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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 9, 2024 02:06 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Russ Diamond |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | COVID-19 Professional Licensure Amnesty |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to provide critical relief for our constituents, businesses and professionals who were disciplined by the Wolf Administration during the COVID-19 pandemic for keeping their businesses open and trying to make a living. My legislation will require the licensing boards and commissions under the Department of State to reinstate any license, registration, certificate or permit that was suspended or revoked specifically for failure to comply with COVID-19 protocols set forth by the Governor and the Secretary of Health during the disaster emergency related to COVID that began on March 6, 2020. Additionally, the legislation will require the licensing boards and commissions to remove any disciplinary action taken by a licensing board on a licensee during COVID-19 for failure to comply with COVID-19 protocols, such as warning letters, fines and other actions that may appear on a licensee’s disciplinary history. As a matter of perspective, these disciplinary actions were taken under an indefinite disaster emergency system that no longer exists in Pennsylvania. The people of this Commonwealth were so outraged by administrative overreach during this period that they saw fit to change our state constitution, making Pennsylvania the only state in the nation to reduce its governor’s emergency powers via constitutional change. Our collective experience during the COVID-19 disaster emergency created a lot of bad blood and set Pennsylvanians against one another when their opinions on the governmental response to COVID-19 differed. The General Assembly should embrace the People’s rejection of administrative overreach at the ballot box and take steps to heal this enduring and gaping wound on our body politic by granting administrative amnesty to those who were merely attempting to pay their bills and feed their families during one of the most difficult periods of the modern era. My legislation is a step in that direction, and I encourage you to stand up for our licensed professionals by joining me as a cosponsor. |
Introduced as HB1969