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PA Chamber Statement on Biden Administration Vaccination and Testing Mandates

PA Chamber President and CEO Gene Barr issued the following statement in response to President Biden’s announcement that he is mandating employee vaccination or weekly testing at businesses with 100 or more employees:

“The Pennsylvania Chamber will be examining the full scope of these orders, to evaluate their impact on a private sector that has continued to battle numerous financial, workforce, health and safety challenges resulting from this pandemic.

“Our organization shares questions and concerns about this plan with the rest of the nation’s business community – including whether employers will have access to funding to help pay for expanded testing; how penalties for non-compliance will be enforced; and – perhaps most notably – whether liability protections exist for businesses acting in compliance with the latest round of OSHA standards. The Pennsylvania Chamber has spent the past year and a half advocating for liability protections for employers who have been following state and federal health and safety guidelines, and the ambiguities in these directives further highlight the need to get meaningful liability reforms in place as soon as possible.

“Through our ‘Bringing PA Back’ initiative, the PA Chamber remains committed to providing employers with the updated information and resources they need to keep their workers and customers safe and healthy. We continue to believe that employers can and should be trusted to make public health decisions that are in the best interest of their communities. We urge the Biden administration to offer business owners the clarity and flexibility they deserve as they strive to meet these new expectations while working to keep our struggling economy afloat.”

State & Federal Political Recap

Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Advances in Senate

After weeks of negotiation, the Senate began consideration of the INVEST in America Act– the bipartisan infrastructure bill.  If passed, the $1T bill  is expected to be followed by additional legislation spending nearly $3.5T on spending priorities favored by progressive Democrat lawmakers, but which is facing opposition from moderate Democrats and Republicans.

White House and CDC Revise Indoor Mask Guidance

Last week, the White House and CDC shifted guidance on mask wearing last week and are now recommending masks be worn indoors when in areas with “substantial” and “high” transmission of COVID-19—even by those fully vaccinated against the virus.  County-level data on virus spread is available from the CDC here.

Leader Benninghoff Sends Letter to State Agencies on Regulatory

During the pandemic, nearly 500 regulations were suspended or waived until Sept. 30, first by an emergency declaration issued by Gov. Wolf, and later through legislation that became Act 21 of 2021. .  Last week, House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff sent letters to the affected agencies uring them to prepare for possible reinstatement of the regulatory waivers.  A copy of the letters are available here.

White House Signs Executive Order Banning Certain Business Practices

President Biden on Friday signed a sweeping executive order that could have profound impacts on employers, including policies that target specific industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, banking and telecommunications.

According to a fact sheet distributed by the White House, the executive order directs more than a dozen federal agencies to pursue 72 initiatives, ranging from airline baggage fee refund policies to facilitating prescription drug importation from Canada.

Other directives propose more expansive federal government regulation for the private sector – for example, a proposal to ban or curtail restrictions in employment contracts.  These are fairly common agreements between an employer and job applicant in which the individual commits for a period of time to refrain from leaving and competing against the employer, who has often made a significant investment in recruiting and helping facilitate the new employee’s success.

In a statement released Friday, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley criticized the order, stating, “The Chamber is a strong advocate for market-based competition, not a government-planned economy. This Executive Order smacks of a ‘government knows best’ approach to managing the economy.”

Updates and explanations of next steps are expected to come from the various federal agencies tasked with carrying out the proposals in the Executive Order.

Admin Code Officially Law, Codifies Repeal of Wolf Administration’s Overtime Rule

Governor Wolf opted to neither sign nor veto H.B. 336, the Administrative Code bill that is one of four bills accompanying the state budget passed in late June.  Without action by the governor, legislation passing the General Assembly becomes law after 10 days.

Among the bill’s key provisions was a one-sentence entry worked out as a compromise between the Republican legislature and the Governor’s office that nixed a regulation promulgated in 2019, which would have significantly expanded the scope of individuals mandated by the state to receive overtime compensation.

The PA Chamber released a statement when the General Assembly passed the bill highlighting the plight of the small business owners and non-profits already struggling to recover from the pandemic and associated shutdowns, for whom this regulation would have been an additional and potentially devastating burden.