Lawmakers look to extend waivers under disaster declaration

HARRISBURG, PA. >> Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Legislature appeared Wednesday to back off a wholesale end to the governor’s pandemic disaster emergency declaration, with lawmakers working to decide on which regulatory waivers to extend.

The House on Tuesday abruptly passed a bill along party lines to end the declaration, including the hundreds of regulatory waivers that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration had approved under the authority of the emergency declaration going back to March 2020.

But a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, said Wednesday that the Senate was working to keep some of the waivers in place.

“With the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians at top of mind in our decisions, we are working to keep health care measures in place for a certain period of time,” spokesperson Erica Wright said in a statement.

A vote by Republican lawmakers to end Wolf’s pandemic disaster emergency declaration is carrying out what they see as the new powers given to them by voters in last month’s statewide referendum.

A key component of a disaster declaration is a governor’s authority to waive a regulation.

The suspended regulations cover a wide swath of government requirements. Numerous health— care licensing regulations were waived to ensure that hospitals could find qualified medical staff more easily as they stretched thin to handle an influx of COVID-positive patients.

Wright said details were being finalized, with votes expected Thursday on several measures, including a resolution to end Wolf’s emergency declaration.