Category: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania House Democrat Urges Biden to Restart Keystone XL Pipeline

Bradley Vasoli

An Altoona-area Democrat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives filed a memorandum on Friday asking colleagues to cosponsor a resolution backing reopening of the Keystone XL pipeline.

In his message to the House, Representative Frank Burns (D-Portage) noted that the U.S. imports more than 800,000 barrels of oil daily from Russia and that oil prices reached more than $100 per barrel last week. The representative anticipated that Russian fossil fuels will only get more expensive—perhaps even unavailable—as the Russia-Ukraine military conflict continues.

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New District Lines Give Republicans Partisan Edge in Pennsylvania’s Seventh Congressional District

Aaron Gulbransen

The newly enacted district lines give Republicans a partisan edge in Pennsylvania’s new 7th Congressional District.

The new 7th district has a partisan rating of R+4, according to Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight. Prior to the Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s selection of the new district lines, PA-7 had an even partisan rating.

The Cook Political Report rates the race for the seat as a tossup.

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Pennsylvania Redistricting Results in Slight Democrat Partisan Edge for the State’s 17th Congressional District

Aaron Gulbransen

The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s selection of the state’s new congressional maps has given Democrats a slight partisan edge in the 17th Congressional District.

Prior to redistricting, PA-17 was given a partisan rating by fivethirtyeight of R+2. It is now rated D+1. The Cook Political Report says the race for the seat is currently a tossup.

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U.S. Senate to Vote on Extreme Abortion Bill Pennsylvania ‘Pro-Life’ Democrat Says He Will Vote to Debate

Susan Berry, PhD

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has scheduled a vote on legislation that would embed abortion on demand, at any time during pregnancy, into federal law, making invalid many individual state pro-life laws.

The Senate will vote February 28 on the abortion lobby’s Women’s Health Protection Act (S. 1975), sponsored by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and self-described “pro-life” Senator Bob Casey, Jr., (D-PA) has said he will vote for debate on the bill.

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Ruling Prompts Pennsylvania Senate Legislation to Limit Court’s Redistricting Power

Bradley Vasoli
Senator David G. Argall

One day after Wednesday’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision imposing a Democrat-favored congressional map, state Senator David Argall (R-Mahanoy City) is legislating to limit similar future rulings.

Argall, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee, has asked colleagues to cosponsor a measure disallowing any congressional-district plan ordered by a court to remain in effect after the election cycle for which it was enacted.

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Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District Partisan Makeup Barely Affected by Redistricting

Aaron Gulbransen

Redistricting has been finalized in Pennsylvania and the partisan makeup for the 8th Congressional District has barely changed.

Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight gave PA-8 a partisan rating of R+9 prior to redistricting and currently gives it a R+8 rating. The Cook Political Report says that the race is a Toss Up. President Trump beat Biden under the old 8th District map by 4.4% in 2020.

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Picks Democrat-Favored Congressional Map

Bradley Vasoli

Democrats celebrated and Republicans demurred Wednesday after the Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court selected the state’s new congressional map.

In so doing, the court overturned a decision earlier this month by Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia A. McCullough (R) to allow implementation of a redistricting plan passed by the GOP-led General Assembly but vetoed by Governor Tom Wolf (D). The initial version of the legislature-approved map was drawn by a private citizen, Amanda Holt of Lehigh County, though legislators modified her plan somewhat.

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Fiscal Office Chief: Pennsylvanians Leaving for Low-Tax Southern States

Bradley Vasoli

On Tuesday, at the first Pennsylvania Senate hearing on next fiscal year’s budget, lawmakers considered the state’s slow economic recovery—and the state’s failure to attract new residents.

Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) Director Matthew Knittel testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the state’s fiscal, economic and demographic outlook. Particularly in that last category, the Keystone State doesn’t boast an envious position.

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Inflation Prompts Pennsylvania Legislators to Suggest Tax Holidays

Bradley Vasoli

Some Pennsylvania lawmakers are proposing that the commonwealth offset some of the inflationary burden on residents by pausing certain taxes.

