Degler News Service

Stories from Our News Bureau in Washington, D.C.

APRIL 24, 2023

House Bill could jeopardize food assistance

Rylee Curry
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is once again on the chopping block in House Republicans’ new bill, but Lehigh Valley food banks are still reeling from last month’s federal cuts.

Last week Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the House GOP’s plan to address the deficit, which included further restrictions designed to regulate SNAP access. “The incentives today are out of whack. It’s time to get Americans back to work.” said McCarthy in his speech delivered to the New York Stock Exchange last week.

The proposed Limit, Save, Grow Act aims to expand work requirements for able-bodied adults. Current SNAP rules place work requirements on beneficiaries ages 18 to 50, but this new legislation would broaden that age range to 55-year-olds.

McCarthy blames the country’s current insufficient labor force on the Biden-Harris Administration.

“Right now there are more job openings than people who are looking for jobs. It’s because the Biden administration weakened work requirements,” said McCarthy. “With a strong growing economy we will no longer be dependent upon China. We will no longer be victims to inflation.”

Allison Czapp, associate executive director at Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh and Northeast Pennsylvania disagrees with McCarthy’s views on government assistance programs.

“Providing people with additional resources had a successful impact. Things were working,” explained Czapp.

Since the beginning of March, food banks in the Lehigh Valley have been dealing with the aftermath triggered by the government’s decision to end emergency SNAP allotments.

“Every month we’re seeing increase after increase. From our perspective we’re looking at where does this end?” said Czapp. “The food bank and the pantry should be the last line of defense to prevent food insecurity.”

Feeding America reports that one in 10 people in the Lehigh Valley face hunger, and since January SNAP enrollment has increased in the region by one percent.

Second Harvest in the Lehigh Valley distributes over six million meals a year.
Susan Dalandan, Coordinator of the Lehigh Valley Food Policy Council, contributes increased food insecurity to the lack of affordable housing in the area.

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission’s most recent report classifies three out of 10 households as cost burdened. According to research cost burdened households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs.

“It might not seem like food access is the biggest issue in the Lehigh Valley, but start looking at different neighbors and census tracts — the disparities exist,” said Czapp.
“People are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Dalandan.

Dalandan believes that further federal spending will be needed to efficiently monitor stricter work requirements. She also identifies location as an inequity within the legislation.

“In a very rural area there might not be employment and work force training that complies with SNAP standards,” Dalandan said.

Food banks in the Lehigh Valley are now advocating for the inclusion of looser SNAP restrictions in the 2023 Farm Bill, but House Agriculture Committee chair, Rep. Glenn Thompson, recently backed McCarthy and the Live, Save, Grow Act.

“I appreciate Speaker McCarthy’s willingness to bring varying perspectives to the table and for his leadership in the face of unwarranted partisan hysteria,” Thompson said.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman remains a proponent of SNAP access.

“We need to pass a Farm Bill works for everyday Americans,” Fetterman said, at the close of Wednesday’s Food and Nutrition subcommittee hearing. “This is not a Republican or Democratic issue --- It’s time to come together and stop playing political games with Americans’ access to food.”

The House is expected to take up the Live, Save, Grow Act later this week.

APRIL 21, 2023

Bill would aid rural teaching hospitals

Christina Baker
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two Pennsylvania representatives say Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements are shortchanging rural teaching hospitals, including two hospitals in the commonwealth.

Representatives Susan Wild (D - Lehigh Valley) and Dan Meuser (R - Dallas) have unveiled the Fairness for Rural Teaching Hospitals Act, which would increase Medicaid and Medicare payments to 14 rural hospitals. It comes amid widespread hospital closures from shortages of staff and funding.

“Rural hospitals are critically important to the communities they serve and often face simultaneous challenges of keeping their doors open and attracting health care providers,” Wild said in a statement.

The bill would change the funding calculations of the Medicare Dependent Hospital program, which sends higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to rural hospitals — including St. Luke’s Miners Memorial Hospital and St. Luke’s Easton Campus in Pennsylvania.

The Medicare Dependent Hospital program currently overestimates how much money its 14 teaching hospitals make in Medicare reimbursements, because it includes reimbursements the hospitals receive for teaching expenses in addition to base operating costs.

