Following is a listing of executive and legislative action from the week of May 11. The Pennsylvania Senate was in recess at press time subject to recall by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson. The state House of Representatives was in session at press time.

Shutdown Waivers

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on May 14 said his audit of the waiver process for businesses that appealed Gov. Tom Wolf's COVID-19 shutdown order is moving forward.

"Business owners deserve to know if waivers were granted consistently and without undue outside influence," DePasquale said in a statement. "Because COVID-19 is going to be with us for a while, I want to make sure the waiver process truly reflects the delicate balance of protecting lives and livelihoods."

DePasquale announced April 30 that he would audit the waiver process being managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED). The waiver process was undertaken in response to orders to close businesses that could not be categorized as "life-sustaining" as a means of checking the spread of the coronavirus.

DePasquale said that more than 40,000 Pennsylvania businesses sought a waiver from the governor's closure order. Numerous business owners complained that the waiver process lacked transparency, moved too slowly and was inconsistent.

"My audit team looks forward to exploring how waivers were managed and making recommendations for improving the process, should it need to be used again in the future," he said.

The office of the auditor general continues to operate remotely while state office buildings remain closed, according to the statement.

COVID-19 Data

Gov. Tom Wolf on May 13 announced that the state would count LGBTQ Pennsylvanians in COVID-19 statistics, in order to monitor fair treatment and inclusion of the community.

As counties move from the "red" stay-at-home order to the aggressive mitigation efforts of the "yellow" phase, the Department of Health will be conducting extensive case histories investigations as part of contact tracing on those who test positive for the virus, a Wolf administration statement said.

The state Department of Health has chosen to work with Sara Alert, a new data collection platform, and has requested a system modification to the platform to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data. The department is an early adopter of the technology, the statement said.

The department has also requested from the eHealth Authority Board that the state's six health information organizations work to capture sexual orientation and gender identity or expression data from electronic health records that can then be used by health care providers to report their COVID-19 data.

"Pennsylvania's standards of care—in times of crisis and not—are based on an ethical allocation framework, meaning care is provided equitably across all populations without regard to patient age, race, gender, creed, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic status," Wolf said.

Nursing Homes

Active criminal investigations into several Pennsylvania nursing homes are ongoing, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro confirmed May 12.

In his statement, Shapiro reaffirmed that the Attorney General's Office would look into any nursing home engaging in criminal neglect of patients and residents. While the Pennsylvania Department of Health has primary regulating and licensing authority of nursing homes throughout the commonwealth, the Attorney General's Care-Dependent Neglect Team, within the Medicaid Fraud Control Section, has jurisdiction on matters of criminal neglect.

"Protecting seniors and our most vulnerable in the care of others, is one of the core responsibilities of my office and we're stepping up to protect older Pennsylvanians during this crisis," Shapiro said. "We will hold nursing facilities and caretakers criminally accountable if they fail to properly provide care to our loved ones. While we salute and appreciate nursing home staff on the front lines during this pandemic, we will not tolerate those who mistreat our seniors and break the law."

Shapiro also said the Attorney General's Office is launching a public email to receive criminal complaints and reports of neglect in nursing home communities at [email protected].

Antibody Testing

Two Lancaster Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would establish a pilot program that would allow employers to test workers for COVID-19 antibodies when they return to their jobs.

House Bill 2524, which was introduced by Reps. Steve Mentzer, R-Lancaster, and Keith Greiner, R-Lancaster, was referred to the state House of Representatives Health Committee on May 14.

"If there is a possibility of identifying trained medical and personal care staff people who may be immune to, or incapable of spreading, COVID-19, it could be a great benefit to our nursing homes and medical facilities," Mentzer said. "We want to try these tests here so we can find out what someone's level of resistance may be. This could help in developing a vaccine and minimizing the spread."

The bill envisions that the pilot program would be funded by the federal CARES Act or other grant programs that are financing antibody testing.

"Employers will want to confirm that their workplace is safe for everyone when we reopen," Greiner said. "Giving our businesses the ability to do testing is an important step to reopening our economy, and the data collected would be very helpful for public health officials to assess the spread of the virus. Any way we can help reduce uncertainty in the business community and our health care system is crucial."

Credit Reporting

A measure has been introduced that would prohibit negative credit reports of any missed or late payments resulting from financial hardships during the COVID-19 disaster emergency.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, on May 12 said the bill was aimed at mitigating the financial blowback of the pandemic.

The bill, Kenyatta said, would amend the Credit Reporting Agency Act and suspend negative reporting for 90 days after the disaster declaration is lifted.

"Pennsylvanians have had their lives and livelihoods upended in the wake of this pandemic, with some families having endured the temporary lapse of a paycheck, while waiting for federal stimulus money, or for their unemployment compensation to start," Kenyatta said. "Others, however, have relied on credit cards, or sought unplanned loans from financial institutions, or even borrowed from friends."

Kenyatta said that delinquent payment reports stemming from Pennsylvanians facing financial difficulties could mar otherwise decent credit histories.

Eviction Moratorium

Democrats in each house of the General Assembly have asked that the state Supreme Court issue an order staying all eviction and foreclosure proceedings until 90 days after a county is moved from the "red" stay-at-home phase to the "yellow" cautionary phase of reopening.

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks and Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, were the lead authors of the letter, which highlights concerns that a stay on evictions and foreclosures until a specific date will not adequately protect Pennsylvanians whose counties were among the first to shut down and are likely to remain in the red phase for a longer period of time. An executive order currently in force extends a stay on foreclosures and evictions through July 10.

Santarsiero and Muth were joined by all of their Senate Democratic colleagues and 39 members of the state House.

"Governor Wolf's order to prevent foreclosures and evictions is a good step forward in providing a safety net for Pennsylvanians during these unprecedented times," Santarsiero said. "However, I believe we still need to address the hardships faced by Pennsylvanians in counties that remain in the red phase of mitigation."

Getting away from a fixed-date expiration of the moratorium would allow some time for persons to recover financially before they can face a possible foreclosure or eviction.

The Democrats' proposal would also extend the moratorium to commercial evictions and foreclosures.