THE CENTER SQUARE—A proposal from the administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro to overhaul disease regulations has unleashed a flood of public comments and irritated state Republicans, who claim it would allow for warrantless entry into homes and violate the public desire to limit a governor’s emergency powers.
On Monday, Democratic representative and medical doctor Arvind Venkat of Allegheny County said Republicans “are jumping to extreme conclusions” about the 502-page document, which was filed with the Independent Regulatory Review Commission in June. The period for public comment was to expire on Monday.
“They are very important to update,” Venkat said the regulations, in part because of the evolution of new diseases and new science in the 25 years since the last major update.
The IRRC was created by statute 44 years ago to review proposed regulations to make sure they are in the public interest. Its executive director, David Sumner, said Monday that the Department of Health filing was “one of the most significant rulemakings to come through our door in the last few years.”
Republican state Rep. Kathy Rapp of Warren County said there were more than 4,000 public comments and most were against the filing. The volume apparently is not unprecedented. Sumner said regulations proposed years ago associated with what generally was known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative drew 30,000 comments.
According to Sumner, the commission will evaluate it for reasonableness, clarity, and cost to comply. The entire process could take as long as two years.
Signed by Health Secretary Debra Bogen, the latest filing on “communicable and noncommunicable diseases” proposes to expand the list of reportable diseases, infections, and conditions; to address evolving standards and expert guidance; and “to ensure the overall public health and safety by reducing the spread of diseases, infections and conditions.”
The public comment period has coincided with the worst measles outbreak in the state in decades, but the filing was made long before the outbreak got widespread media attention.
Republican Rep. Russ Diamond of Lebanon County, who made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic for his criticism of then-Health Secretary Rachel Levine and a state requirement on wearing masks in public, ripped into the new proposed regulation on Monday.
“If this regulation goes into effect, I guarantee you there will be constitutional lawsuits,” Diamond said. “With these regulations, it is like COVID 2.0.”
He pointed to a 2021 statewide referendum in which voters agreed to limit disaster declarations to 21 days rather than 90. It also gave the Legislature, not the governor, power to make an extension.
The spirit of the Department of Health regulations, Diamond said, flies in the face of the vote.
“The Shapiro administration is trying to skirt and circumvent that constitutional power by giving the Department of Health all the powers the people objected to,” Diamond said.
Senate Republicans said in written statement the proposed regulations would let state and local health agencies “enter any home, school, apartment, healthcare facility or other building without a warrant.” They also said the regulations would let the department “speak to a student in private without the consent or knowledge of a parent.”
In a letter to the IRRC, the Democratic Rep. Dan Frankel of Allegheny County, chairman of the House Health Committee, praised the department’s work to prevent disease spread.
Frankel endorsed the concept of expanding a vaccine tracking system to include additional providers; supported the addition of “prevention, containment or mitigation” as justifications for disease control measures; and suggested that its wording on the “ages of young people who might be approached in schools” be changed.
“A first-grader is not the same as a high school senior,” Frankel pointed out.
Rapp, who is the top Republican on the House Health Committee, said the filing in its current form hands “broad, unchecked authority to unelected bureaucrats.”
Originally published by The Center Square.
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