PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 emergency order was set to expire at midnight, but Governor Wolf has signed an extension. Yet the future of this extension is muddy, since Pennsylvania voters passed two Constitutional amendments that will limit the governor’s emergency powers.
Pa. House Republican leaders say the election results show that voters in the commonwealth want a "government with strong checks and balances that works in their interests and not for its own power." And after a year of the governor’s extended COVID-19 declaration, GOP leaders say voters "rejected the mutation of emergency authority into one-person control."
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And while Republicans say Tuesday's vote was a referendum on Gov. Tom Wolf's policies through the last year of the coronavirus pandemic, the Democratic governor is trying to put a positive spin on the results.
"There was some thought maybe we could do better so I’m looking forward to working with the legislature to figure out how we can make this work," he said.
The constitutional amendments allow the General Assembly to end a governor’s disaster declaration with a simple majority vote, and they limit an emergency declaration to last only 21 days, unless the legislature agrees to extend it. The amendments will not take effect until election results are certified, which generally takes a couple weeks.
The governor’s COVID-19 emergency order affects federal funding, the mobilization of National Guard members, waivers of rules affecting health care, such as allowing tele-health or easing licensing for retired medical workers.
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Masking requirements and other mitigation measures are separate, originating in the Department of Health under Pennsylvania’s disease prevention and control law.