Pennsylvania Governor Wolf Releases Seven Detailed White Papers on Restore Pennsylvania Initiative

(June 6, 2019)  Harrisburg, PA – With nearly a majority of the General Assembly supporting Restore Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf released detailed summaries of the plan to address critical infrastructure needs across Pennsylvania.

“Restore Pennsylvania is the most aggressive infrastructure plan in generations,” said Governor Wolf. “This is a rare opportunity to make lasting improvements and tackle investiture problems from our big cities to rural communities. We can finally address blight in our communities, better protect homes and businesses from floodwaters, bring high-speed internet to rural communities and position people and businesses as leaders in the 21st century.”

Restore Pennsylvania was introduced in the General Assembly this week with strong bipartisan support. House Bill 1585, sponsored by Rep. Jake Wheatley and Rep. Thomas Murt, has 99 cosponsors and Senate Bill 725, sponsored by Sen. John Yudichak and Sen. Tom Killion has 25 cosponsors. More than 60 stakeholders and municipal leaders are also endorsing the proposal.

To accompany the legislation, the governor released a series of white papers detailing the investments Restore Pennsylvania would make, helping local communities prevent flooding, eliminate blight, expand broadband, and address other critical infrastructure needs.

Storm Preparedness and Disaster Recovery
Restore Pennsylvania will provide funding to help towns and cities prepare for flooding and severe weather, upgrade flood walls and levees, replace high-hazard dams, and conduct stream restoration and maintenance.

Providing High-Speed Internet Access
Broadband is essential to education, quality of life, and the economy. Lack of high-speed internet puts hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians at a disadvantage. Restore Pennsylvania will provide funding to completely bridge the digital divide in every community in Pennsylvania, making Pennsylvania a better place to work, do business, and live.

Combatting Blight
There are an estimated 300,000 blighted structures in rural and urban communities throughout Pennsylvania. Restore Pennsylvania will increase resources for addressing blight by providing financial resources at the local level to establish land banks and acquire and demolish blighted buildings in order to create new development opportunities or provide new green space.

Contaminant Remediation and Brownfield Cleanup
Many communities face issues with harmful contaminants, such as lead and Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). Abandoned industrial and commercial sites are also still waiting for cleanup to unlock their potential as commercial, residential, or industrial sites. Restore Pennsylvania will address contaminant remediation and help brownfield clean-up throughout the commonwealth.

Green Infrastructure 
Restore Pennsylvania will provide significant new funding to enable new environmental projects and new recreational opportunities across the state, including infrastructure and maintenance in state parks, creation, and revitalization of new local parks, funding best management practices to improve local water quality, and funding for new hiking, biking, and ATV trail projects.

Transportation Capital Projects
Restore Pennsylvania will provide funding for local road and bridge upgrades, create new flexible funding options for businesses that need local infrastructure upgrades to enable development projects and multimodal and large-scale capital projects for transit.

Downstream Manufacturing
Restore Pennsylvania will provide funding for infrastructure that helps build manufacturing facilities and other downstream businesses for the natural gas produced in Pennsylvania.

Business Development, and Energy Infrastructure
Restore Pennsylvania will help businesses and individuals use more of Pennsylvania’s natural gas in their homes, creating jobs, lowering costs, and improving energy efficiency.

Restore Pennsylvania will invest $4.5 billion over the next four years in significant, high-impact projects throughout the commonwealth to help catapult Pennsylvania ahead of every state in the country in terms of technology, development, and infrastructure. The plan is funded through the monetization of a commonsense severance tax. The existing impact fee will remain in place.

The projects would be identified by local stakeholders and evaluated through a competitive process to ensure that high-priority, high-impact projects are funded and needs across Pennsylvania are met.

MEDIA CONTACT: J.J. Abbott, 717.783.1116

CMS Publishes PACE Final Rule

 CMS Publishes PACE Final Rule– The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule updating and modernizing the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which provides comprehensive medical and social services to certain frail, elderly individuals (many of whom are “dually eligible” for both Medicare and Medicaid) who qualify for nursing home care but can still live safely in the community.  This rule strengthens protections for PACE participants,  provides administrative flexibility  for PACE organizations, and reduces administrative burden for  clinicians. The  RHI Hub provides examples of PACE programs in rural areas as well as toolkits on how to get started. 

New Opportunity to Apply to be a Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO

New Opportunity to Apply to be a Medicare Shared Savings Program ACONotice of Intent June 28.  For provider groups interested in becoming a Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in 2020, CMS will accept Notices of Intent Apply (NOIA) between June 11 and June 28, 2019.  An NOIA is required in order to submit an application, which will be due by July 29.  The ACO Program was restructured for 2019 and offers rural providers a path to take on financial risk for shared savings and losses.   Email questions to SSPACO_Applications@cms.hhs.gov

The Impact of Food Assistance on County-Level Employment

The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released a study on the economic impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.  According to their research, consumers’ use of SNAP benefits had a greater impact in rural areas during national economic downturn, creating additional jobs in those counties.  The ERS conducts research and analysis on a broad range of economic and policy topics related to agriculture and rural areas.  The report can be accessed here:  https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=93168.

Meeting Summary – HHS and HRSA Rural Summit

Meeting Summary – HHS and HRSA Rural Summit. Earlier this year, HHS and HRSA convened a forum of rural health care stakeholders to discuss challenges rural communities face in providing and accessing health care and how HRSA and HHS can address these challenges in the course of program and policy development. The summary from this discussion is now available online at the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s Rural Health Resource Guide.

Study Ties Poor Oral Health in Kids to Adult Heart Disease Risk

Reuters Health reports on a new study that finds children who develop cavities and gum disease may be more likely to develop risk factors for heart attacks and strokes decades later than kids who have good oral health. Kids who had even one sign of poor oral health were 87% more likely to develop subclinical atherosclerosis; children with four signs of poor oral health were 95% more likely to develop this type of artery damage. Periodontal disease in adults has long been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Pennsylvania House Committee Advances State-Based Exchange Legislation

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Insurance Committee unanimously adopted House Bill 3, a bi-partisan bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) and Minority Leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny) to create a state-based insurance exchange. This exchange would supersede Pennsylvania’s current participation in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace via healthcare.gov by creating state-level infrastructure to replace the current enrollment process and its oversight. The transition is intended to create a health insurance marketplace comparable to the federal marketplace originally created by the Affordable Care Act rather than the continually volatile marketplace that exists today. It will also establish a reinsurance program that aims to lower premium costs of plans offered and helps sustain the program. HB 3 has been fast-tracked by the administration and legislature with the current expectation that it will be enacted along with the state budget later in June.

New Report Details Broadband Access Across Pennsylvania

A new report has been released, Broadband Availability and Access in Rural Pennsylvania.  The project, funded by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania and conducted by researchers at Penn State, details broadband access across Pennsylvania and makes policy recommendations for the General Assembly to address broadband access disparities.

According to the report, over 800,000 Pennsylvania residents do not have access to broadband connectivity, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  However, recent research has documented that these official estimates are downplaying the true state of the digital divide because they rely on self-reported data by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).  Informed policy requires systematic analysis to both verify the FCC’s numbers and accurately determine the true state of broadband connectivity across Pennsylvania.  The research collected more than 11 million broadband speed tests from across Pennsylvania in 2018.  These tests measured broadband speeds in every Pennsylvania county and found that median speeds across most areas of the state do not meet the FCC’s criteria to qualify as broadband.  The main findings from these analyses have profound implications for existing and future efforts to bridge the digital divide.

The full report can be accessed on the Center for Rural Pennsylvania’s website at https://www.rural.palegislature.us/