Jared Solomon's Office Gets NYT Mention

The New York Times included a photo of a volunteer in Jared Solomon's office and his chief of staff.  See "Leaving New York to Find the American Dream in Philadelphia," by Matt Katz (7/20/2018).  The article focuses on immigrants.

Community Theatre Week

Who knew?!  It's Community Theatre Week in Pennsylvania this week.  State Rep. Perry Warren (D-31, Bucks) was the lead sponsor of a resolution (HR 916) to recognize June 3-9, 2018 as Community Theatre Week. Today Warren introduced and reconized representatives from the Newtown Arts Company and ActorsNET in Morrisville.

Two quotes that accompanies the press release:

“Community theatre organizations bring the arts to life for audiences of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds,” said Warren, D-Bucks. “The passionate individuals who make up these organizations introduce us to new worlds and help us understand the human experience.”
 

“We appreciate the efforts of everyone, from the actors on stage to the behind-the-scenes crew, who put together community programs that educate and enrich our lives. I’m pleased to be able to shine a spotlight on their work,” Warren said.

There were several other Philly area representatives among the bipartisan group of co-sponsors, among them:  Murt, Daley, DiGirolomo, and Raab.

I agree with the House on this -- community theatre groups are an important part of our social fabric.  A vital artistic ecosystem has a lot of levels.  I went to see "Three Tall Woman" in New York last weekend, but I also go to see plays at People's Light, the Arden, local productions, and high school performances.  It is a wonderful way to support the efforts of our friends and neighbors to tell our cultural stories.

Update on SB3

Those tracking SB3, regarding women's health, will be interested to know that it was given second consideration this evening, and is now awaiting a final vote in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  Interesting in knowing what was said today?  Well, good luck.  The official state legislature page on the bill directs readers to today's House Journal.  If you go to the House Journal page the most recent issues of the publication available is for June 6th.  So there is no way for the citizens of the Commonwealth to know what was said in the House for the entire fall (and any session days in July or August, or late June).  (The Senate does better -- there are Senate Journals available into September, and much of the testimony is very poignant and thoughtful).

You can read the text of the bill, which focuses prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks of a pregnancy.  (It is currently 24).  A specific medical procedure is prohibited unless two physicians each separately examine the woman. The only exception listed for performing this procedure is for the prevention of the death of the woman or the substantial or irreversible impairment of a  major bodily function.  I find it interesting that liability is spelled out, with the following being exempt from liability:  the pregnant woman, the nurse, technician, secretary or receptionist who acts on a physician's order, a pharmacist or individual who fills a prescription or provides instruments or materials used in the specified medical procedure. So this seems to be aimed specifically at physicians and threatening them with a felony charge if they perform this specific procedure.

If you feel strongly about this issue please contact your Representative, and do so on Dec. 12th, as that is when the vote is likely to take place.

Book Review: Making Ideas Matter by Dwight Evans

Making Ideas Matter:  My Life as a Policy Entrepreneur by Representative Dwight Evans with William Ecenbarger.  Philadelphia: Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, 2013.

State Representative Dwight Evans is currently the Democratic candidate for the 2nd Congressional District, defeating incumbent Chaka Fattah in the primary. This book was published before his congressional run, but after previous unsuccessful runs for higher office. It is a slim volume (181 pages with an index) providing a history of State Rep. Evan's political career.  The first chapter is biographical, telling the story of his childhood and upbringing. He points out that after getting a part-time job in high school he didn't take money from his mother again, allowing her to focus on his younger siblings.

The rest of the book concerns his work as a state legislator and his personal life is not really mentioned again. Most of the chapters concern a particular subject -- one on education, another on the importance of access to healthy food choices. Others are on aspects of political culture -- there is a chapter on Walking Around Money (WAM) and how it can be used to leverage cooperation from political colleagues.

Evans outlines a number of projects he worked on,priorities he followed, strategies he used to reach out to fellow Democrats as well as Republicans, and how he developed rapport with legislators from other parts of the state to overcome overall hostility towards the Philadelphia area.

There is a focus on his work as chair of the Appropriations Committee, and his disappointment when he lost that position. He writes about his own personal values and how they informed his behavior, expectations of staff, and political behavior, and what happens to politicians who lose their moral compass.

