Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon) recently sent a letter to Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, urging the Wolf administration to support the General Assembly’s COVID-19 pandemic economic plan.
Levine had previously told the General Assembly she felt legislation passed in the House last week was “reckless and irresponsible.”
Ryan responded by stating that the state must establish a cohesive strategy to help citizens and businesses recover once the pandemic ends. He said using a broad-brush approach to closing businesses will cause lasting harm.
Nonessential and not life-sustaining businesses employ hundreds of thousands of people, Ryan said, and would not find it reckless nor irresponsible to reopen with proper safety and sanitary protocols.
“Our legislation would establish a COVID-19 Cost and Recovery Task Force to identify pressing issues and develop a recovery plan aimed at restoring housing, transportation, education, public services and economic activity to levels equal to or better than their pre-disaster status,” Ryan said. “The legislation would also aim to restructure state debt. Pennsylvania families are also facing mounting debt and they are counting on us to get them back to work. We must prepare now to start rebuilding our economy.”
Failure to act in the near future will result in untenable economic realities, Ryan said.