One bill State Senator Lisa Boscola (D-Bethlehem) is currently drafting would stop sales taxation in June and July 2022 at a time the senator says the state can afford to do so. In a memorandum seeking co-sponsors for her bill, she cited Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) recent declaration that Pennsylvania will amass a budget surplus for Fiscal Year 2021-22 of over $2 billion and a similarly large surplus for the following year. Since budget years end on June 30, the legislation is thus timed to spread the financial loss to the state over both budget cycles. 

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Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Espionage-Related Charges, Disclosed Restricted Data to Undercover FBI Agent

Cooper Moran

A husband and wife, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate restricted data, as the husband attempted to disclose confidential information to someone he believed was a representative of a foreign government.

Originally, Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to a foreign government, listing an address in Pittsburgh for the return. The package contained a sample of restricted data, related to his work as a nuclear engineer assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

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Pennsylvania Professor Files Lawsuit Following Dismissal over Anonymous Tweets

Admin
Greg Manco, Ph.D. of St. Joseph University

Professor Gregory Manco has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, St. Joseph’s University, citing undue discrimination after a previous student of his complained to the institution about what she perceived to be racist activity on Manco’s Twitter account. 

Manco had served as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at St. Joe’s for 17 years. In 2017, Hadassah Colber, a student that Manco failed, claimed that she found offensive tweets on the scholar’s anonymous Twitter account, Broad + Liberty reports. 

According to the lawsuit, Colbert learned about his Twitter account on Jan. 22, 2021, and emailed the University to complain about the “racist” and “transphobic” content she saw.

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Considers Congressional Maps, Asked to Consider State-House Districts as Well

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, deliberating over oral arguments made last Friday, will soon decide the congressional-district boundaries that apply in next year’s elections.

State House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Bellefonte) has meanwhile asked the court to strike down a newly enacted map containing districts for his own legislative chamber.

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Inflation, Workforce Issues Dominate Pennsylvania House Budget Hearing

The Center Square

Officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development discussed inflation and staffing challenges, as well as the Wolf administration’s decisions to close businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, during a third day of budget hearings in the House Appropriations Committee.

State Rep. Lynda Culver, R-Northumberland, highlighted record inflation numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed a 7.5% annual increase in the Consumer Price Index for January, the fastest rise since 1982.

Culver also noted federal stimulus spending and questioned acting Secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development Neil Weaver on outreach from the department to understand the effect of inflation on small businesses.

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Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler Calls for Release of State’s Standardized Test Scores

Cooper Moran

Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) called on the Pennsylvania Department of Education to release the scores of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) for students throughout the state.

The test, which is a “standards-based, criterion-referenced assessment which provides students, parents, educators and citizens with an understanding of student and school performance related to the attainment of proficiency of the academic standards,” measures scores in English language arts, mathematics, and science and technology.

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Economic Development Chief Testifies to Consequences of Pennsylvania’s Lockdown, Refuses to Apologize

Bradley Vasoli

At a Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, the panel’s GOP majority grilled the state’s chief economic-development official on the damage inflicted by COVID-related business restrictions.

In March 17, 2020, Governor Tom Wolf (D) responded to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus by ordering the shuttering of all businesses he deemed “nonessential.” The commonwealth phased out most of the closures that summer, though capacity restrictions on restaurants and other gathering places continued into 2021. Republicans in the General Assembly attempted to end the shutdowns but did not have the two-thirds supermajority needed to override the governor.

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Governor Wolf Wants Less Money for Pennsylvania Corrections Than Department Requested

Bradley Vasoli

Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) is recommending that lawmakers fund state prisons at a lower level in future years than the state’s Department of Corrections has requested.

At a budget hearing Wednesday, members of the state House Appropriations Committee questioned Acting Secretary of Corrections George Little about the contrast between the governor’s projections and the department’s own outlook.

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Pennsylvania Fiscal Office Expects Lower Revenues Than Governor

Bradley Vasoli

On Tuesday, at the first legislative hearing on Pennsylvania’s next budget, the Wolf administration and the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) offered divergent near-term revenue projections.

Governor Tom Wolf (D) proposed a Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget last week that would total $43.7 billion, 16.6 percent greater than the current fiscal year’s spending allotment. The plan’s feasibility (without a tax increase) will partly depend on whether the general-fund revenues anticipated by the governor’s Revenue Secretary, C. Daniel Hassell, come to fruition. 

