| Greetings Marty,
Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate are singing a dangerous tune. It is an old song and not limited to Pennsylvania GOPers. Republicans in Washington, Harrisburg and state capitols across the country are all part of the deregulation chorus. What is unique about Pennsylvania is that the Republican majority state senate is holding hostage a constitutional amendment designed to bring justice to adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. Their ransom is to force Democrats in the House to move another constitutional amendment that would give the General Assembly the power to veto regulations established lawfully by the Governor and the departments and agencies of the executive branch. To sweeten the pot for their MAGA base, they are also demanding we put a third constitutional amendment on the ballot that would require a photo ID to vote. The photo ID amendment presents dangers of its own given more than 21 million Americans do not have one. For purposes here, let’s focus on why the Republican obsession with deregulation is a clear and present danger to the Commonwealth. East Palestine, Ohio The derailment of a Norfolk and Southern freight train in East Palestine, Ohio on Pennsylvania’s border in February carrying hazardous materials led to an environmental catastrophe. The full extent of the damage and health consequences may not be known for years. Environmentalists were quick to point out that President Trump and Republicans in Congress rolled back regulations put in place by the Obama administration requiring trains carrying multiple cars of hazardous materials to have an electronic braking system that may have prevented the train from derailing. Deregulation advocates pointed out just as quickly that the regulations would not have made any difference because the train did not meet the standards requiring it to be classified as hauling hazardous materials. Is that the best they could come up with? The argument the anti-regulation chorus is making in this instance focuses a very bright light on the need for more regulation not less. Just ask the people of East Palestine if the Norfolk and Southern train was carrying hazardous substances. Silicon Valley Bank The collapse of the banking industry in 2008 led to the 2010 Dodd Frank reforms intended to prevent any such catastrophic banking failure in the future. However, in the face of intense lobbying from the banking industry, in 2018 the deregulation chorus in Congress and President Trump exempted smaller local and regional banks from a number of the safeguards the law required. The Silicon Valley Bank failure nearly led to a cascading event that threatened our entire banking system. Senator Elizabeth Warren got it right when she said, “These recent bank failures are the direct result of leaders in Washington weakening the financial rules.” A blind obsession with deregulation is indeed dangerous. GOP deregulation mania In my 4-plus years in Harrisburg, I have witnessed Republican crusades to eliminate the power of the executive branch to impose regulations on a wide variety of issues affecting our health and safety. Republicans in the House refused to move my bills establishing stricter safety guidelines on pipeline construction and operations. They have opposed extending OSHA safety protection to public workers. They have passed legislation to prevent important environmental regulations intended to give us cleaner air and water and fight climate change. They even sued the Governor to limit his ability to protect us from COVID. We cannot allow a heavily gerrymandered Republican State Senate majority to bully us into putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would give future legislatures the power to deregulate at will. Thanks for reading, |