October 5, 2026 · VETERANS AFFAIRS AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS · 1,823 words · 21 speakers · 109 segments
. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Thank you.
Call this meeting of Veterans Affairs Emergency Preparedness to order. Jamie, please call the roll.
Chairman Solomon.
Here.
Representative Borowski.
Representative Brown, VBD.
Representative Doherty.
Representative Genst, VBD.
Representative Haddock.
Representative Ingalls, VBD.
Representative Monroe, VBD. Representative Almera. BBD.
Representative Peele.
BBD.
Representative Sapi.
Here.
Representative Scott.
BBD.
Representative Taycac.
Representative Webster.
Here.
Chairman Gillen. Here.
Representative Banta. No.
Representative Bashline. BBD.
Representative Cooper. Here.
Representative Ham. BBD.
Representative Kerwin. BBD.
Representative Krupa. Yes.
Representative Mako. BBD.
Representative Stare. Representative Stender
Representative Watrow
Representative Williams
We have a quorum Thank you Jamie I'm going to call up Representative Cerise's House Bill 2826 First I'm going to call up my amendment Amendment 04505 which clarifies provisions within the bill Are there any questions about my amendment
045-05. Chair Gillen, are there any negative votes?
Amendment 045-05 is adopted. Now to the underlying bill as amended, House Bill 2826. Representative Cerise.
I thought I was going to time.
Nope. Do we have any questions? Hopefully he will arrive. There he is. I almost got it. Representative Cerise, your comments on your House Bill 2826 as amended.
Thank you very much, and I apologize. We just had to have a quick meeting upstairs. So this bill is a simple bill when you look at it from what it is, and it's a common-sense bill. And I want to thank my colleague who's here, Mayor Adam Albrico, who is a firefighter in Royersford who came to me with this idea. This bill makes sure that our firefighters all over the Commonwealth have the opportunity to go for a free cancer scanning. And you can see from the bill all the different types of cancers. and we've seen over and over and over again our firefighters coming down with cancer. I mean, we all saw it after September 11th for what happened in New York City, for what was in the air, but what our houses are built with, our buildings are built with now, all have carcinogens in them and we're seeing more and more firefighters get cancer and if we can prevent cancer from happening by these scans, I think that we have an obligation not only for our paid firefighters but also for our volunteers and all those who serve us. So I thank you for the opportunity to be here today and run this bill.
Thank you, Rep. Cerise. We're joined by Representative Mako and Representative Angles.
Any questions or comments on House Bill 2826 Representative Sappy Thank you Rep Is this an annual scan or a one scan
No, this is what we changed. It was annual, but it reads a little bit differently now. Once every three years. Once every three years.
Yes, Representative Stair.
is this kind of screening not covered under regular insurance some of their insurance that's
not covered for and that's what we've gone back and forth with and i know that mike hillman has been big time with this and we've also with the insurance commissioner gone through this some of the volunteer firefighters don't have coverage as a matter of fact the one firefighter in our district i don't know if he had coverage for this when he was diagnosed with cancer recently and they found it it was too late because they wouldn't give him a scan because They said there's no need for it. So this would make there be a need for scans.
Okay. And what is the cost for something like this?
What are we appropriating for this? It varies. What did we look at, about $2,000, roughly? It would be capped at $2,000 per test. Just to be clear, this bill does not appropriate any money.
Okay, thank you. That's what I was concerned about. Thank you.
Rep Krupa.
Thank you for this bill. I actually Friday night spent with our firefighters at our monthly fireman's association meeting, and we talked a lot about skilled games, but then this bill actually came up as well. And quite frankly, I think there was a little bit of mixed feelings in the room. A very smart gentleman who is both a firefighter and a township supervisor voiced some concerns about what this is going to do to the cost of workers' compensation. So I think when you're wearing both of those hats, you know, we obviously want to support the health and safety of our firefighters. But you have a duty to make sure that we're being fiscally sound. So do we have any idea if there's going to be negative impacts to the workers' composition system because of this?
Representative, why would there be an impact?
Well, and to be honest, it was something that was brought up by somebody that's more knowledgeable in this area than me, so that's why I'm asking. I don't know if with the screenings then, is there an argument that, And obviously the screenings are going to produce, maybe rather than workers' comp, is this going to create an increase in insurance premiums?
