SB 201 — An Act amending Title 35 (Health and Safety) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, further providing for organization.

PRINTER'S NO.   133

                     THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



                        SENATE BILL
                        No. 201
                                               Session of
                                                 2025

     INTRODUCED BY BAKER, LAUGHLIN, BROOKS, BARTOLOTTA, ROTHMAN,
        LANGERHOLC, ROBINSON, BROWN, PENNYCUICK, CULVER, PHILLIPS-
        HILL, YAW, STEFANO AND MARTIN, JANUARY 29, 2025

     REFERRED TO VETERANS AFFAIRS AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS,
        JANUARY 29, 2025


                                    AN ACT
 1   Amending Title 35 (Health and Safety) of the Pennsylvania
 2      Consolidated Statutes, in Pennsylvania Emergency Management
 3      Agency, further providing for organization.
 4      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
 5   hereby enacts as follows:
 6      Section 1.    Section 7312(a) and (e) of Title 35 of the
 7   Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes are amended to read:
 8   § 7312.   Organization.
 9      This agency shall consist of and be organized substantially
10   as follows:
11      (a)    Council.--Primary responsibility for overall policy and
12   direction of a Statewide civil defense and disaster program and
13   response capability of the type hereinafter prescribed shall be
14   vested in a body legally known as the Pennsylvania Emergency
15   Management Council, which shall be composed of: the Governor,
16   Lieutenant Governor, Adjutant General, Secretary of Health,
17   Attorney General, General Counsel, Secretary of [Community
 1   Affairs] Community and Economic Development, Secretary of
 2   Environmental Protection, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary
 3   of Agriculture, Secretary of [Public Welfare] Human Services,
 4   Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, Chairman of the
 5   Public Utility Commission, State Fire Commissioner, Speaker of
 6   the House of Representatives, President pro tempore of the
 7   Senate, Minority Leader of the Senate and Minority Leader of the
 8   House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House of
 9   Representatives, President pro tempore of the Senate, Minority
10   Leader of the Senate and Minority Leader of the House of
11   Representatives may authorize a member of their respective
12   Houses of the General Assembly to serve in their stead. The
13   Governor may authorize up to two representatives of business and
14   industry, up to two representatives of labor, up to two public
15   members at large and one representative respectively of the
16   Pennsylvania State Association of County Commissioners, the
17   Pennsylvania State Association of Township Commissioners, the
18   Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, the
19   Pennsylvania League of Cities and the Pennsylvania State
20   Association of Boroughs to be nonvoting members of the council.
21   The Governor may designate a member to serve as chairman. Five
22   members shall constitute a quorum.
23      * * *
24      (e)   State director.--To supervise the work and activities
25   comprising the State Civil Defense and Disaster Program, the
26   Governor shall appoint, subject to the consent of a majority of
27   the members elected to the Senate, an individual to act, on a
28   full-time basis, as director of the agency. The director shall
29   perform all such fiscal, planning, administrative, operational
30   and other duties as may be assigned to him by the council and

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 1   shall act as the chairman's principal assistant in civil defense
 2   and disaster matters. The director or the director's designee is
 3   also the State coordinating officer responsible to coordinate
 4   and supervise the Commonwealth and local disaster response
 5   effort following a presidential declaration of an emergency or a
 6   major disaster.
 7      * * *
 8      Section 2.     The amendment of 35 Pa.C.S. § 7312(e) shall apply
 9   to directors of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency who
10   are appointed after the effective date of this section.
11      Section 3.     This act shall take effect immediately.




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