This calculation leads the program to disqualify teaching hospitals from an extra payment of “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to Meuser's statement on the bill. The bill’s updated calculations would cost $7 million per year.

Wendy Lazo, President of St. Luke’s Miners Campus, voiced support for the bill.

“With the significant growth of our aging population and the physician shortage already impacting our country, it’s even more critical that Medicare-dependent, rural hospitals offer physician training programs to secure resources for the future,” Lazo said. “The current GME MDH calculation not only disincentivizes hospitals from making this investment but makes it nearly impossible to do so in any sustainable way."

Congress has seen other bipartisan attempts to change Medicare funding for rural areas in recent years.

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey sponsored the Rural Hospitals Support Act, which would update the Medicare Dependent Hospital program calculations, and make the program permanent so that it doesn’t need to be reauthorized by Congress. Despite the support of organizations like the American Health Association, this bill never received a vote when it was introduced last year.

The bipartisan Save Rural Hospitals Act aims to address the funding disparity in Medicaid reimbursements based on salaries, which leads to lower reimbursements for lower hospitals. It’s been introduced every year since 2020 but has never passed.

The Fairness for Rural Teaching Hospitals Act is currently waiting for a vote in the Ways and Means Committee, where it must pass before it can reach the House floor.
“It’s imperative that our rural hospitals are not deprived of the funding needed to continue offering essential health care services in their communities,” Meuser said. “Rural teaching hospitals should not be penalized for providing care to those most in need while educating the next generation of health care workers.”

APRIL 16, 2023

Pa. abortion rights advocates rally to protect services

Rylee Curry
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Planned Parenthood Keystone President and CEO Melissa Reed said her organization is responding to a Texas court’s decision against a commonly used abortion pill by hiring new physicians and increasing appointment availability in the Lehigh Valley.

If mifepristone eventually becomes unavailable in the U.S., Samantha Bobila, Chief of External Affairs for Planned Parenthood Keystone, said medication abortions would still be available using misoprostol, a drug that has been used in a two-step regime along with mifepristone.

By itself, misoprostol is 85% effective compared to the 95% rate when the two drugs are taken together.

The goal for abortion rights backers is to ensure abortion services are maintained, and leading Pennsylvania Democrats support that effort.

“The extreme right’s quest to end reproductive freedom was never going to end with Dobbs,” said Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-PA07) said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v Wade.

“This is a heinous ruling not based on science but in dark ideological motivations to rollback women’s rights. This is wrong. And we will fight it every step of the way.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro also vowed to oppose efforts to curtail abortion rights.

“We cannot let one judge in Texas get in the way of Pennsylvania women’s fundamental freedoms — and I will fight like hell to make sure he doesn't,” Shapiro tweeted.

He was citing a decision by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Texas in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lawsuit.

In his decision, Kacsmaryk ruled FDA erred in its process on mifepristone years ago.A federal judge in Washington state countered Kacsmaryk’s decision, and the U.S. Department of Justice appealed Kacsmaryk’s decision to take mifepristone off the market.
Eventually the case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Anti-abortion rights activists welcomed Kacsmaryk’s decision. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and a number of other pro-life organizations claim that the FDA illegally approved mifepristone by not adhering to congressional protocol.

”We applaud the Texas court for trying to safeguard the wellbeing of women and their unborn children,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life.

“The abortion pill has four times the complication rate of surgical abortions, and women have tragically died from its use.”

Gallagher added: “It has also resulted in the deaths of countless numbers of defenseless preborn babies.”

Bobila disagrees with the claims that mifepristone is unsafe.

“The FDA-approved this medication 20 years ago; it's extremely safe,” she said.

Critics of Kacsmaryk’s decision also warn its impact goes beyond mifepristone.

“This court case threatens the FDA’s ability to approve medication,” Bobila said.
“If mifepristone is taken off the market, it will open up a flood gate.”

APRIL 13, 2023

Bill aims to end disabled minimum wage

By Christina Baker
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Roughly 120,000 Americans with disabilities are earning less than the minimum wage, and half of those are earning less than $3.50 an hour, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. Not only is this legal, but the employers received a certificate from the government to do it.

Paying a subminimum wage for disabled people has been legal since 1938, but has become less common in recent years as states have tried to ban or limit the practice. Now, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) has reintroduced a bill to end the subminimum wage nationwide.

