Harrisburg, PA – January 10, 2019 – On behalf of the 12,000 Pennsylvania federal employees, contractors and subcontractors who are not receiving a paycheck during the partial federal government shutdown, Senator Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery), Senator Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia), Senator Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) and Senator Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) are taken steps to help those in need.
After hearing reports from constituents facing financial hardships during the shutdown, the senators wrote the 10 largest banks, relative to number of branches, in Pennsylvania. Their hopes are to share information about banks’ existing assistance programs or to spur action on behalf of working people with banks that have not addressed the issue.
“Ten years ago, we bailed out failing banks during a recession and now it is time to help working people during their financial crisis,” Sen. Hughes said. “These hard-working folks are suffering through no fault of their own. The least we can do is get them help until are get paid again.”
Motivations for the letter came from the senators understanding that 78 percent of U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck and there are no furloughs for essential expenses. Mortgages, rent, groceries, car payments and other bills must be paid whether the government is functioning.
“We cannot stand by and do nothing while these federal employees are left without paychecks,” said Sen. Costa. “These are folks ready and willing to work in service of the federal government, but now face eviction and piling bills. I hope that financial institutions are willing to step up to help them, and I’ll do everything in my power to ensure these federal employees are not punished for this shutdown.”
In total, there are 62,000 federal workers in Pennsylvania and about 12,000 who are furloughed or working without pay. Nationally 800,000 federal employees have had their jobs disrupted, with 380,000 furloughed or sent home without pay. These figures speak to an economic crisis that must be addressed, the senators said.
“As the stalemate in Washington is about to enter its fourth week, thousands of hard-working Pennsylvanians are suffering a very heavy burden,” Sen. Tartaglione said. “I can’t think of any greater commitment to purpose and level of professionalism than we are seeing from those who want to work, but can’t, and from those who continue to work, but aren’t receiving their just compensation. It is imperative that we do all we can as a community to support them in their time of need.”
Rallies and protests across Pennsylvania also drew the attention of the senators who have made the fight for working people a central issue. Pennsylvania’s furloughed federal workers not receiving paychecks include TSA officers, federal prison workers, national park workers and employees of the Environmental Protection agency.
“The financial strain placed on federal government employees, contractors and subcontractors in the commonwealth continues to grow,” Sen. Street said. “This is a heavy burden on individuals and families who they cannot endure such hardships for an extended period of time. Banks have an opportunity to mitigate these hardships and must help the people. As the Democratic chairman of the Banking and Insurance Committee, I encourage the banks to act with urgency in this regard.”
The full letter to the banks can be found here.
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Harrisburg – January 7, 2019 – Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Jr. today announced the Democratic chairs for each of the Senate committees in the 2019-20 legislative session, which officially began earlier this month.
The committees, listed here alphabetically, will be chaired by the following members:
- Aging & Youth: Maria Collett
- Agriculture & Rural Affairs: Judy Schwank
- Appropriations: Vincent Hughes
- Banking & Insurance: Sharif Street
- Communications & Technology: Steve Santarsiero
- Community, Economic, & Recreational Development: Larry Farnese
- Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure: Lisa Boscola
- Education: Andrew Dinniman
- Environmental Resources & Energy: John Yudichak
- Finance: John Blake
- Games & Fisheries: James Brewster
- Health & Human Services: Art Haywood
- Intergovernmental Operations: Wayne Fontana
- Judiciary: Daylin Leach
- Labor & Industry: Christine Tartaglione
- Law & Justice: James Brewster
- Local Government: Tim Kearney
- Rules & Executive Nominations: Jay Costa
- State Government: Anthony Williams
- Transportation: John Sabatina, Jr.
- Urban Affairs & Housing: Katie Muth
- Veteran’s Affairs & Emergency Preparedness: Lindsey Williams
“The Senate Democratic Caucus has an ambitious set of priorities for this legislative session, and we believe this team of committee chairs will provide the research and forums for us to tackle those issues,” said Senator Costa. “I’m looking forward to the work each of these committees will produce over the next two years.”
