HARRISBURG – The Republican Chair of the PA House Health Committee, Warren County Rep. Kathy Rapp announced the submission of formal legislative comments from 85 members of the PA House to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission outlining concerns regarding the PA Department of Health’s 502-page proposed rewrite of regulations. Rapp said the proposed regulatory package represents an unprecedented expansion of bureaucratic control, threatening the constitutional liberties, medical privacy, and parental rights of citizens across the Commonwealth. The House members are calling on the department to withdraw the regulatory package. Rapp added we cannot trade constitutional protections and personal liberty for the heavy hand of government oversight into many facets of our lives. Pennsylvanians lived through severe government overreach and mandated shutdowns during the COVID pandemic. The overreach was so pervasive that the voters amended the state Constitution to ensure that there is more oversight on executive authority during disaster declarations. These proposed regulations bypass the legislative process to hand broad, unchecked authority to unelected bureaucrats. Policy changes of this magnitude belong in the General Assembly, not buried in a 502-page agency package.
REP. KATHY RAPP