Employers can pay their disabled workers a subminimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act if they obtain a 14(c) certificate from the federal government. The certificate allows a business to pay employees less than minimum wage if their productivity is less than a normal worker’s.

45 employers in Pennsylvania have a certificate to pay their workers less than minimum wage, according to the Department of Labor, and these businesses have 3,567 employees.

Most employers that pay a subminimum wage hire people with intellectual disabilities to work in “sheltered workshops,” doing menial tasks under heavy supervision. Advocates for sheltered workshops argue that their employees couldn’t be hired anywhere that pays minimum wage.

Steve Pennington, director of the Pennsylvania Client Assistance Program, said sheltered workshops are not just underpaying their employees but also prevent them from developing skills to work elsewhere.

In a workshop, employees are doing the same repetitive, menial tasks every day — often things like sorting hangers, counting screws, stuffing envelopes or packaging products — and don’t get to interact with non-disabled people, Pennington said.

The idea that a competitive, integrated workplace is better for people’s development than a sheltered workshop has shaped Pennsylvania’s policy in recent years, Pennington said. The number of Pennsylvanians earning a subminimum wage has declined by almost 10,000 people since 2014.

Under Casey’s bill, states would receive funding and have a 5-year transition period to get that number down to zero.

BARC Developmental Services, a business with sheltered workshops in Quakertown and Warminster, would be forced out of business if Casey’s bill passed, according to its executive director Mary Sautter.

Like most sheltered workshops, BARC contracts with businesses to fill menial tasks like sorting or packaging objects, and it wouldn’t be able to get those contracts if it had to pay its workers a minimum wage, Sautter said. She’s contacted Casey’s office to ask him to withdraw his bill.

Skills of Central PA, a Centre County-based group that runs 4 sheltered workshops with 150 employees, would likely lose its contracts if it had to pay minimum wage, according to vice president Mary Kay Fultz. The businesses would probably go back to doing the work themselves, Fultz said, and she doubted that they would be willing to hire Skills’ employees.

Unlike BARC, Fultz said Skills would not close if it lost its contracts, but would transition to finding activities and volunteer work for its employees.

About 20 of BARC’s 129 subminimum wage employees earn somewhere from $3.50 to $8 per hour, according to Scott Kulp, BARC’s director of vocational and developmental programs. BARC also has employees earning just $10 per week, based on their productivity.

The top three executives at BARC, including Sautter and Kulp, all made more than $100,000 in 2020, according to tax documents.

Wages at Skills are also based on productivity — how many pieces of work an employee can complete — and the average wage last year was $5.27 per hour, Fultz said.

“We strive to help each of the folks that we serve become as productive as they possibly can, but realizing that, with very few exceptions, they’re not going to be able to work anywhere near what’s considered standard for individuals who don’t have a disability,” Kulp said.

BARC and Skills have programs to match people with intellectual disabilities with minimum wage jobs in the community, but those workplaces are usually not willing to schedule employees with intellectual disabilities for more than 15 hours per week, Sautter said.

Fultz said Skills’ former employees have also struggled to get hours when they find a minimum wage job. Often, Sautter said, these people end up coming back to the workshop for the rest of the week so they can work full time.

If not for BARC’s subminimum wage jobs, its employees “may be sitting at home unengaged, and potentially a family member has to now quit their job or work less because they have to care for that person,” Sautter argued.

But Pennington said workshop programs like BARC’s are just a short-term solution to the problems of people with intellectual disabilities and their families, and they don’t develop skills that they would in a minimum wage job with an integrated workforce.

“What’s more important,” Pennington said, “Providing daycare and, within that, the opportunity to make $1 an hour sorting hangers or putting screws in boxes? Or the opportunity to develop real-life skills and becoming independent?”

Casey has been introducing a bill to end the minimum wage for years, usually with bipartisan cosponsors in both houses of Congress, but the bill has never gained traction.

Even if the bill doesn’t pass, the number of people with disabilities making subminimum wage has been declining for years, and will likely continue to decline. From 2010 to 2019, the number of employers paying subminimum wages to people with disabilities dropped from 3,100 to less than 1,600, the GAO report found.