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COVID Restrictions’ Impact on Pennsylvania Still Felt, Forecasted to Persist

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) on Monday issued a report on the state’s economy indicating COVID-era restrictions continue to make a negative impact.

The IFO composed the report to inform lawmakers as they begin a series of state budget hearings this week. The agency observes that the Keystone State’s labor-force-participation rate is at its lowest in 37 years and forecasts that jobs numbers won’t return to their December-2019 apex for at least another three years.

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State Labor and Industry Department Addresses Unemployment Fraud for Pennsylvania House Committee

The Center Square

Representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry and the Office of Administration discussed ongoing fraud and other issues in the commonwealth’s unemployment system Thursday during a House hearing.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor & Industry Jennifer Berrier told the House Labor and Industry Committee that “overall the (unemployment compensation) system is in a good place,” but acknowledged a raft of ongoing issues, from hundreds of millions of dollars stolen through fraud to large backlogs of unresolved claims and fraud cases.

Berrier said the unemployment compensation system has processed more than 611,000 claims since the modernized system went live in June, paying out about $3.4 billion in benefits. During the height of the pandemic, the department faced a backlog of 300,000 nonmonetary determinations, or those involving eligibility, that since has been whittled down to 95,000, she said.

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2022 Midterms: Pennsylvania University Employees Are Donating Overwhelmingly to Democrats

Admin

With midterm elections this year, Pennsylvania’s 2022 congressional re-districting plans are under scrutiny. The state lost one congressional district last year, bringing the total number down to 17.

The proposed map is not finalized, but FiveThirtyEight reports that three congressional districts will likely be “highly competitive seats.”

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University of Pittsburgh Fires Employees for Refusal to Get Coronavirus Vaccine

Cooper Moran

The University of Pittsburgh will fire nine individuals who refuse to receive the coronavirus vaccine, violating the institution’s mandate imposed last year.

According to a statement provided to the University Times, 22 individuals were originally non-compliant, but 13 individuals cleared the protocols. The university is “in the process of terminating” the others.

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Suspends Primary Election Calendar

The Center Square

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court temporarily has suspended the primary election calendar while it reviews a lawsuit over congressional redistricting.

Candidates for the May 17 primary were to start gathering signatures for petitions on Feb. 15 to get on the primary ballot, but the high court suspended the process “pending further order” as justices prepare for a Feb. 18 hearing on a new congressional district map.

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Pennsylvania Lawmakers Opposing Greenhouse Gas Initiative Offer Alternative Policy

Bradley Vasoli

Lawmakers who have attempted to stop Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) are proposing alternative measures to mitigate carbon emissions in the Keystone State.

Representative Jim Struzzi has amended the anti-RGGI legislation he introduced last year to authorize spending $250 million from Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 Response Restricted Account on carbon-dioxide-reduction technologies and related items. Funded projects would include methane abatement, hydrogen-based infrastructure and stormwater mitigation as well as assistance to communities weathering electric-generation plant closures.

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Lawmakers Propose Enhanced Enforcement of E-Verify in Pennsylvania

Bradley Vasoli

Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers indicated this week they’re authoring legislation to enhance the effectiveness of a web-based system used to confirm workers’ legal U.S. residency.

In 1996, the federal government established the E-Verify system as a voluntary five-state pilot program to ease employers’ ability to check the immigration statuses of their new hires. It was expanded for use in all 50 states in 2003 and is administered by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Gov. Wolf Unveils His Final Pennsylvania Budget Proposal, Urging Massive Spending Hike

Bradley Vasoli

Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) unveiled his final state budget proposal to the General Assembly yesterday, asking members to approve a 10.9 percent spending increase.

Major items he proposed include $1.75 billion more for public schools and $200 million more for college scholarships. The governor insisted his aims could be realized without resorting to tax rises, though his $43.7 billion plan hinges on the use of about $2 billion in one-time federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

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Biden Tars Political Dissenters with ‘Terrorism,’ Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Candidate Barletta Fires Back

Bradley Vasoli

Former Pennsylvania Republican congressman and current gubernatorial candidate Lou Barletta blasted President Joe Biden’s administration Tuesday for issuing a “Terrorism Advisory Bulletin” equating political dissenters with terrorists.

