Pennsylvania’s Constitution Cannot Be Circumvented

By State Senator Doug Mastriano

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Department of  Health (DOH) is creating regulations that would expand its authority to wield the same power Gov. Tom Wolf did in 2020-21. These regulations threaten to give the  governor sweeping emergency power Pennsylvania voters acted to limit in 2021. If the governor can simply move that power into the DOH and exercise it through regulation, then the constitutional protection adopted by the people means little.

Pennsylvanians remember why they changed their constitution. In 2020, Gov. Wolf used extraordinary emergency powers to control the commonwealth. Department of Health Sec. Levine drove the administration’s public-health response, while Shapiro backed Wolf and Levine’s policies as Pennsylvania’s attorney general. Today, Shapiro is governor, and his DOH is seeking expanded regulatory authority. We cannot separate what is happening now from what Pennsylvanians experienced then.

Pennsylvanians remember this because we lived it. Government shut down schools and sent children home. Students lost proms, graduations, sports seasons and milestones they never got back. Parents struggled to work while their children sat at kitchen tables staring into computer screens instead of sitting in classrooms.

Read the entire article HERE: The Pennsylvania Constitution Cannot Be Circumvented – PennWatch