Last year, the Department of Education created a grant to 14 states to help them phase out the subminimum wage, awarding Pennsylvania $13 million over five years. Pennington, who serves on the advisory committee for the grant in Pennsylvania, said the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation will begin implementing the grant in the next fiscal year.

“It’s easy to look at a person with an intellectual disability and say, ‘That person can’t do anything,’” Pennington said. “But that’s more opinion than fact.”

APRIL 3, 2023

Prison staffing shortage is a danger

By Christina Baker
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — USP Canaan, Wayne County’s federal prison, is “dangerously” understaffed, said Correctional Officer Dave Demas, the president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3003.

Officers work back-to-back, 16-hour shifts. Five inmates and one guard have been killed in the prison since it opened in 2005.

Rep. Matt Cartwright announced in January that he secured a $180 million increase in the Bureau of Prisons' hiring budget, and pledged to make sure some of that money goes to USP Canaan.

But some experts warn that the government may be wasting its money unless other policies are changed.

“If they’re just keeping business as usual, not trying to reduce population or not trying to get more efficient,” said John Wetzel, Pennsylvania’s former Secretary of Corrections, “Then the $180 million — they might as well just burn it.”

Federal prisons across the country have been in a staffing shortage for years, according to Wetzel, who currently works as a consultant for prisons.

When prisons are understaffed, they may have fewer guards present in risky situations, conduct fewer searches, and cut back on the amount of planning and logistical work around inmate transports, Wetzel said.

USP Canaan is currently staffed at 91%, according to K. Castrati, the prison’s executive assistant.

In 2021, the Bureau of Prisons reported that Canaan had one correctional officer for every 5.6 incarcerated people. That puts Canaan in a better position than the federal prison system as a whole, which had a one-to-eight staff-to-inmate ratio.

But not every officer can work every shift. On some shifts, Canaan had only one officer for every 25 inmates. On weekend mornings, the Bureau of Prisons reported, Canaan had one officer for every 54 inmates.

Demas said he’s hopeful the increased funding will make a difference in Canaan’s staffing problems — so long as the Bureau of Prisons doesn’t mishandle the funds.

“I don’t think we get paid enough, I don’t think the agency is even trying to recruit,” Demas said. “It was great for Congressman Cartwright to get all the money for recruitment, retention and hiring. But will the agency spend the money on that?”

Wetzel, and Sergio Hyland, an activist at the Abolitionist Law Center, warned that increasing hiring efforts wouldn’t address the root problems of the staffing crisis in federal prisons.

“It’s not a crisis of under-staffing. It’s a crisis of over-expansion,” Hyland said.

Wetzel characterized the phenomenon as a problem of supply and demand. The government keeps increasing the number of incarcerated people, creating more demand for guards, but cannot increase the supply of officers fast enough.

Demas said he had no comment on whether reducing the number of incarcerated people in USP Canaan would increase the prison’s safety.

Other policies in the Bureau of Prisons compound its staffing problems, according to Wetzel. The Bureau requires that everyone who is hired to work in a prison — including wardens, case managers and sometimes cooks and nurses — be trained as a guard first, under a policy called “augmentation.”

Prisons have staff members who could be preparing incarcerated people for their release, or helping them reduce their sentences. Because of augmentation, these staff are filling in shortages of guards instead of performing their intended role, Wetzel said.

In a statement, Cartwright’s office said he “has advocated for ending – or at least limiting – these staffing augmentation procedures and will continue to do so.”

Cartwright, the ranking Democrat on the House's Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, was serving in his first year as a representative when Correctional Officer Eric J. Williams was murdered at Canaan in 2013.

"Since then, the Congressman has made staff safety at USP Canaan and Bureau of Prisons facilities one of his priorities," the statement said, "through legislation, safety measures (like allowing correctional officers to carry pepper spray) and ensuring that the BOP received funding over and above President Biden’s request for staffing this fiscal year."

Hyland, who was incarcerated in a Pennsylvania State prison for 22 years, said there are better policies to increase safety than spending more money on officers, including treating incarcerated people more humanely.

“Any prison staff member can go to any random prisoner at three in the morning, literally pull them out of their bed, and say, ‘Get dressed, you have to come shovel snow off the roof.’” Hyland said. “Or, ‘You have to come move these big concrete boulders.’”