He writes a lot about developing and maintaining relationships, not only with political allies but as ways of reaching across the aisle or to the far corners of the state. He writes about empowering staff (including giving staff the ability to tell him no), and holding them accountable for their work and ethics as well.

Evans only seems to write about one fault and that is the inability to tell his story effectively when running for mayor or governor. He wishes he could have continued as chair of Appropriations and that he could have helped a non-profit he had worked with maintain control of his district's main high school.

This book does explain how State Rep. Evans created some of the coalitions that passed legislation he wanted. It is a first person account and therefore does not include some of the context or reflection that a third person account might have. The writing is fast paced and easily read. The book could easily have gotten bogged down in self-congratulation or unnecessary details. As you might expect from a policy wonk, there are a lot of acronyms, but otherwise it avoids many of the pitfalls that other books of this kind fall into. Co-author William Ecenbarger is a former reporter and I credit his influence with a great deal of the book's readability.

Baring some sort of disaster Mr. Evans will be elected to Congress in November and his tenure in the state legislature will end. I hope that at some point a scholar writes a definitive history of his time there. I'm sure there are a lot more stories to be told. The book left me wanting more, which is surely the sign of a well-written book.

Leanne Krueger-Braneky a Rising Star

Emily's List has a list of six women they have identified as candidates for the Gabby Giffords Rising Star Award, given to an extraordinary woman in state or local office.  One is Pennsylvania State Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky.  You can vote for her on an Emily's List web page.  (Be forewarned you have to provide an email and zipcode to vote so you'll end up on at least one mailing list)

Kreuger-Braneky Legislation Signed into Law

from the inbox on Dec. 28:

The governor has signed into law legislation by state Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky that will aid in the collection of additional revenue for Pennsylvania, the freshman Delaware County legislator said today. 

Krueger-Braneky's bipartisan legislation will allow Pennsylvania to begin taxing tobacco used to make roll-your-own cigarettes.

Currently, only pre-rolled and pre-packaged cigarettes are taxed under Pennsylvania law. The law (Act 96 of 2015) authored by Krueger-Braneky makes roll-your-own tobacco subject to taxation in much the same way as cigarettes are and ensures the sale of that tobacco counts under the Master Settlement Agreement entered into 15 years ago with the major tobacco companies. 

Under the Master Settlement Agreement, tobacco companies have provided billions of dollars to the state for a variety of health-related programs for seniors and other Pennsylvania residents.

Which State Representatives Make Their Expense Reports Public?

I've done this research before, and earlier this month posted a similar note on state senators.  State representatives have the option of making their office expense reports public, what they spend on rent, postage, staff, etc.  A list of state reps who do this are listed below.

I started with list of members of the PA state house from the state's web site, then used the caucus pages (www.pahouse.com, www.pahousegop.com) to find links to each state rep's page, then went through clicking on each link.  I scanned the links on the home page, and looked at the subject categories on the menu bars, mousing over them to see what options, if any, were on the submenu.  It is possible that expense listings are buried further on a site, but, honestly, if it takes more than two clicks to find it people aren't going to drill down far enough to find them.

Most state reps who list their expenses do so for months or years, some provide reports for all years they have been in office.  It is impressive.  Others list only the current month.  A few are in a separate "partial" category -- people who have some reports listed but aren't current.

As a Democrat I find the party distribution disheartening.  In this regard, it is clear, the Republicans are the party of transparency.  C'mon, Dems!, get it together and post your report!  It is also disheartening to see that some state reps I think very highly of don't make their expense reports public.

I make an effort to provide the due diligence necessary to provide accurate information.  However it is always possible that I missed something or made an error.  If so, I apologize.

