Hey all! I wanted to share how we’ve been fighting (and winning) for Pennsylvanians in this crazy time. Gov. Tom Wolf’s sudden closure of “non-life-sustaining” businesses created chaos here. The governor’s arbitrary order, which also established a secretive waiver process allowing select businesses to reopen, left many employers in limbo. We stepped in to provide clarity, fight for workers and businesses to serve their communities, and rally lawmakers to advance legislation that accelerated the timetable to responsibly reopen vital industries.
After it became clear the business shutdown was doing immense damage to Pennsylvanians’ livelihoods and that Wolf had no plan to reopen the economy, our government affairs team worked with lawmakers to craft and build a consensus for a solution. As a result, lawmakers passed SB 613 to enable businesses listed as “essential” by the federal government to reopen if they can adhere to CDC health and safety guidelines.
Though Gov. Wolf vetoed the bill, he immediately released a plan for reopening Pennsylvania. To keep the pressure on, we worked with lawmakers to pass additional legislation to responsibly reopen certain business sectors—such as realty services, car dealerships, and residential construction—and publicized the governor’s poor planning and lack of transparency in an op-ed in The Hill that has been shared over 20,000 times. As a result, Gov. Wolf accelerated his reopening timetable for some businesses and announced new reopening plans for others.
We also worked with our investors and supporters, providing them assistance in navigating the ill-conceived waiver process that would allow businesses to reopen. We connected them with their local lawmakers and others to guide and expedite their applications. In some cases, a business’ competitors had been granted waivers while their own waiver request was denied.
Many of our investors are concerned about the long-term economic and health impacts of the shut down. These entrepreneurs are pillars of their communities, and they don’t want to see their employees laid off and suffering. Our communications team has been in overdrive helping entrepreneurs with press releases, op-eds, and media strategies to bring public attention to the harms caused by Wolf’s arbitrary business shutdown. And our policy team has developed immediate solutions to help mitigate the crisis for unemployment, the spread of infection in prisons, business shutdowns, and the consequences of the governor’s insistence on making decisions behind closed doors.
The pressure Commonwealth Foundation, our allies, and supporters brought to bear over the month of April is the reason the governor has moved in our direction on economic reopening. With 1.6 million Pennsylvanians unemployed, a safe and responsible reopening cannot come soon enough.