Bill O’Boyle: Cartwright's SERVE Act would ensure students continue studies after deployment

Jun. 25—U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, along with U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell (R-Miss.) and U.S. Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), this week introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure that students who serve in the National Guard and Reserve will be guaranteed readmission to their schools following a deployment.

The bicameral, bipartisan Servicemember Enrollment and Readmission for Valuable Education (SERVE) Act would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that students called to serve in domestic, short-term National Guard and Reserve mobilizations are able to return to their studies.

"The SERVE Act is commonsense legislation to allow National Guard and Reserve members the ability to successfully pursue their educational and professional goals," said Rep. Cartwright, D-Moosic. "No student servicemember should have to sacrifice their future because of a short-term emergency mobilization."

Under current law (20 U.S.C § 1091c), the readmission requirements for servicemembers only guarantee readmittance to an educational institution if the student is deployed for more than 30 days. Under this standard, National Guard and Reserve members mobilized for fewer than 30 days are not universally entitled to be promptly readmitted.

The SERVE Act would remove the "more than 30 days" stipulation and simply qualify National Guard and Reserve members "on active duty, active-duty training, or National Guard duty under State order or Federal authority." This change would guarantee a student will be readmitted promptly at the same academic status.

In 2020 alone, members of the National Guard and Reserve were mobilized to assist law enforcement in 38 states, to support severe weather events in 22 states, and to aid in wildfire suppression in another 19 states. Many of those deployments lasted less than 30 days.

Rep. Watro's bill would help

veterans obtain EMT licenses

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Dane Watro, R-Kline Township, that would streamline the professional licensing process for veterans seeking a civilian career as an emergency medical technician (EMT) or paramedic this week passed unanimously in the House of Representatives.

House Bill 404 will next be considered by the Senate.

"My bill would enable our veterans who wish to continue their medic specialty after their military service is over to do so more easily," said Watro, who is also a veteran. "We want to prevent the duplication of education and training to help make their transition to civilian life as seamless as possible."

Watro's proposal would ensure that a service member's military education and training are taken into consideration for the purpose of fulfilling requirements for professional credentials related to emergency medical services providers.

Current state law requires certain Commonwealth agencies to strongly consider a veteran's military education, training and experience for the purpose of fulfilling requirements for professional credentials.

Under Watro's bill, the Department of Health, which certifies EMTs and paramedics throughout the Commonwealth, would be added to the list. The Department of Agriculture would also be included.

Rep. Meuser votes to expand

health plans, drive down costs

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, this week voted in favor of H.R. 3799 — legislation to expand association health plans and drive down health care costs for small businesses and family farms.

Known formally as the Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense (CHOICE) Arrangement Act, the bill improves access to affordable and flexible health care, reduces administrative burdens, and empowers small employers.

Specifically, H.R. 3799 codifies a Trump-era rule that expanded access to association health plans, which resulted in an average savings of 29%.

"When President Trump expanded association health plans, it greatly benefited farmers and small businesses in our District," Meuser said. "It allowed them to find plans that best suited them, and they were able to use the power of numbers to drive down costs. By codifying this expansion into law, we will be allowing small businesses to continue banding together when purchasing health insurance, resulting in better coverage and lower health care costs for their employees."

Meuser said the nation's leading business associations have ranked health care costs as the number one issue facing small businesses for the past 32 years, and Democrat policies like Obamacare have led to consolidation in the marketplace and increased health care costs.

"That is why Republicans took action to correct course this week by passing the CHOICE Arrangement Act," Meuser said. "This bill will increase access to affordable health care for small businesses and their employees, while saving both a significant amount of money."

The legislation passed the House by a margin of 220 to 209.

Fetterman introduces bill to make

Pennsylvania & America's streets safer

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman this week introduced the Shovel-Ready Streets Act — a bill to fund street safety improvements and make roads safer for pedestrians in Pennsylvania and across the country.

Pennsylvania is home to some of the most unsafe streets in the nation — between 2012 and 2020, 1,426 pedestrians were killed on Pennsylvania streets.

Experts have dubbed State Street in Harrisburg the "deadliest road in America."

Following the I-95 collapse, attention has turned to Philadelphia's Roosevelt Boulevard — the city's most dangerous road — as traffic from the interstate has been re-routed to the Boulevard.

The Shovel-Ready Streets Act will help communities in Pennsylvania and across the country address chronically unsafe streets that lead to thousands of deaths by freeing up funding for construction of safer street designs.

The bill will amend the Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant Program, a Bipartisan Infrastructure Law discretionary program that provides grants for the planning and construction of street redesigns and safety improvements on dangerous roads.

Currently, this program requires at least 40% of funding to go towards the planning process of street redesigns, but many cities have been planning for these kinds of investments for years and have already completed this step.

Right now, there are currently more shovel-ready projects than there is grant money to fund them. Sen. Fetterman's bill would address this challenge by dropping the percentage of funding required to go towards planning to 20%, which will free up more funds for implementation.

"The recent disaster on I-95 and the subsequent detour to the already dangerous Roosevelt Boulevard was a stark reminder of the perilous roads that run through our towns," said Fetterman, D-Braddock. "Safe streets are a life and death issue. Though these deaths rarely make headlines, the hundreds of Pennsylvanian lives we lose due to unsafe streets is unacceptable — and it doesn't have to be this way. My bill will help us fix this chronic issue here in PA and across the country."

Most recently, Fetterman joined Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and the PA congressional delegation to urge federal agencies to provide federal funds to support additional capacity on SEPTA following the collapse of the bridge on I-95.

Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth

certifies results of 2023 Primary Election

Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced this week that he officially certified the final results of the 2023 Primary Election.

"All 67 counties finished their canvass and certified their results to me, and, after carefully reviewing and compiling the counties' results, I have formally certified the outcome of the Primary Election," Schmidt said. "Thank you to all county election officials, who not only worked hard on Primary Election Day to ensure a safe, secure, and fair election but also spent the last few weeks diligently verifying that all eligible votes were correctly counted."

After each election, but before certification of their results, county election officials conduct two reviews to confirm the results accurately reflect the outcome of every contest, Schmidt explained.

"To ensure the results they certified to me were accurate, county election officials conducted a statutorily required 2% statistical recount and participated in the second statewide risk-limiting audit, or RLA," Schmidt said. "Because of their efforts and hard work, Pennsylvanians can feel confident in the accuracy and integrity of the commonwealth's electoral system."

For the 2% statistical recount, each county reviews a random sample of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever number is fewer.

For the RLA, election officials from 14 counties hand-tallied randomly selected ballot batches, then compared those vote totals to the original machine counts in the Democratic primary race for Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

That race was randomly selected for audit by department officials on May 22. On May 25, the department live-streamed the process that allows for the random selection of ballot batches that are then audited.

The RLA found no discrepancies between the hand tally and the machine count.

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Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.