Here is the list of state representatives who make their expense reports public:

House Representatives who list their expenses online

Democrats

Madeleine Dean (D-153)

Jaret Gibbons (D-10)

Sid Michaels Kavulich (D-114)

Patty Kim (D-103)

Kevin J. Schreiber (D-95)

Republicans

Stephen Bloom (R-199)

Lynda Schlegel Culver (R-108), current month only

Bryan Cutler (R-100)

Russ Diamond (R-102)

Joe Emrick (R-137)

Harold A. English (R-30)

Mindy Fee (R-37)

Matt Gabler (R-75)

Keith Gillespie (R-47)

Keith Greiner (R-43)

Seth Grove (R-196)

Susan Helm (R-104) (last posted is June 2015)

David S. Hickernell (R-98)

Fred  Keller (R-85), current month only

Kate A. Klunk (R-169), June – Aug 2015 only

John Maher (R-40), his reports look a little different from other reports

Kurt Masser (R-107), last posted is June 2015

John McGinnis (R-79)

Steven C. Mentzer (R-97), current month only

Brett R Miller (R-41)

Mark Mustio (R-44)

Justin Simmons (R-131)

 Partial

Jim Christiana (R-15), 2009-2014 (March?)

Mauree Gingrich (R-101), only April 2015

Kristin Hill (R-93), has links but they don’t work

John A. Lawrence (R-13), only July 2015

Jim Marshall (R-14), 2012-2014

Life, Death, and the Bastardization of HB1796

In 1997 one of my cousins was murdered by her estranged husband.  He threw gasoline on her and set her on fire.  Someone sent me the tape of a television news report that showed a patrol car dash camera clip of my cousin running from the house and collapsing on the grass outside, holding her arms and legs off the ground as much as possible.  Anything touching the burns, even grass, would have been excruciating.  She lingered in the burn unit for a month; the doctors amputated one leg and one or both breasts but to no avail.  She died, age 34, leaving two teenaged children.  It was a particularly gruesome way to die.  Her husband was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. 

In college I worked with a woman whose daughter was murdered.  She was shot to death by her estranged husband in front of their preschool-aged children.

These are just two of the many many stories of spousal or domestic partner murder.   It is important to make sure that legislation is not only proactive in helping people in dangerous situations, but also that legislation does not harm them. 

Case in point, laws that allow landlords to penalize tenants if there are repeated police visits to the residence.   This is to deter crime in neighborhoods but it also deters endangered spouses and partners from calling for help. 

And so, in October, State Rep. Todd Stephens introduced HB1796, which prevents municipalities or other government bodies from penalizing people who are victims of assault for calling the police.  The bill was amended in the House, passed by all voting members of the Local Government Committee, and by all voting members of the full State House.   Then it went to the state senate, to the Senate State Government Committee. 

There it was amended again :

HB 1796, PN 2870 (Stephens)-Amends Title 53 (Municipalities Generally) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in preemptions, providing for protection for victims of abuse or crime.  Senator Eichelberger offered amendment # A05863, which adds language prohibiting local government from imposing leave provisions and other labor related policies to private businesses.  The amendment passed on a strict party line vote of 6 to 4.  The bill was reported as amended by the same 6 to 4 vote. 

Yes, Sen. John Eichelberger, added a significant section on a completely different topic.  This new section would prohibit municipalities and local governments from requiring businesses to provide sick leave.  It might do other things as well, but that is one impact of the new amendment.  Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the amendment; Democrats were opposed.  The amendment passed on March 11^th; it was laid on the table on March 17^th.  And there it sits.

When I found out about this I thought about my cousin and the daughter of the woman I had worked with.  While this law would not have helped them there are other people out there now who might not call the police for fear of losing their house.    And these Senators decided to play politics with a bill that would have helped them:

• Vogel, Elder A., Jr.,
• Scarnati, Joseph B., III, 
• Hutchinson, Scott E.
• Robbins, Robert D.
• Smucker, Lloyd K.
• Eichelberger, John

This sort of thing is why people don’t like politics or politicians.

HB 1576: Endangering PA's Endangered Species

Today's inbox brought a press release from State Rep. Steve McCarter highlighting concerns he has about HB 1576, called the Endangered Species Coordination Act.  McCarter is a good guy so I took a look.  State Rep. Metcalfe is one of the sponsors; I often disagree with his views.  Sadly, State Rep. Tom Murt is also a co-sponsor.  This is not the first time I've looked at legislation, been alarmed at what I saw, and noted that Murt was a co-sponsor.  I have met Murt a time or two at public events; initially I was favorably impressed, these days not so much.

The Act has 10 sections.  The first is a short title; the second defines terms used in the bill.

