7.9 billion, since March 15. Read more here.
Primary Election
More than 1,178,000 Pennsylvanians have applied for mail-in ballots with nearly 70 percent coming from registered Democrats. Read more here.
The new mail-in ballot process has not been without its glitches with Allegheny and Lycoming counties reporting hundreds, possibly thousands of duplicate ballots were sent to voters.
Meanwhile, the conservative activist group Judicial Watch did file its lawsuit against Bucks, Chester and Delaware County and the state to force them to purge more “inactive” voters from the registration rolls. Read more here.
In an unrelated legal decision, the PA Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit aimed at extending the deadline for county election officials to receive and count mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. The deadline remains 8:00 p.m. the day of the election. Read more here.
The deadline to register to vote for the June 2 Primary is May 18.
The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is May 26.
An historic milestone was passed in Chester County recently as the number of registered Democrats passed Republicans for the first time ever– by 228 voters.
Democrats already outnumber Republicans in Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware counties, completing the historic shift in the counties surrounding Philadelphia.
Legislators Spending Your Money
For those interested in how Senate and House members spend $360 million of your tax money, the Associated Press went through more than 6,000 pages of itemized spending records to highlight just some of the things legislators buy. Read more here.
The list included buying fancy furniture, reserve parking spots, vast amounts of food and drink to a $1.08 can of hairspray used to kill flies [true that]. Read a topline summary here.
Here’s some political news you might have missed–
— Ahead Of Primary, Taxpayers Bankroll Questionable COVID-19 Ads By Lawmakers
— Cong. Fitzpatrick Ranked As Most Bipartisan Member Of Congress
— PA Democrats, Shapiro, DNC, DAGA Joint Effort Reaches 1 Million PA Voters By Text
— Putting A Megaphone To The Lips Of PA’s Latinos
— Trump Campaign Has Walked Away From PA Republican Party As 2020 Heats Up
— Appeals Court Rejects Ex-Cong. Fattah’s Bid To Shorten 10 Year Corruption Sentence
— AP: U.S. Supreme Court Justices Fear Chaos If States Can’t Bind Electoral College Voters
2020 Census
The Wolf Administration was again reminding people last week about the importance of responding to the 2020 Census. Read more here.
Pennsylvania has a 62.2 percent self-response rate and is 16th in the country. Minnesota is number 1 with a response rate of 69.4 percent. Read more here.
News You May Have Missed
Here’s some other news you might have missed this week–
— Op-Ed: Community Colleges – Poised To Re-Skill The Post-Pandemic Workforce
— AP: Bankruptcy Judge Sets Deadline For Abuse Claims vs. Harrisburg Catholic Diocese
— AG Shapiro Files Amicus Brief Defending Federal Health Insurance Law For Pennsylvanians
— Should Health Insurers Be Offering Rebates Because Regular Medical Services Aren’t Available?
— Laura Olson: PA Projects Big Financial Hit To Children’s Health Insurance Program Next Year
— Under Fire, Health Secretary Levine Remains An Icon To PA’s Trans Community
— Released Early From Bucks Prison Due To COVID-19, Dies In Bucks County Police Standoff
— Huntingdon County Struggles To Maintain Caseload Amid Pandemic
— Blair County Slowly Restoring Court Functions
— Muslim Inmates Struggle During Ramadan In Franklin County Prison
— Troubling Number Of Anti-Semitic Incidents Recorded In Philadelphia Region
— Greene County President Judge Charged With Judicial Misconduct
— Sophie’s Choice For Immigrant Families In PA: Separate Or Remain In Custody Indefinitely
What’s Next?
The House is in voting session May 18, 19, 26 and 27 and is expected to take up more bills to reopen more kinds of businesses statewide, or in Yellow Phase areas and take final action on Speaker Turzai’s bill– House Bill 2510— addressing virus testing and other issues related to nursing homes by appropriating $500 million in federal CARES funding to the Commonwealth Financing Authority.
The Senate decided to cancel voting session for May 18, 19 and 20 and remains at the call of the President Pro Tempore. They are scheduled to return to session the week of June 1.
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