Following is a listing of executive and legislative action from the week of June 10. Both houses of the General Assembly were in recess at press time. Members of the Pennsylvania Senate and state House of Representatives were set to return to session Monday.

Health Insurance

The state House of Representatives on June 11 approved on a 198-1 vote a bill that would create a state-based health insurance exchange in Pennsylvania in order to increase access to affordable care and save money for taxpayers.

Wolf commended House members for their overwhelming bipartisan support of the measure. House Bill 3, which was sponsored by state Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, would transition Pennsylvania from reliance on the federal government to manage its health insurance exchange to managing its own exchanges. The exchanges allow Pennsylvanians to secure health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Transitioning to a state-based exchange will save Pennsylvanians money because a user fee the federal government collects under the ACA will be returned to the state, incrementally for the first year and then in full in 2021, totaling an estimated $88 million, according to a Wolf administration press release.

“States with their own health care exchanges are already saving money and Pennsylvania can do the same, while ensuring all Pennsylvanians have access to full and affordable health care coverage,” Wolf said.

Savings realized under HB 3 would be used as a reinsurance fund to offset the cost of higher premiums for people with greater health care needs.

The bill now proceeds to the Pennsylvania Senate.

Public Health

Wolf on June 12 signed into law a measure that will require the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create a curriculum to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques.

Senate Bill 115, which was sponsored by Pennsylvania Sen. Tom Killion, R-Delaware, was unanimously approved by both houses of the General Assembly. It requires the Department of Education to provide a CPR curriculum for schools to teach “hands-only” CPR, a no-breath, compression-only technique recommended by the American Heart Association for sudden cardiac arrest. The curriculum must also include the use of automatic external defibrillators.

“I'm proud to sign into law this important life-saving measure. Each additional set of hands trained to do CPR increases the likelihood that a cardiac arrest will be reversed,” Wolf said. “Teaching our young Pennsylvanians to save a life not only promotes the health of all of Pennsylvania, it builds a sense of community and neighborliness.”

More than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital each year, and nearly 45% of those patients who received CPR survived, according to a statement from the Wolf administration.

Killion said the new law “will save many lives.”

The new law was designated Act 7 of 2019, and is set to take effect Aug. 12.

Charter Schools

On June 13, the state House of Representatives passed a four-bill package designed to update the state's charter school law.

House Bill 355, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland, calls for sweeping changes to charter schools' governance, including ethics and transparency standards for boards of trustees, and requiring annual audits. It passed on a 189-7 vote on the House floor.

House Bill 356, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Dowling, R-Fayette, would give charter schools the right of first refusal in purchasing or leasing unused school district buildings, open the use of public education facilities for standardized testing of cyber charter school students and allow for the use of sectarian facilities for charters as long as religious symbols are covered or removed. Dowling, in a memo seeking co-sponsors, said the bill was designed to give charter schools more options for securing needed facilities. It passed on a 105-91 vote.

House Bill 357, sponsored by state Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, would establish uniform statewide processes and procedures for charter applications, renewals, amendments, enrollment and attendance records. It was approved on a 106-91 vote.

House Bill 358, sponsored by state Rep. Jim Marshall, R-Beaver, would permit charter schools and area vocational-technical schools to enter dual enrollment agreements with institutions of higher education. It passed on a 142-54 vote in the House.

Backers of the new measures said Pennsylvania's charter school law has not seen real reform since 2002 and this legislative package would help bring the outdated law up to date to ensure that Pennsylvania can meet the unique educational needs of all students. All four bills now head to the state Senate for consideration.

Nurse Practitioners

The Senate on June 12 on a 44-6 vote approved legislation that would give full practice authority to advanced practice registered nurses-certified nurse practitioners.

Senate Bill 25, sponsored by Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, would amend the Professional Nursing Law to permit qualified APRN-CNPs to practice independent of a physician after they fulfill a three-year, 3,600-hour collaboration agreement with a physician. Current law requires nurse practitioners to practice under a collaboration agreement at all times.

Bartolotta said the bill would help to make health care services more available and affordable to all Pennsylvanians, especially in rural areas where the needs are greatest.