This is a state-funded program.
But there's no appropriation?
That this is in keeping with almost every piece of legislation that we pass. In fact, I would argue it's not advisable to put an appropriation, a line item indicating the spend because at budget time, what we typically do is a holistic review of our priorities and then make a determination as to what bills, projects, initiatives we are going to fund. So I think the representative smartly left that to the budget table to ensure that this program gets due consideration instead of locking us in now with a particular number.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions or comments? Chair Gillen.
Thank you very much, Representative Sirisi. He's my neighbor across the Montgomery County line, and so we work closely together. And I appreciate the fact that you've engaged both sides of the aisle on this issue, and I've been in meetings with the good mayor as well. Having been on the ground the night of 9-11 and the day of 9-12, I think we realized that many of the people that were involved in rescue and recovery have accrued illness. Some of these illnesses crop up years later, and we had 343 firefighters that were killed. But now we've lost more to disease and illness, and certainly anything that we can do on the screening side of the equation is much appreciated. Just two brief questions. I'm a yes on the bill, and so I want to be clear from the very beginning. Who doesn't this include in terms of if we have forest fire wardens, people at the fire academy, DCNR? Who is in the envelope and who is outside in terms of the professional firefighting community? We went back and forth on some of those I think you amended it today to add some more back but who would not be included Because we discussed this over and over again from the insurance And I'm only asking this because we went back and forth on this bill like 15 times.
Sure. You know, the folks we traditionally think of as volunteer or career firefighters would be covered provided they meet the eligibility in the bill. Where the question may remain is who's covered by the workers' comp portion that's written into the bill. And I don't have that answer for you today, but I can get that to you.
Yeah, I appreciate that. Relative to the number of screenings, I'm reading page number five of the bill, subject to money being available, which is a little bit of a question mark in the fund. And then once every three years, an eligible firefighter may obtain cancer screening from a program screening entity. And then the bill also references community health districts, and that may not be something that the average person is familiar with. Could we just have a little bit of amplification for the benefit of people that may not know the breakout that exists by the Department of Health and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? So I know right outside of my district we have a community health, community health and dental, which is in North Coventry, but mostly for the Pottstown community, which is where a lot of our residents in the Pottstown community would go for their medical care, and that would be one. I think there's 12 of them throughout the Commonwealth, if I'm not mistaken. Someone may know that number.
Six, I think.
Yeah, I thought it was higher than that. I thought it was a low number, but when they came to us last year, I asked us for money. I thought they said there was more, so there's only six. So we have one with us out in our way. I don't know where the others are than throughout the Commonwealth. But we wanted to make sure that they had an opportunity to go anywhere, And we also had looked at the possibility, which we didn't want to go down this path, of us even owning the trucks that did the scanning, that the state would buy the trucks. They would take portable units and bring them out to the sites around the Commonwealth for scans for some of these firefighters. But this is how we came to a compromise with our insurance commissioner and the insurance department. And, Michael, I don't know if you want to add anything else to that if I'm missing something.
No, I would just say that the six community health districts are organized by the Department of Health to coordinate public health services across the state. I think they're in an existing structure that's easy to kind of overlay. By the way, if you add the county health departments to this, then the number does go up consistent with what you believe.
And we are in the southeast together, Joe, as far as the community health districts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you so much, Chair Gillen. Are there any negative votes or, Chair Gillen, would you like a roll call?
Yes, a roll call vote.
Jamie, please call the roll.
Chairman Solomon?
Yes.
Representative Borowski? Representative Brown?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Doherty?
Yes.
Representative Genst? Yes, VBD. Representative Haddock?
Yes.
Representative Ingalls?
Yes.
Representative Monroe?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Romara?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Piedle?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Sappy?
Yes.
Representative Scott?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Takak?
Yes.
Representative Webster?
Yes.
Chairman Gillen?
Yes.
Representative Banta?
Representative Bashlein?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Cooper?
Cooper?
Representative Hamm?
Yes, VBD.
Representative Kerwin.
Representative Krupa.
Representative Mako.
Representative Stare.
Representative Stender.
Representative Watrow.
Representative Williams.
Passes 26 yays, zero nays.
Thank you. House Bill 2826 as amended moves to the floor unanimously for For consideration, Representative Cerisi, congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you all very much.
This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.