Section three reads:

No Commonwealth agency may take action to designate or consider fish, wildlife or plants as threatened or endangered unless the fish, wildlife or plants are designated under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-205, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) or pursuant to this act.  

Any state agency wishing to declare a species endangered must (section 4):

The Commonwealth agency shall provide detailed reasons and a summary of the acceptable data and methodology upon which theproposed designation is base d, as well as the activities that may be affected by such designation, to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission and to the standing committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives with jurisdiction over the Commonwealth agency for purposes of this act.

 For those unfamiliar with the IRRC, it's website provides this description:

The General Assembly passed the Regulatory Review Act in 1982 which established the Independent Regulatory Review Commission. IRRC was created to review Commonwealth agency regulations, excluding the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission, to ensure that they are in the public interest.

Note that at present it excludes the Game Commission and Fish and Boat Commission.  According to IRRC's website it does currently include the Dept of Environmental Protection but there are not regulations listed for that agency.

Section four also includes this note:

Any species designated as threatened or endangered pursuant to 30 Pa.C.S. (relating to fish) or 3 Pa.C.S. (relating to game) prior to the effective date of this section shall be removed from the centralized database after a period of two years unless the Commonwealth agency redesignates the species as threatened or endangered in accordance with the provisions of this act.

Two years seems a rather short time period for a species to be removed from the database.  If every species has to be re-designated every two years that's a lot of work for the IRRC.

Section five states that species must be in danger of extinction" throughout all or a significant portion of its range" and another section states it can only be considered threatened if it is likely to become endangered "in the foreseeable future."

Section eight includes a rather chilling, at least to me, statement.  The section says that information in the centralized database shall be available to the public but:

Persons receiving the information may only disclose the information to other persons with prior written authorization from the department.

Really?  You can't disclose that information to anyone else without written permission?  It should be noted that in the definitions section the definition of person included corporations.  It lists only three acceptable uses of the information and states the penalty for violating the law will be between $250.00 and $5,000.00.

I can't see how this benefits the Commonwealth, its citizens or the wildlife that resides here.

PA Lawmakers: Don't Obey Federal Laws

A group of Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced a bill, HB 357, that states:

Providing that any Federal law which attempts to register, restrict or ban a firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm in this Commonwealth shall be unenforceable in this Commonwealth; and imposing penalties.

It was introduced in January, was referred to the Judiciary Committee and is still sitting there.  These are the loons who sponsored or co-sponsored this bill:


METCALFE, BAKER, BLOOM, BROOKS, CAUSER, CLYMER, EVERETT, GABLER, GROVE, HAHN, C. HARRIS, HESS, HICKERNELL, KAUFFMAN, F. KELLER, M. K. KELLER, KNOWLES, KRIEGER, MAJOR, MILLARD, MILLER, MOUL, MULLERY, PYLE, SACCONE, SANKEY, STEVENSON, TALLMAN, CUTLER, ROAE, ROCK, MALONEY, ELLIS,
MUSTIO, REESE, BENNINGHOFF, EMRICK, METZGAR, JAMES, EVANKOVICH, PAYNE, SWANGER, READSHAW, RAPP, DENLINGER, OBERLANDER, S. H. SMITH, DUNBAR, SAYLOR, MARSHALL, REED, SCAVELLO, MCGINNIS AND LUCAS

Think of all the things our state legislature could be doing if they weren't taking up time with bills like this.

(h/t CeaseFirePA.org)

Legislative Infobits

A few notes from the state senate and house for the past few days.

HB 1399 was introduced in the state house on May 15.  It amends the Pennsylvania Election Code by adding in fees to filing election petitions; the fees will go to the state's general fund.  I can't tell from the language if it is a fee for each individual petition (which could be pricey) or for the campaign generally.  The fees are graduated with, for example, a $200 fee for president and $100 for state house and senate.

HB 1403, also introduced on May 15, changes the Pennsylvania Election Code, in the section regarding recounts.  The bill changes this phrase:

A candidate for a public office which appears on the ballot in every election district in this Commonwealth was defeated by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for the office. This subclause includes a candidate for retention to a Statewide judicial office.

to this phrase

A candidate for a public office which appears on the ballot in a countywide election or in an election in a State legislative district was defeated by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for the office.

I have no idea what effect this would have on elections.

