Following is a listing of executive and legislative action from the week of Dec. 17. Both houses of the General Assembly are in recess, with no session days scheduled for the remainder of the year. Members of the new Pennsylvania Senate and state House of Representatives are set to be sworn into office Jan. 1.

Prescription Drugs

Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Dec. 19 announced the creation of a tool for reporting suspicious activity surrounding the prescribing or dispensing of prescription drugs, including opioids.

Shapiro said that the new reporting tool will give anyone the power to anonymously blow the whistle on illegal diversion of prescription drugs including opioids.

“The illegal diversion of prescription pain pills from doctors' offices and pharmacies is contributing to the opioid epidemic across the commonwealth, but diversion activity is hard to identify and even harder to investigate” he said.

Wolf said the attorney general's mechanism would integrate well with the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, a database that collects information on all filled prescriptions for controlled substances.

“By making the attorney general's suspicious activity reporting tool available on the PDMP and the Department of Health's website, we add another layer of safety for the responsible prescribing of controlled substances such as opioids.”

The online tool can be found at the following government resources: the attorney general's website, on the Department of Health's website and within the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) site for registered users.

Spending Plan

Avoiding new taxes and fees while supporting job creation are the main goals of state House of Representatives Republican caucus as it moves toward the upcoming budget season, House Appropriations Chairman Stan Saylor, R-York, said Dec. 17.

“House Republicans will continue to hold the line on new taxes,” Saylor said. “The people of Pennsylvania want a government that lives within its means and we intend to provide that. The governor's budget secretary stated during the midyear briefing that the governor's focus for the next term will be to reduce and restrain spending to balance budgets. If the governor is serious about this, then House Republicans are ready to join him in that effort. Our focus will be creating a budget centered on economic growth for better job and career opportunities and setting Pennsylvania up for success in the long-term.”

Saylor also said revenue collections are strong, running more about $333 million above yearly expectations by the end of November. He said Republicans, who hold the House majority, would not vote for a budget that significantly expands spending, even if a surplus is generated this year.

“We fully intend to enact a budget in the upcoming fiscal year that lives within current revenue projections,” he said.

Early Childhood

Wolf's “Ready to Start” task force on Dec. 18 announced its key themes and initial findings for health, human services and education policy for infants and toddlers ages zero to 3.

The group, which began its work in September and was asked to develop strategies aimed at advancing the well-being of young children, identified six main priorities in a report to Wolf:

• Ensure access to high-quality care for all children and families, especially those with the greatest needs.
• Improve system quality and capacity.
• Improve coordination and alignment of services and supports.
• Prioritize outreach, education and awareness, including building meaningful partnerships with parents, families and communities.
• Address the needs of the whole child and whole family through comprehensive supports, including those for mental and behavioral health.
• Help infants and toddlers get a strong start for school through early literacy and other evidence-based programs.

“The Ready to Start Task Force findings are focused on our youngest Pennsylvanians and their families,” Wolf said in a statement. “Because we know that a child's brain grows faster from birth to 3 than at any other point in their lives, this work is truly shaping the future of our state.”

The initial findings come after a listening tour with gatherings in all regions of Pennsylvania, according to a statement from the Wolf administration.

Senate Seat

Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, castigated Senate Republican leadership for launching an investigation into the residency status of Lindsey Williams, who won election to an Allegheny County Senate seat in the November election.

Writing on the Penn Live website, Hughes questioned GOP leaders' decision to demand documentation of Williams' residency status after the election and not before. He called the move a “manipulation of democracy.”

To be eligible for election to the Pennsylvania Senate, senators must have four consecutive years of residency in the state. Williams, who grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania and earned her law degree at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, moved to Pennsylvania from Maryland in the fall of 2014. Republicans focus on the fact that she signed a lease on a West View, Pennsylvania, property in the middle of the month. Williams has said she accepted a job offer from the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and moved to Pittsburgh on Nov. 6, 2014. Election Day was Nov. 6, 2018. She won the election by 1,000 votes over her GOP opponent.

Hughes cast the residency challenge as a threat to “ignore the will of the electorate.”

He said Williams has provided, in response to the Republicans' request, 100 pages of documents and affidavits to prove her residence. He also stressed that “Williams was born in Pennsylvania and has lived here nearly all of her life.”

If Williams is seated, Democrats will have gained five seats in the November election, cutting the Republican advantage in the upper house from 34-16 to 29-21.