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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
05/20/2024 10:24 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20130&cosponId=10603
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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 7, 2013 12:44 PM
From: Representative Dave Reed
To: All House members
Subject: Proposed Legislation - Leave of Absence for Volunteers
 


In the near future, I plan to reintroduce former House Bill 1058 that will provide for a leave of absence under Title 35 of the Health and Safety Code. Specifically, I plan to amend Chapter 73 of Title 35 to:
  • Provide that a leave of absence of up to 15 days shall be granted to a private or public sector employee who is a member of a health or emergency response organization;
  • Provide that the health or emergency response organization must be a bona fide organization recognized by the PA Department of Health or PA Emergency Management Agency;
  • Provide that the organization or employee must be acting under a Federal, State or Local government declared emergency; and
  • Provide that the leave of absence may be longer than 15 days should the employer choose to grant his employee such additional leave.
My proposal is geared toward assisting our many volunteers who are trained to provide emergency response services whenever these services are needed during a period of a declared emergency.

I believe it is a public safety interest to ensure that we have an adequate number of personnel who can respond to an emergency no matter how big the emergency may be and no matter where their services are needed. Our firefighters, Emergency Medical and Public Health Service Personnel, Healthcare Specialist, Search and Rescue Personnel and other emergency response personnel are trained professionals who provide a valuable and timely service that we in this country come to expect.

Whether it’s a terrorist attack, a major flood, snow storm or even a pandemic outbreak, we can’t expect a high level of response from trained personnel if we do not provide the volunteers who make up the majority of our response system the flexibility they need to respond to natural or emergency disasters. They train to be ready; we must act to be ready.

Previous cosponsors include: CARROLL, CAUSER, COHEN, DONATUCCI, ELLIS, EVANKOVICH, FARRY, FLECK, GILLEN, GINGRICH, GODSHALL, GOODMAN, GROVE, HEFFLEY, HESS, KELLER M., MARSHALL, MILLER, MILNE, PYLE, ROCK, SCAVELLO, TALLMAN,


Introduced as HB352