It’s session week in Harrisburg. Here is what to watch.

It’s session week! State lawmakers are back in Harrisburg after a lengthy – but active – summer recess. Throughout the summer months, we saw battles over Gov. Tom Wolf’s school mask mandate, the beginnings of a partisan review of the state’s 2020 and 2021 elections and the rollout of new transparency measures in the state Senate. But what’s on the agenda for legislators’ first week back in Harrisburg since June?

Here’s what to watch. 

COVID-19 regulatory waivers

A slate of COVID-19 regulatory suspensions that were designed to provide flexibility to health care practitioners and other professionals during the pandemic is set to expire at the end of this month, which has concerned health care leaders as another coronavirus surge threatens the commonwealth. The House State Government Committee will meet on Monday at 11 a.m. to consider a bill originally meant to extend the waivers until Sept. 30 and require state agencies to issue a report on the impact of the suspended regulations. Will the committee decide to further extend the waivers amid concerns from the health care sector? It will be a development to watch.

The fight to reform Senate rules

Making changes to how the Senate operates has long been a priority for Senate Democrats. Members of the caucus will gather for a press conference on Tuesday at noon to advocate for their Senate rules reform package, which, among other changes, would require a committee vote for every bill and require bills with significant bipartisan support to get a floor vote. The reform package would also give minority committee chairs the ability to organize committee meetings and add bills to committee agendas. 
 

More election reform bills

How to overhaul the state’s Election Code is a debate that seemingly won’t die in Harrisburg, with lawmakers devoting much of this year to updating the state’s election laws. The Senate State Government Committee has a few changes in its sights this week, including moving the state’s presidential primary to March instead of April and requiring all campaign finance reports to be filed electronically. Lawmakers in both chambers have also indicated other election reform bills could run this fall, and one bipartisan Senate bill is also expected to get a committee vote on Thursday. 
 

An emergency declaration for disaster relief

Policymakers now have to operate under a new framework to have emergency declarations extended after voters chose to curtail Gov. Tom Wolf’s ability to extend emergency declarations back in May. Now, following storm damage from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, lawmakers from the southeast are asking Wolf to extend an emergency declaration made to improve response efforts to the storm, in the first major test of the new emergency power provisions.