Gov. Wolf Thanks Pennsylvanians for Their Part to Slow the Spread of COVID-19, Centre County to Move to Green

As part of a COVID-19 briefing, Governor Tom Wolf today thanked Pennsylvanians, including the Pennsylvania National Guard, for the many contributions to the pandemic response. He also announced that Centre County will move to green on Friday.

“I personally want to thank our National Guard members and their families for their work, especially during these trying times,” Gov. Wolf said. “Just like other families across the commonwealth, I know our military families are facing new challenges. Some are overcoming these challenges while coping with one parent being away from home due to a deployment to a COVID-19 site. That’s really showing the strength of these dedicated, courageous Pennsylvanians.”

Time to end Gov. Tom Wolf’s charade.

Pennsylvania residents are growing tired of Gov. Tom Wolf’s charade of dragging the Covid Virus “stay-at-home” orders on and on with no end in sight. Gov. Wolf continues to deny the efforts of our State House of Representatives to open for business. The residents of our Commonwealth have become an audience in a poor performance of a Harrisburg drama that is being played out at the Capitol, and directed by Gov. Wolf.

Our elected representatives are working to present legislation to Gov. Wolf to open small businesses safely and have appeared for this dress rehearsal for the last two months.

It’s time to reopen Pennsylvania

It has been nearly two months since Gov. Tom Wolf closed Pennsylvania’s economy and only days since he allowed portions of Pennsylvania to start to re-open under uncertain and confusing guidelines.

While every elected official’s top priority is the safety of those we represent, government must not needlessly inflict economic damage. Yet, that is exactly what is happening under Gov. Wolf’s prolonged shutdown order.

Gov. Wolf Adds Eight Counties to Yellow and 17 to Green on May 29, Remainder to Yellow on June 5

Furthering his plan for reopening Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf today announced eight additional counties will move to yellow and 17 to green, effective at 12:01 a.m., May 29. All remaining counties in red are expected to move to yellow by June 5 at 12:01 a.m.

The counties moving to yellow on May 29 include Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, and Schuylkill.

Wearing a Mask is not Pennsylvania State Law

Upon being asked last week if wearing a mask is law in Pennsylvania, Governor Wolf responded, “I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know what the issue is here, uh, if you want to stay safe, you ought to wear a mask…again, you can take that as something maybe, uh, has force of law.”

After six years in office, we would assume that the Governor understands how laws are created.

In fact, there is no law to wear a mask in Pennsylvania.

Laws are created by two legislative bodies – the House of Representatives and the Senate, who together form the General Assembly. As a member of the Pennsylvania Senate, no mask bill has crossed my desk. Just because our Governor thinks it into being, doesn’t mean he can snap his fingers and make it so.

PA Senator Doug Mastriano joins Tucker Carlson to discuss PA Secretary of Health

PA Senator Doug Mastriano joined Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss PA Secretary of Health , Dr. Rachel Levine’s Covid-19 nursing home guidance. Levine required PA nursing and personal care homes to admit and re-admit patients who were positive for COVID-19.

Levine is directly responsible for directing nursing homes to accept virus-positive patients during the height of the outbreak in Pennsylvania. COVID-19 has killed more than 4,500 people in PA, and about 70% of those deaths were linked to these facilities.

Governor Wolf vetoes legislation that would ease some Covid-19 restrictions.

Governor Tom Wolf today vetoed three bills related to the state’s response to COVID-19 that violate the separation of powers and make other changes that go against the administration’s measured plan for reopening the state safely.

Senate Bill 327 would authorize counties to develop and implement their own mitigation plans and decide when businesses within their county can reopen and includes a provision that prohibits commonwealth agencies from performing an essential governmental operation, the promulgation of regulations, until 90 days after the COVID-19 disaster emergency declaration is terminated unless the legislature grants permission for a regulation to advance.

House Bill 2388 and House Bill 2412 would allow various industries to reopen in red phase counties.

“Since the beginning of this month, my administration has been gradually transitioning counties from the restrictive red phase to an intermediate yellow phase,” Wolf wrote. “The decisions to move counties from the red phase to the yellow phase are based on the advice of expert epidemiologists. These decisions are not based just on the number of cases of COVID-19, but are also based on other critical factors, such as how community members interact, the county’s number of potential transmission points, a county’s geographic location, the capacity to undertake contact tracing, and testing availability.”

Read the veto message for SB 327 here.

Read the veto message for HB 2388 here.

Read the veto message for HB 2412 here.

Armstrong County Coroner Calls Out Dr. Levine. Urges Attorney General to Investigate

Breaking News: Tonight in a post on the Armstrong County Coroner’s Facebook Page, Brian Myers, calls for PA Attorney General, Josh Shapiro to investigate the gross negligence Dr. Levine and her department has exhibited throughout this Covid-19 outbreak. Myers in the post below publicly questions the competency of PA Secretary of Health, Dr. Levine, and her department’s staff.

Pennsylvanians deserve an apology from Gov. Wolf

Insults. Threats. Bullying. On Monday, May 11, Gov. Tom Wolf’s video statement featured all three. Wolf launched these salvos against his fellow Pennsylvanians — local elected officials, job creators, and workers in eight counties — seeking to provide for themselves and their families. He called them “cowards” and “deserters” for assessing local risks and daring to think for themselves.

We expect name-calling and temper tantrums on a schoolyard playground. But from the governor’s office, we expect leadership. Leaders don’t keep people in the dark. Since the COVID-19 crisis began, however, Wolf has thumbed his nose at calls for transparency while taking actions that are decimating Pennsylvanians’ livelihoods.

This New Normal Will Test Us All

If you ask me what scares me more, “COVID-19” or a “new normal,” it would be the latter. I am confident there will be a COVID-19 treatment and vaccine in less time than we suspect. There’s simply too much at stake. I am most fearful, though, of what the response to this virus is doing to us, our way of life.

As I follow the guidelines to flatten the curve, it seems many people are much more willing than me to concede that those guidelines should be our new normal — one where social distancing and mask wearing is viewed as a civic duty to protect you from me, indefinitely.

Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry launches program to extend unemployment pay for 13 weeks

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Secretary, Jerry Oleksiak, today announced the launch of Pennsylvania's Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to people who exhaust their regular unemployment compensation (UC).

PEUC is included in the new federal unemployment compensation benefits provided by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Pennsylvania has implemented all programs under the new CARES Act and paid out nearly $7.4 billion in total unemployment benefits since mid-March.

Important information about the extended benefits program follows and has also been emailed or mailed via the United States Postal Service to all individuals who potentially qualify for PEUC.

Representative Conner Lamb votes against COVID-19 stimulus, saying bill was ‘not focused’

Representative Conor Lamb (PA-17) issued the following statement following the U.S. House of Representatives vote on H.R. 6800:

“People in western Pennsylvania and all over the country have sacrificed a lot during this crisis. They expect us to put politics aside, work together, and focus on defeating the coronavirus. This bill is not focused, it was rushed to a vote too fast, and it doesn’t help us accomplish that core mission.