New Bill on Falsifying Petition Signatures

HB 1371, introduced in the state house today, makes falsifying election petition signatures a third class felony with a fine of $15,000.

Here is the text of the bill:

Section 1813.1. False Signatures; Offenses by Circulators.--
If any person who is a circulator of nomination petitions or papers shall knowingly make a false statement in any affidavit required by the provisions of this act, to be appended to or to accompany a nomination petition or a nomination paper in which multiple signatures are determined to be in the same handwriting as one signer of the same petition or paper, he shall be guilty of a felony of the third degree, and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, or to undergo imprisonment of not more than seven (7) years, or both, in the discretion of the court.

The bill was sponsored and co-sponsored by State Reps CLAY, O'BRIEN, V. BROWN, CRUZ, FLYNN, SCHLOSSBERG, MILLARD, YOUNGBLOOD, KIRKLAND, DeLUCA, SWANGER, DAVIS, HELM, COX, PETRI AND ROEBUCK

Legislative Notes for May 8th

HB 1354 was introduced in the State House.  It would change the way legislators are reimbursed for work-related expenses.  It sounds very reasonable to me.

Legislative Update for May 7th

A few notes from yesterday's daily legislative activity email:

These bills were introduced and / or acted upon:

HB 764 on creating and using online accounts in someone's name (or a fictitious name) to harass or stalk another person, and the penalties for doing so.  (I may not have described this correctly; please read the text of the bill for clarification).

HB 818 prohibits any state health exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act from offering abortion coverage (with exceptions which are referenced by another law and not spelled out), but insists that all state exchange programs offer care for postabortion complications and care for miscarriages.

SB5 really stumps me.  It amends a community health bill to remove language specifying the provision for a mobile prenatal and natal education lab.  It also amends the credentials required by people who staff clinics.  The Senate journal could probably provide some context but today's Journal won't be available for awhile.

Painter on Property Tax Rebates

from the inbox:

 State Rep. Mark Painter joined his House Democratic colleagues in voting for an amendment recently that would have expanded a program that helps eligible homeowners with property tax rebates, but which was defeated by the state House on a party-line vote with all Republicans voting no.

"My constituents have made it clear that high property taxes are one of their top concerns," said Painter, D-Montgomery. "While we have yet to achieve consensus on how to fund education through another means, without hurting school district budgets on a statewide basis, we had an opportunity to reduce the burden for many people through an expansion of the highly successful Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program. However, the majority party decided to vote against helping taxpayers." 

The amendment to H.B. 468 would have tapped $57 million of the Pennsylvania Lottery's $100 million surplus to expand the program. It would have increased the amount of the property tax rebate by $100 in each of the four income categories already in place. It also would have increased the eligibility limit from $35,000 to $45,000. 

House Bill 468 would:
·       permanently extend the program's deadline to Dec. 31;·       double the amount of death benefits to $10,000 that may be exempted when considering income for program eligibility;·       allow an executor to apply for the rebate on behalf of a deceased applicant if the individual was eligible for the program on the date he or she died.

Painter joined the House in passing the bill and sent it to the state Senate for consideration.
 

The Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program, funded by lottery proceeds, helps hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians to pay their property taxes. According to the Department of Revenue, as of Dec. 31, more than 411,000 homeowners applied for assistance and 79,805 of those will pay no school property taxes.

Legislative Infobits: Unions, Booze, and Voter ID

A few interesting notes from today's legislative activity.

HB 50 is one of several bills relating to unions that the House acted upon today.  HB 50 states that people cannot be forced to join a union or contribute to a union, and that a strike or other action that directly or indirectly imposes those conditions on people, is illegal and can be punished by a $1000 fine or 6 months in jail.  As I read it, and I'm not a lawyer, that would outlaw all strikes.  The lead sponsor of this bill is State Rep. Metcalfe (go figure).

Note to college students -- HB 1264 has college police officers (or security) notify the school AND the student's parents if a student is found to have alcohol in his or her possession.   The definitions of types of school seem a little odd to me and I wonder if some categories are left out.  The lead sponsor is State Rep. Kavulich.

Remember Voter ID?  It's still here.  HB 1295 shifts some of the definitions so that student IDs and care facility id's are acceptable even if they don't have an expiration date.