The document, issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the day before, lamented the presence of “an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories” that “sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions.” The administration warned about opposition to “COVID-19 mitigation measures—particularly COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates” which allegedly “have been used by domestic violent extremists to justify violence since 2020.” 

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Pittsburgh City Council Gives Itself a Raise Behind Closed Doors

The Center Square

Members of the Pittsburgh City Council met behind closed doors for a special session to give themselves a 6% raise, a reduction from a previously proposed 22% raise that drew blowback from the public.

The nine-member council met in closed session on the last day for budget adjustments Saturday, following a meeting Tuesday in which the council froze its pay pending a review by the city solicitor over whether a proposed $16,000 raise violated the city’s home rule charter, KDKA reported.

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Pennsylvania Senate Committee Passes Federal Constitutional Convention Legislation

Bradley Vasoli

On Monday, the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee approved a resolution calling for a “Convention of States” to amend the U.S. Constitution to check congressional power and federal spending.

Senators Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro) and Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) authored the measure, which all of the committee’s seven Republicans voted to support and all of the panel’s four Democrats opposed.

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Commonwealth Court Judge Chooses Citizen-Drawn Congressional Map Favored by GOP Legislature

Bradley Vasoli
Pennsylvania Capitol Building

Because Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor and GOP-controlled legislature couldn’t agree on a congressional redistricting plan, a Commonwealth Court judge has stepped in and chosen one favored by the latter.

Judge Patricia A. McCullough (R), who was charged individually with selecting a new congressional map from among several proposed by state officials and nongovernmental actors, issued a 228-page report explaining her decision.

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Gov. Wolf Sides with Local Governments in Rejecting Gun Rights Bill

The Center Square

Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed legislation designed to protect Pennsylvania residents’ Second Amendment rights against municipalities that enact restrictive gun ordinances.

“Once again, this governor has failed to live up to his oath to ‘support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth,’” said Rep. Matthew Dowling, R-Fayette, sponsor of House Bill 979. “By vetoing this bill, the governor has put the Second Amendment rights of every citizen in jeopardy, effectively encouraging communities to continue enacting illegal gun control measures.”

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New Pennsylvania Law Aims to Help Solve Missing Persons Cases

Cooper Moran

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday signed a new law into action that aims to help solve missing persons cases.

Specifically, House Bill 930 will mandate various law enforcement agencies to submit the DNA of a missing person, child, or unknown deceased person to the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) for submission to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS).

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Port of Philadelphia Gets Second Infusion of Money for Modernization

The Center Square

Gov. Tom Wolf gathered with state and local officials Friday to announce $265 million in funding for the Port of Philadelphia to “continue modernization efforts and improve regional stability.”

“The port is an economic driver, not only in Philadelphia, but across the commonwealth,” Wolf said. “The port supports jobs, encourages trade, and builds connections that help businesses and communities across Pennsylvania thrive. This new $246 million investment will help the port build on its success over the past few years and will help Pennsylvania build on our commonwealth’s economic success and job growth, too.”

The money will fund the next phase of the Port Development Plan after a $300 million investment in 2016 that expanded the facility’s infrastructure and warehousing space and added three new super post-Panamax cranes at the Packer Avenue Marine terminal. The improvements, along with a new Southport Auto Terminal, ramped up cargo volumes, resulting in a 60% increase in containers arriving in the city.

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Seth Bluestein Confirmed as Philadelphia City Commissioner

Bradley Vasoli

Philadelphia City Council on Thursday confirmed Seth Bluestein, a longtime aide to retired City Commissioner Al Schmidt, to replace his former boss.

Like Schmidt, Bluestein is a Republican who will serve in the minority-party seat on the three-member board which oversees elections in Philadelphia. After the former was first elected in 2011, Bluestein joined his staff and eventually rose to the position of chief deputy. Last autumn, Schmidt announced he would leave his position to head the Committee of Seventy, an advocacy group working on governance issues.

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Pennsylvania State Rep. Diamond Working on Ending No-Excuse Mail-In Voting Whether or Not It Survives the Courts

Bradley Vasoli

As Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) appeals a court ruling against no-excuse absentee voting, a state representative hopes to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to decisively end the practice.

A bill authored by Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon), who is also running for lieutenant governor, would explicitly limit mail-in voting to those who are sick, injured or traveling. This status quo existed before Wolf signed Act 77 in October 2019. 