These prisoners are often paid as little as 20 cents an hour to do the prison’s most dangerous jobs, with no training or sick days, Hyland said.

But because of political pressures, it’s easier for the government to spend another $180 million on hiring than it is to change these policies, Wetzel argued.

“We’re in a political environment where one of the most popular ways to get elected is what? Getting tough on crime,” Wetzel said. “It’s difficult for people to just do what makes sense.”

Prisons often become economically important to the towns they’re in, so decreasing the prison population becomes politically unpopular, Hyland argued.

“It’s not about justice or safety, it’s about job security,” Hyland said. “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of economic opportunity out there, and a prison represents that sort of job security people need.”

USP Canaan will continue to hold monthly job fairs. AFGE Local, with the support of Cartwright and Democratic Senator Bob Casey, requested that USP Canaan be included in the New York Locality pay area. This was tentatively approved by the president’s pay agent, and will lead to increased wages for Canaan’s employees beginning in 2024.

Hyland said the government still isn't moving in the right direction.

"Prison funding increases every year, and every year prison has become more dangerous," Hyland said. "If you keep doing the same thing, you're going to keep getting the same results."

APRIL 3, 2023

EPA rule could reduce pollution in Pennsylvania

By Christina Baker
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new EPA rule restricting pollution could save thousands of lives, witnesses told the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee in a hearing on Wednesday.

The “Good Neighbor Rule” would limit how much nitrogen oxide power plants and other facilities can produce in 23 states where pollution tends to cross state lines. It will have wide-reaching impacts on health and industry in Pennsylvania when it goes into effect in May.

Nitrogen oxide can travel across state lines and create ozone, which has devastating impacts on people’s lungs, David Hill, a doctor who chairs the American Lung Association’s public policy committee, told the Senate.

“Ozone exposure also increases the risk of metabolic disorders like diabetes, harm to the central nervous system, reproductive and developmental harm including preterm birth and stillbirth, possible cardiovascular effects and premature death,” Hill testified.

Pennsylvania has more deaths from coal plant-related pollution than any state in the country, according to a new report from the Sierra Club, and pollution-related deaths aren’t confined to the commonwealth.

The report estimates that most of the deaths caused by Pennsylvania’s coal plants occur in other states. But in Allegheny County, which has the most deaths per capita from coal plant pollution of any county in America, most of the pollution is coming from a coal plant in Ohio.

“We are both a significant contributor to cross-state pollution, and the biggest recipient in terms of actual mortality,” said Tom Schuster, the director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Sierra Club.

The EPA has had rules targeting cross-state pollution for years as part of the enforcement of the Clean Air Act. The Good Neighbor Rule would be the latest iteration, with stricter limits on how much pollution a power plant can produce. The rule will also target emissions from other industries, including paper plants, glass manufacturers, natural gas pipelines, solid waste combustors and iron and steel plants.

Under previous versions of the rule, Hill told the Senate, coal plants were not required to build pollution controls that could limit nitrogen oxide, and some plants with pollution controls simply chose not to run them.
The Good Neighbor Rule will cost $910 million annually, the EPA estimates, and the net benefits will be anywhere from $3.7 billion to $14 billion annually, starting in 2026. The rule will increase energy costs by just over one percent.
Republican senators at the hearing asked whether the costs were worth it. Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said the rule might force coal plants to shut down or lay off workers. Capito argued that the new regulations on industries like lumber and steel plants would damage American industries.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said that if the rule forces coal plants to close, it could lead to unreliable power grids. Lummis’s concern echoes the American Mining Association’s reaction when the Good Neighbor Rule was first announced.

“With each rule that targets well-operating coal plants,” the organization said in a press release,“our electricity grid becomes increasingly vulnerable to crippling supply shortfalls.”

Schuster said the claims that coal plants will be shut down or the power grid will fail are a “scare tactic.”
“What this rule is about is not attempting to drive power plants out of business,” Schuster said. “It’s attempting to say, ‘You have [pollution] controls installed. Use them.’”

MARCH 21, 2023

Will Congress act on CBD rules?

By Christina Baker
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania CBD producers remain in legal limbo as they wait on Congress to decide whether to create a new regulatory pathway sought by the Food and Drug Administration.

Meanwhile, CBD producers and experts warn that CBD consumers will suffer from an unregulated market.

