Senator Mastriano

September 30, 1949 - The Berlin Airlift concluded after 277,264 flights carrying over 2 million tons of supplies to the people of West Berlin, who were blockaded by the Soviets.

September 30, 1938 - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England declaring there would be "peace in our time," after signing the Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler. The Pact ceded the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland to the Nazis. Chamberlain claimed the agreement meant peace, however, Hitler seized all of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939.

September 29, 1789 - Congress created the United States Army, consisting of 1,000 enlisted men and officers.

Pennsylvanians Said No. The Health Department Finally Listened.
By Sen. Doug Mastriano

On Sept. 25, the state Department of Health withdrew its rewrite of the commonwealth’s disease-control regulations after receiving more than 10,000 public comments opposing the changes. That is an extraordinary response, and a victory for the people of Pennsylvania. The citizens read what the government was proposing, remembered what happened during COVID-19 and spoke out, because we already fought this battle. During COVID-19, emergency powers reached deeply into our businesses, schools, churches and family lives.

In 2021, voters amended our state constitution to limit a governor’s disaster emergency declaration to 21 days unless the General Assembly extends it. Shortly thereafter, the legislature terminated the COVID-19 disaster declaration. The message from the people was clear: Emergency government must have limits, and the people`s elected representatives must have a voice.

That is why this proposal raised such serious concerns. The Department of Health sought broad changes to Pennsylvania’s disease-control regulations, including expanding language governing the commonwealth’s response to disease outbreaks. The department itself discussed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision finding that its existing regulation did not authorize a statewide school mask mandate and proposed adding authority for disease “prevention, containment or mitigation.”

That raised a fundamental question: Can an agency use regulation to reclaim broad authority after Pennsylvanians imposed constitutional limits on emergency power? The answer is no. Public health is an important responsibility, but so are constitutional government, individual liberty, parental rights and legislative oversight. Those protections matter most when government believes extraordinary action is necessary.