HARRISBURG (TNS) — The House Health Committee is appealing a decision by a bipartisan panel that upheld the statewide mask order for Pennsylvania schools and child care centers.
The health committee on Tuesday voted to 15-10 along party lines to challenge the Joint Committee on Documents’ decision. In a 7-4 vote last week, the Joint Committee determined Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam did not violate the law by issuing her order to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
Democratic members on the health committee were united in opposing the motion to appeal the matter to Commonwealth Court. They called it a waste of taxpayer money and an attack on public health measures.
Committee Chairwoman Kathy Rapp, R-Warren County, defended the appeal to court, saying the dispute driving it is not about wearing masks. Rather, she said it is about the committee’s contention that Beam overstepped her authority by issuing an order that carried with it the threat of penalties and was interpreted to be a law when she is not a lawmaker.
“The secretary herself could remedy this by starting the regulatory review process which does not appear she is choosing to do,” Rapp said.
The state’s regulatory review process is a lengthy one that allows time for public comment and legislative input before it can take effect.
The issue of whether Beam has the authority to issue the mandate was argued in the Commonwealth Court last week in a lawsuit brought by Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre County, along with others, against the Wolf administration. It wasn’t made clear at that hearing when the judges intend to issue a ruling.
The health committee voted in September to ask the Joint Committee on Documents to weigh in on the issue of executive branch overreach in this instance.
The little-known 11-member panel includes the governor’s general counsel, the attorney general, the director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, the director of the Pennsylvania code, the president pro tempore and minority leader of the Senate and the speaker and minority leader of the House, the General Services secretary and two gubernatorial appointees.
Unhappy with that panel’s ruling, Rapp said in a statement issued shortly afterward that that committee on documents “blatantly ignores our foundational constitutional separation of powers, the rule of law, local control, parental and student rights, and especially individual liberty.”
Rapp said she believes the court would benefit from hearing the committee’s perspective on the matter after already hearing arguments in the Corman case. She said it “will hasten a final determination concerning these overreaching questions about the separation of powers and the ability of the people of the commonwealth to participate in the regulatory process.”
The mask order, which took effect Sept. 7, applies to students and employees in school districts and preschools with limited exceptions and was intended to help keep students in classrooms and allow parents to go to work. Beam rested her authority to issue the order on authority granted the health secretary by the state’s Disease Prevention and Control Law.
The order has no end date but it does say it will remain in effect until Beam “determines the public health risk is sufficiently reduced so that face coverings are no longer necessary as public health tools in school entities.”
Gov. Tom Wolf said on Tuesday he will be revisiting the decision in the near future of when to lift the orders as vaccines for younger children are nearing federal approval.
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