Posted: | December 7, 2022 01:29 PM |
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From: | Senator Michele Brooks and Sen. Camera Bartolotta |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Utilization of Federal Standards for Determining Essential Businesses |
In the near future, we plan on reintroducing Senate Bill 567 of the 2021-2022 session. This legislation changes the way the Commonwealth determines which businesses are deemed to be essential and life-sustaining for future disaster declarations. Previous cosponsors include Senators Argall, Yaw, Gordner, Mensch, Yudichak, Stefano, Aument and J. Ward. Specifically, when a formal disaster declaration affecting the Commonwealth is made, whether it is a national disaster declaration or a more geographically limited one, the Commonwealth will adopt the federal definitions governing what employees, businesses, social services, etc. are deemed “life-sustaining.” This will include definitions included in guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published by the United States Department of Homeland Security. This legislation helps provide a uniform process for determining life-sustaining and essential status, as well as provides more continuity, clarity, and guidance for our businesses that could potentially be affected. We hope that you will join us in cosponsoring this important piece of legislation. If you have any questions, please contact Fallon Binner (Sen. Brooks) at fbinner@pasen.gov, or Katrina Hanna (Sen. Bartolotta) at khanna@pasen.gov. Thank you. |
Introduced as SB236