This week in the PA House, we passed legislation that would infuse $1.5 billion into our state transit system – the largest such increase in more than a decade. The bill would fund public transit without raising taxes by increasing the existing amount of sales tax revenue that is transferred to the Public Transportation Trust Fund.  

In addition to ensuring continued access to reliable transportation for more than 1 million Pennsylvanians who use it every day, the bill would support jobs – our mass transit system employs nearly 40,000 workers – and would invest $500 million for road and bridge repairs. Investing in transit also benefits our economy by generating $5.4 billion in activity annually.

Specific to our community, public transit funding is critical to maintain services in Emsworth, Ben Avon, and Hampton Township and avoid reductions in service in McCandless. The legislation now moves to the state Senate for consideration.

Audiologists and speech pathologists are in short supply in our state, which threatens to hurt patients who need access to hearing and speech-related services. To address the issue, I introduced bipartisan legislation with state Rep. Kristin Marcell that would allow Pennsylvania to join the Audiology and Speech Language Pathology Interstate Compact. This week, our H.B. 80 advanced out of committee unanimously and now heads to the full House for consideration.

In other House news, I was proud to stand with House Speaker Joanna McClinton and fellow members of the Pennsylvania Black Maternal Health Caucus as we rallied for passage of the PA MOMNIBUS 2.0 package of bills to address the unacceptably high rate of Black maternal mortality in our state.

Last week, I participated in a CeaseFirePA gun violence prevention forum at St. Brendan’s Episcopal Church in Franklin Park, where I discussed my experience with gunshot victims as an ER Doc and our need to pass commonsense gun safety legislation. We had an excellent dialogue with advocates and engaged residents.

Also last week, Veena and I were honored to attend the Sri Venkateswara Temple high school graduation ceremony, where I gave the commencement address. Congratulations to the graduates and their parents!

I welcomed members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to the district office earlier this week to discuss the response to the recent storms and our electrical workers’ critical role in restoring service. I appreciated the chance to learn from those who do the hard work about how we can best meet these challenges.