Pennsylvania in Focus

(The Center Square) - On Monday, the House passed a resolution designating September as International Underground Railroad Month. It received near-unanimous support from the chamber, 199-4. The no votes stood out. The Underground Railroad is an integral part of U.S. history, particularly important to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which served as an abolitionist state and is home to more than 60 sites on the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom list. Passing the resolution would seem noncontroversial, aligning each representative with the resolve and demonstration of character of those who resisted the enslavement of Africans in the Americas through the Underground Railroad. 

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(The Center Square) – A Coca-Cola driver in Houston, Pa., says leaders of his local Teamsters union threatened to fire him if he didn’t join the organization and pay dues. And now, he’s taking them to federal court. Hammaker says Teamsters Local 585 violated his constitutional right to opt out of membership and avoid paying dues that can support political activities. However, the union contract stipulated that joining was mandatory.

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(The Center Square) - At long last, it looks like Pennsylvania’s prohibition of Sunday hunting will end. The passage of House Bill 1431 in concurrence with the Senate signals a new era of game in the commonwealth. Proponents of the prohibition maintain that a traditional day off should still be observed, while opponents maintain that the majority of hunters work throughout the week, limiting their opportunities to engage with the sport. 

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(The Center Square) – It’s three strikes for the divided Pennsylvania legislature and its leader, Gov. Josh Shapiro. Monday came and went without a budget deal hammered out. The new fiscal year begins Tuesday. And it’s the third time in as many years that it's been late with no clear end in sight. For now, the missed deadline doesn’t mean much. Most services and offices will function throughout the summer, though tardiness is becoming a pattern. In 2023, Shapiro’s first year in office, parts of the budget weren’t finished until December. The following year, the governor signed off on July 12.

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(The Center Square) - In a victory for President Donald Trump, the University of Pennsylvania agreed Tuesday to resolve what the Department of Education deemed to be a violation of Title IX by allowing a transgender woman to participate in women’s swimming. The violation occurred prior to Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” issued in February of this year, with swimmer Lia Thomas winning the 2022 NCAA Division I Championship for the 500-yard freestyle. Thomas was in compliance with NCAA rules at the time. To resolve the issue, Penn has agreed to apologize to the female swimmers who competed alongside Thomas and restore any titles, awards, or records impacted by her wins. 

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(The Center Square) - The “bioindustrial revolution” is coming. Pennsylvania lawmakers want the commonwealth to be at its forefront. Gov. Josh Shapiro has made the biotech industry a core focus of his work in the governor’s office. Other lawmakers in the state are now doubling down on that commitment. Last week, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-West Chester, joined the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology on its Pennsylvania stop for the Biotech Across America Tour.

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(The Center Square) - It’s a big achievement–Pennsylvania won out over other states for the largest capital investment in its history, $20 billion from Amazon for data centers and technology infrastructure. Though the project promises to create over 1,200 jobs, at least initially, not everyone is happy about where things are going. At the June press conference when Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the historic influx of capital, there was a protest nearby. One reporter asked Gov. Josh Shapiro for his message to the people who oppose the erection of data centers in their communities.

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(The Center Square) - It’s budget season, and Pennsylvania legislators are feeling the squeeze of potential cuts from the federal government. So are the state’s leading universities. Yet, as the system that has made the commonwealth a destination of choice for medical and academic research is transforming, lawmakers maintain a split focus on the state’s higher education. On one hand, the state is responsible for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, or PASSHE, a network of 14 universities that provide college degrees in every region of the state at the same rate of tuition, which is currently frozen at $7,716 for in-state students. Then, there are the state-related universities. The four schools include Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Lincoln University. These institutions receive funding directly from the state and offer reduced tuition for in-state students, but they operate independently and have the endowments to prove it.

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When it comes to higher education, taxpayers, legislators and educators on both sides of the aisle seem to agree that something is broken and the cost is too high. That’s about where the agreement ends.

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(The Center Square) - It was an unusual day in the Pennsylvania House, but that didn’t stop leadership from shepherding a mass transit bill forward to the Senate. Neither the electronic system used to tabulate legislators’ votes nor member laptops were working, causing House Speaker Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, to act according to a precedent established in 1975, in which opponents of the bill stood and were counted. The bill, proposed by Transportation chair Rep. Ed Neilson, D-Philadelphia, would enact Gov. Josh Shapiro’s plan to support mass transit in all 67 counties by increasing the percentage of sales tax revenue allocated to the Public Transportation Trust Fund from 4.4% to 6.15%. This would result in an increase of $292.5 million in funding next year and $1.5 billion over the next five years.

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