“It’s about time that somebody in government, at the federal level, steps up to the plate and does their job and puts a regulatory framework in place,” said Jonathan John, a Pennsylvania-based chemist who sells CBD through his company, Circus Cannabis. “So that these businesses can continue to operate … rather than wasting time and money on lawyers and trying to determine what is legal.”

John acknowledged not much is known about the long-term effects of CBD use, but said the lack of regulations on CBD poses a much bigger risk to consumers.

“You could basically go and buy any product off the shelf and there’s no testing that is needed for it. Anybody could make it,” John said.

CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a hemp derivative that’s found in marijuana, but doesn’t create a “high.” It became nationally legal in 2018, when provisions were inserted in a major farm bill to legalize growing certain types of hemp.

The rapid development of the CBD industry, before it received much study or regulations, is unusual for a new substance, according to Brook Duer, a staff attorney at the Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law.
Extracting and selling CBD from hemp quickly became an industry, and now CBD tinctures, gummies and even pet food are widely available.

Early studies indicate that CBD can improve symptoms of mental illnesses like anxiety, and a CBD-based anti-seizure drug called Epidiolex was approved by the FDA in 2018.

But the FDA argued that not enough is known about CBD’s risks, claiming that it can interact with other drugs, damage the liver and decrease male fertility.

In FDA’S statement in January, Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock said most CBD products don’t meet the standards for either a drug or a supplement.

But because CBD products are already so popular, the FDA asked Congress to create a “new regulatory pathway” for CBD.

So far, key members of Congress haven't indicated whether they intend to create this pathway.

Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Howard) is expected to be a major player as the new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, which could make CBD regulation a priority.

Thompson described the FDA as “missing in action” on CBD regulations last year, during a hearing of the House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee On Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research.

Bob Ricketts, who grows hemp and produces CBD for his Centre County-based company, Pink Mule Hemp, said federal regulations on CBD would likely help his business.

Most regulations on CBD are at the state level, which makes it complicated to expand a CBD business across state lines, Rickets said.

For now, CBD products rarely follow any regulations. Selling food or beverages that contain CBD is illegal, both at the federal level and in PA, Duer said, but CBD gummies are available at countless stores and gas stations across the state.

The FDA has sent warning letters to a few dozen companies since 2015, usually about the illegality of edible CBD products or making illegal health claims, but this doesn’t do much to dissuade the larger CBD market.
“This is the gray area that is so confusing — technically illegal, but you can buy it at every Sheetz,” said Ricketts.

“What I said to my local health inspector was, I’m happy to do whatever you ask of me. I just ask that you don’t say I can’t do something that someone else is doing,” Ricketts said. “It is available at Sheetz or Wegmans or the local smoke shop. That just isn’t right.”

MARCH 9, 2023

HUD housing plan won’t help Lehigh Valley

By Rylee Curry
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — New data from the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission reveals that 51% of renters in the Lehigh Valley region are cost-burdened. According to the Commission’s 2022 report, ‘cost-burdened’ renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

The need for better housing options is consistent across the country.

On March 3, U.S. Senate Democrats, including Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania, called upon the Biden-Harris administration for “whole-of-government” resources, to assist Congress in tackling issues of housing instability, lack of affordable housing and property production.

“We have to use all the resources at our disposal to tackle the housing crisis.” said U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).“No one should have to worry whether they have a safe place to sleep at night or fear exclusion from affordable housing…”

Two weeks ago the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a plan to lower Financial Housing Administration (FHA) insured mortgage premiums by 0.30%.

The average cost of a home in the Lehigh Valley is around $280,000. The new premium deduction would save Lehigh Valley homeowners with FHA-insured mortgages close to $900 a year.

“I'm happy to see that the Federal Housing Administration is lowering their mortgage insurance premiums – putting homeownership within the reach of Pennsylvanians who may have had difficulty otherwise securing a mortgage, ” said Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-PA07)

Wild said that homeownership is critical to building wealth and financial stability in the area.

“Rent today is so high that it is probably less expensive to purchase than it is to rent.” said United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Marcia L. Fudge, on MSNBC. "Most people who can pay their rent can clearly pay a mortgage.”