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Harrisburg – December 20, 2018 – The Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus continues its fight to protect the major tenets of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) through two legislative proposals that would ensure comprehensive, quality and affordable health care for all Pennsylvanians.
The caucus united to sponsor Senate Bills 50 and 51 after a federal court ruling in Texas determining the Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional. Senate Bill 50 would protect health care rights for Pennsylvanians with preexisting conditions. Senate Bill 51 aims to protect the ten essential health benefits (EHB) covered by the ACA, making those benefits mandatory under state law.
“We can’t let the conversation get shifted from the issue at hand, which is the continued attempts to strip health care rights granted by the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama,” Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Montgomery/Philadelphia) said. “Equal access to quality, affordable health care should be the standard for the greatest country in the world. If officials want to stop that on the federal level, we can do our part to protect Pennsylvanians from having necessary services stripped away.”
Pennsylvania has fully and successfully implemented the ACA through a Medicaid expansion, which has led to an increase in insured individuals and rate decreases across the board. Gov. Tom Wolf has pledged to prohibit health care plans that do not cover preexisting conditions on Pennsylvania’s ACA marketplace. Through Senate Bill 50, the Senate Democratic Caucus aims to extend those protections beyond Wolf’s second term, should the GOP continue its assault on health care on the federal level.
“Without SB 50, we could all be one accident, or one test result, away from having a deniable preexisting condition. As a health care provider, I have seen the devastation caused when coverage is denied,” said Senator-elect Maria Collett. “No family should have to choose between meals and medical care. The legislature has a responsibility to act now to protect the people of this Commonwealth so that no family suffers.”
With Senate Bill 51, the Senate Democratic Caucus aims to protect essential benefits, including ambulatory patient services; emergency services; hospitalization; maternity and newborn care; mental health and substance use disorder services including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.
Prior to the ACA, three out of five individual’s insurance policies did not cover maternity coverage and one-third did not cover substance abuse treatment.
In its effort to ensure that every Pennsylvanian has access to affordable health insurance, the Senate Democratic Caucus undertook an ACA enrollment tour for the past two years. The stops on the tour visited many members’ districts and offered free consultation and navigation through the enrollment process and Senators were joined by the PA Department of Insurance, Highmark, UPMC, Geisinger, Capital Blue Cross, Independence Blue Cross, PA Healthcare Access Network, the Consumer Health Coalition, and more organizations that provided their expertise and services free of charge.
“It’s critically important to fight for the policies that improve access and affordability to health care, but it’s also important to take that fight right to our constituencies and that’s what this ACA tour was about,” said Senator Costa. “We were able to enroll hundreds of Pennsylvanians in the last two years in health care insurance that they can afford and trust will take care of them when they need it. It was humbling to be a part of and showed us countless examples of the people who were helped by the ACA. We must protect it.”
Experts in the insurance field have pointed to shifting public opinion on health care since the full implementation of the ACA, followed by improved services for those with the most need.
“More than 1.1 million Pennsylvanians have received coverage through the Affordable Care Act,” said Senator-elect Tim Kearney. We must ensure that coverage continues. We can’t have families worried that they will lose access to basic emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, and prescription drug coverage. Particularly now as we face an opioid epidemic, we must ensure continued access to life-sustaining substance use disorder and behavioral health services. Additionally, the ACA creates jobs–15,000 in Pennsylvania. Senate Bills 50 and 51 will provide significant protections for those who need it most.”
For more on the bills that the 21-member Senate Democratic Caucus jointly sponsored, you can find the co-sponsorship memos here:
• Preexisting condition coverage: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20190&cosponId=27061
• Essential benefit coverage: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20190&cosponId=27062
To see a video roundup of the ACA tours of the past few years, watch here:
2017 ACA Enrollment Tour
2018 ACA Enrollment Tour
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Pittsburgh, Pa. – December 14, 2018 – Today, Senators Jay Costa, Wayne D. Fontana and Senator-elect Lindsey Williams announced $2.2 million in state grant funding to promote affordable housing in Western Pennsylvania.
