Hutchinson signs letter opposing Health Department regulations

State Sen. Scott Hutchinson has signed on to a letter questioning regulations that would give the state Health Department expanded authority that would broaden its authority over infectious disease outbreaks.

State Sen. Michele Brooks, R-Greenburg, sent a letter with signatures from 21 Republican Senators raising questions similar to those raised by Republican House members earlier this week.

"I joined a comprehensive letter from Senator Michele Brooks and my Senate Republican colleagues opposing the Department of Health’s burdensome proposed regulations," Hutchinson said in a Facebook post Wednesday. "It is unconscionable that the Governor and his bureaucrats want to return Pennsylvania to COVID-style restrictions."

The proposed Chapter 27 regulations nearly double the list of diseases, infections and conditions that are required to be reported to the state Health Department from 63 to 116 while giving the department more authority to take action for the purpose of preventing, containing or mitigating a disease outbreak. The new regulations would also significantly change the language that governs the health department's disease-control procedures, including expanding areas where the Health Department can investigate disease outbreaks, including several apartment buildings, schools, colleges or universities. Current law limits Health Department investigations to a "house, health care facility, building or other premises." The 502-page proposal also includes providers reporting health data faster and in some cases requiring the sharing of some data that is currently shared voluntarily. The proposal would require healthcare providers to report when an immunization is administered. Many providers do this voluntarily, but according to the department's analysis, roughly 4,750 providers would be required to establish a reporting process.

The regulations also would officially align itself with the childhood immunization schedule outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

According to Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren and minority chairwoman of the House Health Committee, the proposed regulatory package is an expansion of bureaucratic control that she said threatens people’s constitutional liberties, medical privacy and parental rights of citizens across Pennsylvania. She said expanding mandatory vaccine reporting and allowing increased access to private medical records erodes medical privacy while giving health officials the authority to enter school buildings and interview students privately for disease-control investigations without clear parental knowledge or consent is an intrusion on schools and parents.

Rapp also called attention to giving the state Health Department the ability to enter private residences for disease control investigations while remaining silent about whether a search warrant is required prior to entering a residence. She also questioned expanding protocols for contact tracing, isolation and quarantine as well as unilateral executive powers to re-impose mask mandates or other measures. Rapp and her fellow Republicans also said the changes should be handled legislatively rather than through a regulatory process.

“With over 4,000 comments submitted by the public, which are overwhelmingly against the proposal, the department should withdraw this regulatory package and engage with the General Assembly before it submits new proposed regulations. I will continue to fight to ensure that our personal freedoms are never subordinated to bureaucratic overreach.” Rapp said.