In February of last year Secretary Fudge visited Easton to draw attention to the need for affordable housing.
The new federal premium deduction is targeted at increasing affordable housing options for low-income persons and households nationwide, but the Lehigh Valley is undergoing a larger housing crisis due to property shortages.

More than 9,000 new units are needed in the area to supply the shortage, according to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.

The LVPC 2022 report projects a large population increase in the Lehigh Valley area between now and 2050, but property development isn’t moving at the same rate.

Only 0.1% of residential housing units were built in 2022.

This year the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission intends to work with Lehigh County and the Urban Land Institute to find solutions to extinguish the crisis.

LVPC managing editor Matt Assad said that collaborative efforts won’t start until the summer.

MARCH 1, 2023

Fetterman's staff says his hospitalization has not been a hindrance

By Christina Baker
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s staff says the freshman Pennsylvania Democrat’s constituent services have not been impacted as he remains hospitalized for depression.

“Our team is moving full speed ahead and working tirelessly for the people of Pennsylvania,” Communications Director Joe Calvello said in a statement. “Just last week we opened a new office in Erie and will be opening several more offices in the coming weeks.”

Constituent services traditionally are an important part of the job for public officials, and sometimes their staff’s ability to cut through red tape can provide a crucial lifeline.

Not only has Fetterman’s offices not seen any difference in the volume of constituent calls since Feb. 15, when the senator checked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for depression, but they say constituent services actually have expanded during that time.

Joe Pierce, Fetterman’s state director, concedes constituent services can define a senator. Members of Congress can help constituents with problems with a federal agency, an urgent need for a U.S. passport, questions about their taxes or other government-related problems.

Fetterman’s staff has tried to follow the example of Pennsylvania’s other Democratic senator, Bob Casey, Pierce said, including hiring one of Casey’s constituent services advisors as their constituent services director.

Pierce said staff tries to have a presence at events that affect constituents. Elizabeth Casertano, Fetterman’s Western PA regional director, has attended “every press conference [and] every meeting” about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Pierce said.

“So the people of Pennsylvania know that we are working, we are doing our job,” Pierce said. “[Fetterman] set a very clear path for us from the beginning, and we are just carrying that goal out across the state.”

Pierce said Fetterman’s team has also focused on diversity, hiring staff who can engage with minority communities, and on mental health, even before the senator made his own struggles public.

“We’ve always made it a priority to make sure that mental health resources are available,” said Pierce, who worked for advocacy group Mental Health Partnerships before joining Fetterman’s campaign.

In addition to his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Fetterman has offices in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Erie, and has plans to open offices in Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre soon.Casey, who has been in office since 2007, has district offices in all of these geographic regions as well as Allentown and Bellefonte.

“Wilkes-Barre being in Luzerne County is a whole thing, right? We understand how important it is to make sure that we’re providing services to people in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Pierce said. “And then also in Pittsburgh, we’re excited about that, too.”

Pierce said there may be more offices on the way, and Fetterman’s staff has been taking inspiration from the senator’s campaign slogan, “Every County, Every Vote.”

FEB. 20, 2023

Rep. Houlahan launches bipartisan task force to expand paid family leave

By Rylee Curry
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even with a divided Congress, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan launched a bipartisan task force in Congress to expand paid family leave nationwide, a goal that has eluded supporters for 30 years.

“This is a priority of both parties – and I’m hoping we’ll see some bipartisan solutions,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said.

Houlahan may have reason to remain hopeful. President Biden used his State of the Union address to promote the need for paid family leave.

“Let’s also make sure working parents can afford to raise a family with sick days, paid family and medical leave, and affordable child care that will enable millions more people to go to work,” Biden said.

Houlahan recalled President Trump had prioritized paid family leave and included it in his budgetary process.

“The bottom line is we’ve got an economy that demands that we take care of one another andthat values the family, and we need to be better at this,” she said. Houlahan said the U.S. is one of only seven nations in the world without a paid family leave program.

“America certainly is better than that,” the congresswoman said.

Houlahan appeared on Washington Post Live with Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Ok.), who has established close ties to House leadership in her roughly two years in Congress.
Houlahan and Bice serve as co-chairs of the group called the Bipartisan Paid Family Leave Working Group, which currently consists of three Republicans and three Democrats. “The idea is to start with a clean slate,” Bice said on Across the Aisle.