“Many patients in my district in Beaver, Greene and Washington counties face travel times measured in hours—not minutes—for critical appointments, if they can find someone to treat them at all,” Bartolotta said. “Pennsylvania's nurse practitioners have all the tools they need to help ease the suffering of patients. We only need to give them the green light to begin helping patients to the fullest extent of their training.”

Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., have already adopted full practice authority for APRN-CNPs.

Similar legislation was approved by the Senate in April 2017 by a 39-10 margin, but the bill did not receive a vote in the House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 25 was sent to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Price Gouging

A bill aimed at restricting the sweep of the state's emergency anti-price gouging law was approved by the state Senate on a 31-17 vote June 12.

Senate Bill 139, sponsored by state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, would require the governor to specifically activate pricing restrictions when making an emergency declaration. This provision would ensure price restrictions are only placed on businesses when absolutely necessary.

The bill would also limit the duration of pricing restrictions to 15 days (with extensions up to 60 days), limit the scope to goods and services necessary for use or consumption, and simplify the compliance process for businesses. Currently, an emergency declaration can last for a total of 120 days, thus placing price controls on all products for a long period of time.

“Consumers need protection against unscrupulous people who seek to exploit disasters, but we need to strike a responsible balance that does not create price restrictions that run from a March snowstorm until the Fourth of July,” Ward said. “The intent of the law is to protect consumers in the aftermath of a disaster. We simply need to ensure business owners have the proper guidance to prevent many industries from falling victim to regulations that do not make good sense.”

The bill now goes to the state House for consideration.

Brewery Tax

On June 12, the state House unanimously passed legislation seeking to ease the impact of Pennsylvania's so-called “taproom tax.”

House Bill 1549, sponsored by Rep. Natalie Mihalek, R-Allegheny, was drafted in response to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's recent state tax bulletin, which indicated that breweries that bypass wholesalers and sell beer directly to consumers in their tasting rooms and retail storefronts would be required to collect the 6% state sales tax at the point of sale.

HB 1549 would create a standard formula that would cap the 6% tax at 25% of beverages' retail value. Mihalek said in a statement that the measure is aimed at making sure local breweries are not disadvantaged by the sales tax, arguing that a drink sold at the brewery where it is made is not more expensive than one poured at a restaurant.

The bill now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

Liqour Licenses

Legislation that would allow for the transfer of state restaurant liquor licenses from counties with excess licenses to ones where there is unmet demand was passed on a 135-64 vote in the state House on June 12.

House Bill 1524, sponsored by Rep. Jack Rader, R-Monroe, would allow the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) to transfer up to 75 restaurant liquor licenses that it holds from counties with a surplus of them to counties where they are needed for economic development projects.

The applicant would pay a $1 million fee plus $65,000 for each license.

“My proposal would help correct the imbalance of restaurant liquor licenses across the commonwealth,” Rader said in a statement.

Rader said the measure would have significant economic impact in his home district where an entertainment district called Pocono Springs is under development but where there are not enough currently available restaurant liquor licenses.

The bill now moves to the state Senate for consideration.

Infrastructure Investment

On June 10, Deputy Chief of Staff Sam Robinson joined Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin to testify before the joint House and Senate Democratic policy committees about the Wolf administration's proposed “Restore Pennsylvania” infrastructure investment plan.

“We believe that the residents of Pennsylvania deserve to live without fear that their children will ingest toxic chemicals, which have been found in too many communities. That all Pennsylvanians deserve to live in neighborhoods that are vibrant, healthy and free of blight, brownfields and decay. To have access to well-maintained public facilities and recreational amenities. They deserve to live without fear of losing their homes to flooding,” Robinson told the panel. “We need Restore Pennsylvania to address these challenges. We need Restore Pennsylvania to give Pennsylvanians the commonwealth they deserve.”

Restore Pennsylvania aims to invest $4.5 billion over the next four years in significant high-impact projects throughout the commonwealth to help catapult Pennsylvania ahead of every state in the country in terms of technology, development and infrastructure.