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Majority Leader Bryan Cutler
100th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Mike Straub
717-260-6397
mstraub@pahousegop.com
RepCutler.com / Facebook.com/RepBryanCutler
Twitter.com/RepBryanCutler
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 5, 2019
TO: Capitol Correspondents, News Editors, Assignment Editors
FROM: Mike Straub
Press Secretary to the Majority Leader
SUBJ: House Action for the Week of April 8, 2019
DATE: April 5, 2019
House Takes Strides to Protect Crime Victims
Protecting and empowering victims of crime and abuse is the focus of the state House during the month of April. A package of bills designed to protect the welfare of children, bring justice for victims of domestic abuse and sexual harassment, and support those testifying against their abusers are all on pace to move through the House with bipartisan support. Also, the House will address the statute of limitations regarding victims of childhood sexual assault. The two-bill package, House Bill 962 and House Bill 963, is known as The Pennsylvania Hidden Predator Act.
Live web streams of House session and the majority of committee meetings are available at PAHouseGOP.com. Important information and events may also be viewed by visiting Facebook.com/PAHouseGOP.
The Weekly Schedule
Identified by bill number, the sponsors and summaries for votes scheduled in committee or on the House floor are posted below. More information regarding these votes can be found at PAHouseGOP.com by clicking on the “House Business” tab.
Monday, April 8, 2019
Committee Meetings/Hearings:
State Government, 10 a.m., Room 60, East Wing
- Informational meeting on issues related to voting system replacement in the Commonwealth.
Consumer Affairs, 11 a.m., Room 140, Main Capitol
- Public hearing on HB 11, including presentations on nuclear power and the nuclear power industry with the PA Chamber of Business and Industry and Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts Coalition.
Urban Affairs, 11 a.m., Room 205, Ryan Office Building
- Informational meeting on the Pennsylvania and Delaware Valley Chapter Community Associations.
Finance, noon, Room 60, East Wing
- HB 779 (Rep. David Hickernell, R-Lancaster): Amends the tax reform code to provide an exclusion from Sales and Use Tax (SUT) for sales by nonprofit organizations supporting youth development programs.
- HB 880 (Rep. Andrew Lewis, R-Dauphin): Lowers the debt ceiling for the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) by $100 million per year, starting in 2022, until the ceiling reaches $2.65 billion in 2026.
- HB 970 (Rep. Michael Peifer, R-Pike/Wayne): Requires all agencies with employees or contractors that have access to federal tax information to comply with enhanced security procedures.
Judiciary, Call of the Chair, G-50, Irvis Office Building
- HB 809 (Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery): Authorizes employers to implement safeguards against workplace violence and prevents municipalities from prohibiting those safeguards.
- HB 854 (Rep. Torren Ecker, R-Adams/Cumberland): Ensures that the offense of strangulation is as fully incorporated into our body of laws as other similarly violent and threatening offenses.
- HB 962 (Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks): Amends the judicial code regarding civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse, allowing childhood victims until age 55 to file suit, and provides for waivers of sovereign and governmental immunity relating to claims of childhood sexual abuse.
- HB 963 (Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair): Amends Article I, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to provide for a two-year window in which civil lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse may be filed in court notwithstanding any otherwise applicable statute of limitations defense.
SESSION:
On Monday, session will begin at 1 p.m.
Votes on Second Consideration:
- HB 223 (Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Bradford/Sullivan/Susquehanna): Authorizes the conveyance of land in Asylum Township, Bradford County.
- HB 279 (Rep. Karen Boback, R-Luzerne/Lackawanna/Wyoming): Provides civil immunity for any damage that may be done to a vehicle when forceful entry is necessary to rescue a child.
- HB 288 (Rep. Justin Simmons, R-Lehigh/Montgomery/Northampton): Known as Caylee’s Law, the bill increases the penalty for concealing the death of a child from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony, punishable by up to seven years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $15,000.
- HB 315 (Rep. Thomas Murt, R-Montgomery/Philadelphia): Establishes the offense of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
- HB 422 (Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland): Creates a building code official “trainee” program.
Votes on Third Consideration:
- HB 86 (Rep. David Maloney, R-Berks): Requires the POW/MIA flag to be flown on state grounds and buildings when the American flag is also being flown and when the POW/MIA flag can be reasonably accommodated at the location.
- HB 349 (Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon): Requires municipalities that opt to enforce the Uniform Construction Code (UCC) by using third-party agencies to have at least two or more contracted for UCC administration.
- HB 739 (Rep. Jeanne McNeill, D-Lehigh): Authorizes the transfer of title for certain Project 70 lands owned by Lehigh County to Whitehall Township, Lehigh County.
- HB 807 (Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon): Specifies that the annual salary of deputy adjutant generals and general officers in command positions permanently employed by the Commonwealth is to be equivalent to the federal military base pay.
- HB 859 (Rep. Stephen Barrar, R-Delaware/Chester): Extends the 911 statute ($1.65 surcharge) for another four years, to June 30, 2023.