“There have been a lot of proposals over the years that have been put forward that haven't really gained much traction, and I think what Chrissy and I are hoping to do here is to kind of come at this with a fresh set of eyes.”

The absence of paid family leave laws at the federal and state levels sparked Houlahan’s effort to put this issue on the congressional agenda for 2023.

Currently only 11 states, and the District of Columbia, have implemented family paid leave laws. Pennsylvania’s neighboring states, New Jersey and Delaware, have both passed paid family leave legislation.

Introduced several years ago, Pennsylvania’s Family Care Act still sits in limbo.
Despite their obvious optimism, both Houlahan and Bice concede it could take a year before they will be ready to unveil legislation.“FMLA was a starting point of this conversation 30 years ago, but there is much work to be done,” Houlahan said.

FEB. 9, 2023

Pa. Democrats praise Biden's State of the Union approach

By Christina Baker and Rylee Curry
DEGLER NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania Democrats praised President Joe Biden for using his State of the Union address to celebrate his legislative achievements and promote bipartisanship as he repeatedly urged Congress to “finish the job.”

Republicans criticized Biden for failing to address problems facing Americans or even specifically citing the Chinese balloon that flew over the U.S. last week.

Veteran Democratic Sen. Bob Casey took to Twitter to criticize Biden’s Republican critics.

“Note who is clapping for millions of jobs, record low unemployment, high-speed internet, protecting health care, and paying our bills... and who isn't,” Casey tweeted.

Freshman Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, at his first State of the Union as a member of Congress, applauded Biden for focusing on America’s “forgotten communities.”

“It’s time to stand up and have the backs of America’s workers,” Fetterman said. “It’s time to protect benefits for working families, including Social Security and Medicare. And it’s time to make sure the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share in taxes.”

Reactions from Pennsylvania’s House delegation fell along partisan lines as Democrats noted how Biden’s accomplishments impacted their constituents.

Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Moosic) brought Chris Barrett, president of the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau, as his guest.

Cartwright noted his own efforts to expand passenger rail service to the Poconos and celebrated how the 2021 infrastructure law increased spending for rail services.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Devon) praised the address and highlighted legislative accomplishments from the last year.

“In 2022, Democrats worked with Republicans and with the executive branch to expand health care for veterans, enact the most comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation in nearly three decades, and lower prescription drug prices for millions of Americans,” Houlahan said.

Houlahan’s guest was Jessica Goldenberg, a southern Pennsylvania mother who had to resign from her job because she couldn’t get parental leave.

Paid family leave is one of Houlahan’s main legislative priorities, and she noted on Twitter that Biden supported the policy in his speech.

Newly inaugurated Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro tweeted his support for Biden's initiatives, noting federal funding is on its way to the commonwealth.

“The critical investments coming to Pennsylvania will get us to work rebuilding infrastructure, capping wells, replacing dangerous lead pipes, and so much more,” Shapiro said.

In their reactions to the address, Pennsylvania’s congressional Republicans took issue with the president’s approach.

“In an effort to paint a rosy picture, the president glanced over the fact that American families are struggling to make ends meet,” Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Howard) said in a statement.

Other Republicans criticized Biden for not mentioning the Chinese spy balloon that the military shot down over the Atlantic Ocean last week.

“President Biden dared to mention the word sovereignty after he just let the Communist Chinese fly across the entire country?” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Dillsburg, wrote on Twitter.

One Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Levittown) found something to like in the State of the Union address.

Fitzpatrick, chair of the House Bipartisan Problem-Solvers Caucus, celebrated the president’s calls to work across the aisle.

In the speech, Biden discussed several issues that affect Pennsylvanians, including infrastructure, inflation and prescription drug costs.

Biden argued in his address that the economy has steadily improved over the last year, noting that inflation rates have fallen every month for the last six months.

Biden spent much of the speech celebrating key pieces of legislation he had passed, leading to consistent applause from the Democrats, but the speech elicited jeers and boos from Republicans, especially when he suggested some Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Biden appeared to appreciate the challenge.D

“Those benefits belong to the American people,” Biden said. “And if anyone tries to cut Social Security — which apparently no one is going to do — and if anyone tries to cut Medicare, I’ll stop them. I’ll veto it.”