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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 1, 2022 04:34 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Craig T. Staats |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Transparency Update to the Disease Prevention and Control Act of 1955 (Former HB 1893) |
| The Disease Prevention and Control Act of 1955 currently provides, under Section 15 of the Act, a provision which allows the Department of Health to not release disease-related data. Under Act 77 of 2020, this data is required to be treated as disclosable under the Right-to-Know Law during emergency declarations. While the adoption of Act 77 of 2020 was a positive step to bring greater transparency into a very untransparent process, the emergency declaration for COVID-19 is over, but the Department of Health is still using this old and antiquated law to hide pertinent health information from the residents of Pennsylvania. I will shortly be introducing legislation which repeals Section 15 of the Disease Prevention and Control Act of 1955 and replaces it with a simple provision that all disease information under this Act is under the Right-to-Know Law. This ensures citizens have full access to government information while protecting the personal information of our citizens. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation to bring more transparency for our residents. Previous co-sponsors: Kauffman, Ryan, Hamm, James, R. Brown, Gillen, Grove, Bernstine, Keefer, Gleim, Farry, Rowe and Jones. |
Introduced as HB326