“While the city has seen a surge of development and growth, some areas have been left behind,” said Senator Costa. “This grant is going to help some of the neediest folks in Pittsburgh find affordable and attractive homes.”
“Abandoned properties and blight are plaguing some neighborhoods in this great city, and I’m proud to have helped secure funding to fight it,” said Senator Fontana.
“Everyone deserves a place to live, but affordable options can be limited in Pittsburgh,” said Senator-elect Williams. “I can’t wait to watch these dollars create affordable housing in the communities that need it most.”
The money will be allocated through several grants; the first of $2 million going to the City of Pittsburgh and Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh to acquire and rehabilitate 35 homes in high-need areas; $238,000 will go to the purchase and rebuilding of three homes in Washington County.
Funding for these grants comes from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
NSP provides grants to communities to address the housing foreclosure crisis created by subprime and other problematic mortgage lending. This program is authorized under the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. In addition to promoting affordable housing, the grants also help address blight issues resulting from these abandoned or foreclosed homes.
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Pittsburgh, Pa. – December 12, 2018 – Following the mass shooting attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) has granted a $1 million grant for the victims, Senator Jay Costa, Jr. and Rep. Dan Frankel announced today.
On October 27, a gunman entered the Tree of Life Synagogue and opened fire – killing eleven people and wounding six more. There were at least 30 people present in the synagogue that morning.
Following the attack, a Family Resource Center was set up to meet immediate needs of the victims, and the Center for Victims will now be able to provide more comprehensive victim services. The funds will pay for the Center for Victims to hire trauma informed counselors to reduce wait times for those in need.
“The aftereffects of this shooting still reverberate across our neighborhood and city, in the lives of the individual victims, as well as to the congregations and community,” said Representative Frankel. “I’m hopeful that people will be able to take advantage of important resources necessary to find their path through healing.”
“The victims and their families of this horrific event have suffered beyond my imagination,” said Senator Costa. “As they grieve and move forward from this tragedy, they may need specialized counseling services and they should have easy, quick access to that. This grant will help provide the kind of care they’ll need, and I hope that the community will take advantage of this offering.”
The funding for this grant comes from the Federal Victims of Crime Act funds. This fund was established by the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) of 1984.
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HARRISBURG, December 3, 2018 – The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate will both serve on the bipartisan Pennsylvania Redistricting Reform Commission formed by Gov. Tom Wolf and they intend to participate fully in the panel’s work.
Sen. Jay Costa and Rep. Frank Dermody look forward to helping in a comprehensive review of Pennsylvania’s redistricting process and offering recommendations later in 2019 to improve its integrity and fairness.
“The commission has no authority to change state law and will simply be offering ideas for the governor and legislature to consider using during the redistricting process,” Dermody said. “That’s a worthy purpose and we’re proud to join Governor Wolf’s appointees in undertaking a serious effort that will offer needed perspective.”
“A key part of the group’s effort will be getting citizens to engage in our work. For too long they have felt shut out of a meaningful role in redistricting,” Costa said. “The upcoming work of the commission will prioritize hearing what the public has to say.”
Wolf established the commission with an executive order last week and appointed 11 of the 15 members. The remaining four slots are for legislators chosen by the respective leaders of the four legislative caucuses.
Wolf also named David Thornburgh of the Committee of Seventy in Philadelphia to lead the commission and gave the group nine months to do its work and produce recommendations.
Costa and Dermody were puzzled by the initial hostile reaction of Republican leadership.
“This is an important assignment and it should be completed in a non-partisan spirit as the governor envisions,” Costa said.
“We hope our Republican colleagues will listen to the many people who are excited about this work and then decide to take part,” Dermody said.
CONTACT: Bill Patton
House Democratic Leader’s Office
Phone: 717-787-3566
Email: bpatton@pahouse.net
CONTACT: Brittany Crampsie
Senate Democratic Leader’s Office
Phone: (717) 712-3480
Email: brittany.crampsie@pasenate.com