- HB 276 (Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland): Known as Marsy’s Law, the bill adds a victim’s bill of rights to the Pennsylvania Constitution.
- HB 502 (Rep. John Hershey, R- Juniata/Franklin/Mifflin): Grants to crime victims the right to attend any proceeding relating to their cases, unless the court expressly determines that attendance would materially alter the victims’ testimony.
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Committee Meetings/Hearings:
Human Services, 9 a.m., G-50, Irvis Office Building
SESSION:
On Tuesday, session will begin at 11 a.m.
Votes on Second Consideration:
- HB 24 (Rep. John Lawrence, R-Chester/Lancaster): Requires the principal for new issuances of state debt to be repaid in equal amounts over the (generally) 20-year term of the bond. Currently, the state uses a repayment scheme with lower principal payments in the first few years, with much higher principal payments as the loan matures.
- HB 262 (Rep. Carl Metzgar, R- Somerset/Bedford): Eliminates the inheritance tax rate for transfers of property to or for the use of a child aged 21 years or younger from a natural parent, adoptive parent or step-parent.
- HB 629 (Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren/Crawford/Forest): Requires health insurers to cover treatment plans for Lyme disease or related tick-borne illnesses as prescribed by a patient’s health care practitioner, regardless if the treatment plan includes short-term or long-term antibiotic treatment.
- HB 684 (Rep. Curt Sonney, R-Erie): Excludes the cashing of savings bonds for seniors age 65 and older as being counted towards income when applying for lottery-funded programs.
- HB 754 (Rep. Wendi Thomas, R-Bucks): Ensures any individual enrolled in PACE and PACENET as of Dec. 31, 2018, remains eligible if their maximum income limit is exceeded due solely to a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. Eligibility would expire at the end of 2021.
- HB 962 (Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks): Amends the judicial code regarding civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse, allowing childhood victims until age 55 to file suit, and provides for waivers of sovereign and governmental immunity relating to claims of childhood sexual abuse.
- HB 963 (Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair): Amends Article I, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to provide for a two-year window in which civil lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse may be filed in court notwithstanding any otherwise applicable statute of limitations defense.
Votes on Third Consideration:
- HB 223 (Pickett)
- HB 279 (Boback)
- HB 288 (Simmons)
- HB 315 (Murt)
- HB 422 (Delozier)
- HB 503 (Rep. Garth Everett, R-Lycoming/Union): Allows victims and witnesses with intellectual disabilities or autism to submit out-of-court statements rather than face their perpetrators in court.
- HB 504 (Rep. Natalie Mihalek, R-Allegheny/Washington): Shields rape victims from irrelevant cross examination by ensuring that prior sexual assaults or other prior acts of victimization against a rape victim cannot be used at trial for the purpose of attacking the victim’s character.
- HB 505 (Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Franklin): Expands the types of crimes in which out-of-court statements by child victims or child witnesses could be admitted by the court, avoiding further trauma for the affected children.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Committee Meetings/Hearings:
Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 9 a.m., Room 60, East Wing
- Informational meeting on HB 915, which proposes to exempt milk haulers from weather-related travel bans.
Human Services and Tourism and Recreational Development, 9 a.m., G-50, Irvis Office Building
- Joint informational meeting to learn about the challenges for people who have a disability who are traveling.
Health (House) and Health and Human Services (Senate), 9:30 a.m., Hearing Room #1, North Office
- Joint informational meeting on gene replacement therapy and its use in the treatment of genetic diseases.
Local Government, 9:30 a.m., B-31, Main Capitol
- Agenda TBA
Transportation, Call of the Chair, B-31, Main Capitol
- HB 364 (Rep. Matt Gabler, R-Clearfield/Elk): Authorizes the use of revolving and flashing yellow lights for school vehicles, which are vehicles smaller than school buses that transport school students, such as vans and mini-vans.
- HB 592 (Rep. Rich Irvin, R-Huntingdon/Centre/Mifflin): Designates a portion of State Route 305 in Huntingdon County as the Private Harold E. “Jim” Knode Memorial Bridge.
- HB 632 (Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Cumberland): Permits the use of electronic power of attorney (ePOA) documents when ownership of a vehicle is transferred for insurance purposes.
- HB 634 (Rep. Mark Keller, R-Perry/Cumberland): Expands procession rights to large group motorcycle rides.
- HB 757 (Rep. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson/Indiana) and Rep. Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion/Armstrong/Forest): Designates a portion of Route 899 over the Clarion River connecting Barnett Township, Jefferson County, and Barnett Township, Forest County, as the PFC Patrick T. Cassatt Memorial Bridge.
- HB 758 (Rep. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson/Indiana): Designates a bridge on State Route 4018 over the Little Mahoning Creek, South Mahoning Township, Indiana County, as the Spc. Franklin Delano Meyer Memorial Bridge.
SESSION:
On Wednesday, session will begin at 11 a.m.
Votes on Second Consideration and Third Consideration are TBA.
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