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New Report: Pennsylvania’s Government Spending Damaging Economy

Bradley Vasoli

A report released this week by the Commonwealth Foundation (CF), a Harrisburg-based think tank, underscores the drawbacks of lavish government spending for ordinary Pennsylvanians.

Inflation and the economic policies that fuel it have already weighed on the minds of Americans for months. Federal spending during the COVID-19 pandemic has skyrocketed to create a debt nearing $30 trillion, equating to 133 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and amounting to $239,000 per taxpayer.

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Pennsylvania Leaves Local Taxpayers Footing Bill for Stormwater Management

The Center Square

A Pennsylvania state senator is raising the alarm over millions of dollars the commonwealth owes to local municipalities for unpaid stormwater management fees.

The state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing to discuss the commonwealth’s refusal to pay required fees to more than 2,500 municipalities to manage stormwater run-off.

Local officials told lawmakers last week state and federal laws require municipalities to manage the runoff, but only the U.S. government covers its portion of the cost.

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Pennsylvania Senate Democrats Push for Public-School Funding Increase

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Senate Minority Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) announced Monday he aims to achieve the largest public-school funding boost in state history this year.

Basic education funding has already seen a record-setting four-percent spending increase for the current fiscal year, with $7.07 billion in state-taxpayer dollars now going to public schools. (About twice that amount also gets allotted to schools annually from local property-tax revenues.)

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Prominent Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Josh Shapiro Cites ‘Scheduling Conflict’ During Biden Pennsylvania Visit

Cooper Moran

Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General and a prominent candidate for the state’s governor, did not attend President Joe Biden’s appearance in the state, citing an unexplained “scheduling conflict.”

The scheduling issue comes as President Biden’s poll numbers continue to drop. According to the latest numbers, compiled by Reuters, only 45 percent of individuals approve of his job performance.

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Ruling Against No-Excuse Mail-In Voting in Pennsylvania Appealed

Bradley Vasoli

Although Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court on Friday invalidated the law that has allowed no-excuse mail-in voting since 2020, the state’s appeal of the ruling means the decision is not yet in effect.

State officials, represented by Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro, will likely face a much friendlier forum in the state Supreme Court, which is controlled by Democrats in contrast to the Republican-majority Commonwealth Court. Democrats denounced the latter court’s ruling and pointed out that Republican legislators overwhelmingly voted for Act 77, which allowed Pennsylvanian’s who were not sick, injured or out of town to vote via absentee ballot.

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Measure Directs $225 Million to Recruit, Retain Pennsylvania Health Care Workers

The Center Square

Pennsylvania Republicans highlighted legislation Wednesday that is moving through the General Assembly to direct $225 million to recruit and retain health care workers for hospitals and behavioral service providers.

Leaders of the House and Senate gathered on the lieutenant governor’s balcony between the two chambers for a news conference on House Bill 253, sponsored by Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga.

The legislation allocates $225 million to hospitals and behavioral and psychiatric service providers for retention and recruitment programs for staff. The bill is targeted specifically at nurses and other hospital employees, and it excludes hospital executives, administration, contracted staff and physicians.

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New Book Reveals Chinese Dollars to University of Pennsylvania Tripled After Biden Center Founding

Bradley Vasoli

As President Joe Biden’s nomination of University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann as ambassador to Germany proceeds in the U.S. Senate, a new book reveals that financial support from communist China to her university nearly tripled after the school established its Biden Center four years ago.

The flow of dollars from People’s Republic of China entities to Penn has already fueled contentiousness about Gutmann’s nomination. In a November letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed their concern regarding the amount of money the university has accepted from Chinese institutions and companies. Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) has since come out against Gutmann’s prospective appointment and has cited the $86 million in Chinese contributions and contracts that Penn has received since 2014.

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Pennsylvania Court Halts Mail-In Voting

Cooper Moran

A five-judge panel on Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court stopped a provision that allows mail-in voting throughout the state, ruling the measure unconstitutional.

Proponents of the lawsuit argued that any permanent change to the election code of the state must be performed through constitutional amendment. In order for a constitutional amendment to be enacted, the measure must pass the legislature during two consecutive sessions.

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