Following is a listing of executive and legislative action for July 14 and the week of July 17. Both houses of the General Assembly are in recess, subject to the call of the president of the Senate and speaker of the State House of Representatives. House leaders issued a call to reconvene beginning July 22.
Budget Funding
As both houses of the General Assembly stood in recess, Democrats in the state House of Representatives urged Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, to call the lower house back into session to guarantee proper revenues to fund the spending plan for fiscal year 2017-18, which became law without Gov. Tom Wolf's signature earlier this month.
Administration move
Secretary of Labor and Industry Kathy Manderino has announced her plan to step down from the cabinet post on Aug. 1 in order to join the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Wolf administration announced on July 14.
Wolf named Robert O'Brien acting secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry, pending a permanent successor to Manderino.
According to a statement from the Wolf administration, under Manderino's leadership the department increased efficiency at the State Workers Insurance Fund, improving its premium to loss ratio by 22 percent; streamlined Uninsured Employers Guaranty Fund expenses by bringing third-party claims in-house, saving more than $500,000 annually, and implemented a virtual phone system and internet claims filing for unemployment insurance to enhance customer service.
Child Care
Two pieces of legislation one that would commission a study of child care costs and a companion measure that would change all state laws to replace the phrase "day care" with "child care" have been introduced in the state House of Representatives.
State Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Allegheny, on July 19 said a new study is needed because the last one was made nearly two decades ago.
HR 437 would require the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study the costs of high-quality child care compared to available funds. The last study was done in 1999, according to a statement on the state House Republican caucus website.
"Many changes and improvements have occurred during this time period, including new programs to advance the quality of care," Ortitay said in the statement. "The No. 1 factor affecting the quality of a program is staff-child interactions. However, no substantial changes have been made in wages to keep and retain high-quality staff."
The companion measure, HB 1677, would shift language used by the state from "day care" to "child care," a move Ortitay said would better reflect the reality of working with children in the first few years of life.