The Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee is scheduled to meet October 6 on two bills that would block the adoption of any regulations during a declared emergency that are unrelated to that emergency and authorizing the General Assembly to repeal any existing regulation by resolution and not law.
Senate Bill 1147 was introduced by Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, to stop the consideration, adoption or publication of any proposed, final or final-omitted regulation in the PA Bulletin during an disaster emergency declared by the Governor.
It would also stop any state department or agency from holding any meetings of an advisory committee to the agency during a disaster emergency.
An agency would petition the appropriate standing committee of the Senate and House for a waiver from this prohibition which could be granted only by a majority vote of each committee and not through the passage of any resolution or new law.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Yaw, who opposed regulations DEP was developing to reduce carbon pollution from power plants consistent with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
In his co-sponsor memo, Sen. Yaw said, “At the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, agency staff is continuing to press forward on regulations to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative despite concerns echoing across the state that this program will do irreparable harm to Pennsylvania’s economy.
“They do so at a time when advisory committee meetings to provide meaningful input and dialogue cannot be held, and when critical oversight hearings by legislative committees to ask questions and explore policy ramifications are understandably on hold.
“At a time when policymakers should be focused on re-opening and re-building Pennsylvania’s economy, the Administration has authorized expenditures of several hundred thousand dollars to advance policies unrelated to the current disaster emergency.”
Had Sen. Yaw’s legislation been in place in January 2018 when Gov. Wolf declared a disaster emergency for the opioid overdose crisis and which remains in effect today, the result would have been to all but permanently block any regulations and shut down citizen advisory committees for nearly three years.
This bill raises significant constitutional issues because it requires nothing be passed by the full Senate and House and presentment to the Governor.
This bill is similar to legislation vetoed by Gov. Wolf-- Senate Bill 327 (Argall-R- Schuylkill)-- which would have blocked publication of regulations during a disaster emergency. Read more here.
House Bill 430 (Benninghoff-R-Mifflin) would authorize the General Assembly to repeal any existing regulation by passing a concurrent resolution voted on once each by the Senate and House and not a law which must have three considerations in each chamber.
The resolution must then be presented to the Governor for his action. If it isn’t vetoed or if the veto is overridden, the agency is prohibited from reissuing the same or similar regulation in the future unless the new regulation is specifically authorized by law.
Rep. Benninghoff is now the House Republican Leader and has introduced this same bill the last two sessions.
Republicans on the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee has already reported out legislation on May to kill any final regulation by doing nothing-- Senate Bill 5 (DiSanto-R- Cumberland) [Read more here], and in June legislation blocking regulations because they have too many words-- Senate Bill 119 (DiSanto-R-Cumberland) [Read more here] and Senate Bill 251 (Phillips-Hill-R-York) creating a new bureaucracy-- Independent Office of the Repealer to review all existing regulations [Read more here].
All these bills are political statements, not really serious proposals.
The meeting will start at 11:00 a.m. and will be available online.
Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-4651, via fax to: 717-264-6100 or via a contact form on his website. Sen. Wayne Fontana (D-Allegheny) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5300 or send email to: fontana@pasenate.com.
3 Front War On The Environment
These bills attacking regulations are part of a three front war conservative Pennsylvania Republicans have been fighting against environmental programs and funding for the last decade--
-- Starving environmental agencies for funding so they have to cut staff and programs and then turn around and say they can’t do their job [they did this again on April 21];
-- Adding even more layers of bureaucracy and procedures to block environmental regulations, reduce environmental standards and give regulated entities more control over these programs [they’ve done this before too, several times]; and
-- Using every chance they get to cut funding to support community-based projects to protect and restore the environment, improve recreation opportunities and land conservation efforts that real people-- voters-- overwhelmingly support [the Senate Bill 327 is the latest attempt which Gov. Wolf vetoed].
[Posted: October 3, 2020] PA Environment Digest
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