Today's Legislation Infobits

Why so many posts on legislation lately?  Mostly because I've actually had to time to scan the emails that come through every day the legislature is in session listing what bills were introduced and acted upon.  (You, too, can receive these fascinating missives.)  For most of the year I've just filed them for review later, and then never looked at them again.  But now I actually skim them and take a look at anything that catches my eye.

These are just two of the many pieces of legislation that were noted in today's email.

HB 891 amends the state's game law to allow "The checking of traps remotely by electronic means
by a properly permitted nuisance wildlife control operator."

HB 1243 creates a process (or amends an existing process, it's hard to tell) for people who have been in mental hospitals or legally declared mentally incompetent to appeal to the court of common pleas for the ability to legally own firearms.  State Rep Todd Stephens appears to be the primary sponsor on that one.

Assorted New State Legislation

A few interesting items from yesterday's legislative email:

A new bill spelling out definitions of internet predators and setting up a structure for the state police to keep a registry of their online accounts.  Social networking sites (defined in such a way that might exclude business networking sites, though not being a lawyer I could be wrong on this) can check that registry.  See HB 1233.  From solely a layman's reading this sounds good to me.

The Local Government Committee was busy yesterday.  Several bills, HB 1224 - HB 1231 were introduced.  Several of these concerned how vacancies for township and county elected offices were to be filled, and more importantly, for what reasons people could be removed from office.  Mary Jo Daley sponsored many of these so I'm assuming they are good.  One concern, especially in HB 1227, is that is calls for an appointed replacement county commissioner to serve out the remainder of the term -- no mention of a special election.  But again, I'm not a lawyer so it may be in there and I just don't grasp it.

Those interested in public transit's use of natural gas powered buses should review HB 304.

You can review legislation by typing in bill numbers or keywords at:  http://www.legis.state.pa.us/index.cfm

PA Reform Bills

A number of bills were introduced or acted upon today.  This is a quick and incomplete rundown.  Interested readers are encouraged to dig further on their own.

SB 37, electronic voter registration, introduced Jan 4, 2013, second consideration 4/16/2013
Sponsors:  SMUCKER, PILEGGI, FARNESE, BAKER, ALLOWAY,
ERICKSON, TEPLITZ, FONTANA, WASHINGTON, WILLIAMS, SMITH,
FERLO, LEACH AND SCHWANK

SB 752, introduced 4/15/2013, lobbying disclosure
Sponsors:  EICHELBERGER, STACK, FOLMER, TEPLITZ, SCHWANK,
TARTAGLIONE, WAUGH, BREWSTER AND KASUNIC

SB 753, introduced 4/15/2013, public access to contract award information,
Sponsors:  EICHELBERGER, STACK, FOLMER, TEPLITZ, SCHWANK,
RAFFERTY, VULAKOVICH, TARTAGLIONE, WAUGH, BREWSTER AND
KASUNIC

SB 754, introduced 4/15/2013, providing for disclosure of political contributions
Sponsors:  EICHELBERGER, STACK, FOLMER, TEPLITZ, SCHWANK,
RAFFERTY, VULAKOVICH, TARTAGLIONE, WAUGH, FARNESE, BREWSTER
AND KASUNIC

HB 1175, introduced 4/15/2013.  This confuses me as the text added specifically adds campaigns for state house and state senate to campaign finance reporting guidelines but the entire text of the original law is not included so I can be sure what is actually being done here.  But, honestly, state house and senate campaigns weren't included before?  Alarming.
Sponsors:  FREEMAN, MURT, SCHLOSSBERG, CARROLL, FABRIZIO,
GIBBONS, HARHAI, MATZIE, MCCARTER, MUNDY, O'BRIEN, PAINTER,
SANTARSIERO, STEPHENS AND THOMAS

Bill on Foreign-Owned Charter Schools

A bill introduced in the Pennsylvania State House would prevent people who are not US citizens from owning charter schools.   Nor could non-US citizens own non-profits or companies that managed charter schools.  Elected officials would likewise be banned.  Read HB 1082 for the details.

The bill was introduced by Y MOUL, YOUNGBLOOD, DAVIS, O'NEILL, FLECK, CLYMER,
HESS AND MATZIE