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House Appropriations Committee advances landslide, sinkhole insurance bill and sends packages of bills to the floor
Summary
The House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Chairman Harris, approved an amendment to House Bill 589 and moved that bill, plus two packages of other bills, to the full House. One package passed unanimously; the other passed on a party-line split.
The House Appropriations Committee voted to approve an amendment to House Bill 589 and re-reported the bill to the full House, and it advanced two packages of bills to the floor after a brief hearing.
House Bill 589, which "establishes the landslide and sinkhole insurance program to provide state-run insurance coverage for landslides and sinkholes," was considered first. Chairman Harris called up amendment A01513 to the bill. A committee member told the chair, "No discussion, mister chairman. We are supportive of the amendment." The committee approved amendment A01513 unanimously; the committee then approved House Bill 589 as amended and will send it back to the House floor.
The committee then considered a package of bills — House Bill 1545 (suspension of vehicle registrations for unpaid parking tickets), House Bill 1591 (allowing privately owned parking lots to access PennDOT license plate records to mail invoices related to unpaid parking fees), House Bill 1600 (allowing child-care facilities participating in the Keystone STARS program to share star-level ratings with parents or guardians and provide guidance to move up), and House Bill 1646 (changing quorum requirements for the State Board of Barber Examiners) — as a single package. The committee recorded no negative votes and the package was passed unanimously and will be referred to the floor.
Finally, the committee considered a second package — House Bill 1576 (amending the Human Services Code to allow counties to be reimbursed for a portion of costs associated with juvenile court proceedings), House Bill 1577 (adding requirements to limit the use of restricted procedures in certain juvenile facilities), and House Bill 1697 (establishing the Taxpayer Prevention Against Fraud Act in the Human Services Code). One committee member stated on the record, "On this package of bills, all Republicans will be voting in the negative." Democrats stated they would vote in the affirmative; the chair announced, "Therefore, the ayes will have it," and the package was re-referred to the floor.
The meeting opened with roll call and a quorum was confirmed. Aside from the brief presentations of bill purposes and the recorded votes, there was no extended debate on the items before the committee. The committee adjourned after the votes.
