Senator Mastriano

On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed at the Battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland—the bloodiest single day in American military history.

More than 22,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or missing in just one day of fighting. We remember those who fought and sacrificed on those fields 164 years ago.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Here, I am leading soldiers on a unit run at the Presidio of Monterey. #ThrowbackThursday

September 17th, 1787 - Constitution Signed - At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, delegates from twelve states voted unanimously to approve the proposed U.S. Constitution.

The Pennsylvania Constitution Cannot Be Circumvented
Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33)

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Department of Health (DOH) is creating regulations that would expand its authority to wield the same power Gov. Tom Wolf did in 2020-21. These regulations threaten to give the governor sweeping emergency power Pennsylvania voters acted to limit in 2021. If the governor can simply move that power into the DOH and exercise it through regulation, then the constitutional protection adopted by the people means little.

Pennsylvanians remember why they changed their constitution. In 2020, Gov. Wolf used extraordinary emergency powers to control the commonwealth. Department of Health Sec. Levine drove the administration’s public-health response, while Shapiro backed Wolf and Levine’s policies as Pennsylvania’s attorney general. Today, Shapiro is governor, and his DOH is seeking expanded regulatory authority. We cannot separate what is happening now from what Pennsylvanians experienced then.

Pennsylvanians remember this because we lived it. Government shut down schools and sent children home. Students lost proms, graduations, sports seasons and milestones they never got back. Parents struggled to work while their children sat at kitchen tables staring into computer screens instead of sitting in classrooms.

Government decided which businesses were essential and which were non-essential, then ordered those it deemed non-essential to close. Men and women who had spent decades building a family business, supporting their families and employing their neighbors suddenly had government tell them their livelihood was “non-essential.” Revenue stopped, but mortgages, rent, utilities, insurance and bills did not. Employees lost paychecks and jobs. Independent business owners watched everything they had spent their lives building hang in the balance.

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