Lawmakers vote to end Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 emergency disaster, but Gov. Wolf says it’s not over
All Pennsylvania businesses may or may not reopen without any COVID-19-related restrictions. Gov. Tom Wolf’s red, yellow, green reopening plan may or may not now be part of the state’s history. People may or may not gather in large congregant settings.
If that leaves you confused, welcome to the current state of affairs in Pennsylvania. We now live in uncharted waters.
The GOP-controlled General Assembly on Tuesday passed a concurrent resolution that directs Wolf to issue a proclamation or executive order to end the COVID-19 disaster emergency that the governor issued on March 6 and renewed on June 3.
While Republican lawmakers are adamant that the governor has no power to veto the resolution, that is exactly what Wolf has vowed to do when it is presented to him.
“Until then, no action will be taken,” said Wolf spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger. “The disaster proclamation has not been terminated by the House or Senate’s actions. Only the governor can terminate the disaster emergency.”
The governor bases his position on Article III, Section 9 in the state constitution that states that every order, resolution or vote “shall be presented to the governor and before it shall take effect be approved by him, or being disapproved, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of both Houses according to the rules and limitations prescribed in case of a bill."
House Republicans insist that section of the constitution doesn’t apply to this resolution and say a different section of the constitution gives them the authority to terminate a disaster emergency at any time.
They further maintain governor is compelled by the resolution to rescind his declaration and say there is no opportunity for the governor to veto it.
Bruce Ledewitz, a Duquesne Law professor who teaches Pennsylvania constitutional law, said the General Assembly will try to hang its hat on a 1985 Superior Court decision on similar language on state criminal sentencing guidelines, that let the Legislature rescind or modify them by concurrent resolution.
In that case, the court found the legislature’s action on the guidelines wasn’t a lawmaking action that would be submitted to the governor for approval. It was instead the execution of a power reserved to the Legislature by the underlying law. The governor, if he wanted to stop it, would have had to have vetoed the law creating that process.
Among other legal arguments Republicans made to defend their authority to repeal the emergency, they said the state’s 1978 emergency management services law is intended to give the governor temporary extraordinary powers to deal with a crisis, not permanent ones.
And after 13 weeks under the COVID-19 emergency even some Democratic lawmakers in both chambers agreed with their GOP counterparts, it’s time to restore the role of the Legislature, a co-equal branch of government, in governing decisions.
Following a four-hour debate, the Senate voted 31-19, with two Democrats siding with Republicans, to approve the resolution. Because that chamber made a technical amendment to the bill, it went back to the House, which approved it by a 121-81, with 12 Democrats siding with the GOP majority.
“That yes vote is a reflection of your constituents who have said enough is enough. That yes vote brings an end to our long collective nightmare,” said Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon County, who sponsored the resolution.
Wolf in a letter to lawmakers said ending the disaster emergency prematurely strips the ability to provide services to people and places affected by COVID-19, His spokeswoman said that affects his ability to waive job search requirements to receive unemployment compensation benefits, to activate the National Guard to help with nursing homes, and to deploying materials and resources, among others.
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https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/06/lawmakers-vote-to-end-pennsylvanias-covid-19-emergency-disaster-but-gov-wolf-says-its-not-over.html