PA House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness — 2026-06-30

Good morning, everyone. Gabbling this meeting of Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness to Order. Rep. Sappy, could you lead us in the pledge?

Jamie, roll call.

Representative Borowski. Here.

Here. Representative Gantz.

Here. Representative Ingalls, designation.

Representative P.L.E. designation representative sappy here represent scott designation representative takak designation representative webster chairman gillen here representative banta represented bash line representative cooper representative ham representative curwin representative krupa Representative Mako Representative Stare Representative Sender Representative Watrow Representative Williams

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for bringing this resolution forward. House Resolution 520 honors Gold Star Mothers here in the Commonwealth and creates Gold Star Mothers Day on September 27, 2026. And this resolution is really important to me as somebody who has worked to bring a memorial to our Commonwealth here on Capitol Grounds to recognize the sacrifice of Gold Star families. I think it's really important that we, as members of the General Assembly, recognize and honor the sacrifice of Gold Star mothers here in the Commonwealth, those mothers who have lost a son or daughter in service to this nation. And also this resolution honors the sacrifices of those service members who have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms here in the Commonwealth as well as Pennsylvania. And it's something that we should always keep in mind. I think this resolution is a small token of acknowledging that sacrifice and letting those mothers who have lost a son or daughter in service to this nation know that we honor their sacrifice and always remember their sacrifice. So I'm grateful to bring this resolution forward. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for running it today.

House Resolution 562 is a resolution designating September 18th, 2026 as U.S. Air Force birthday in Pennsylvania. House Resolution 566 is a resolution designating September 27th, 2026 as Gold Star Mothers and Families Day in Pennsylvania.

Happy birthday, Air Force. Thank you.

Just very briefly to reiterate what Representative Kerwin had to say regarding keeping this in mind, I would say that we need to keep it in heart also. So there are a lot of hurting people out there that have lost a loved one. And for us to continue to memorialize, to remember, and keep it close to our heart, I think is critical. And I say amen to Representative Webster's hallelujah there on the Air Force.

Senate Bill 1261 makes modifications to the Fire Company and Emergency Medical Services grant program and the Fire and EMS loan program. It deletes outdated COVID-19 programs and updates other elements of the program.

Chair Gillen. I don't think there's any question that we need to be more robust in our approach to the fire and EMS loan programs as far as equipment and brick and mortar goes. I think the larger question, and this is going to be a discussion for the chamber, is sustainability in the program. I think we're sitting on a pot of around $20 million. How long that lasts? Of course, it's resetting as loans are paid back. but how long that lasts when you stretch out the repayment as well as increase the dollar amounts that are going into the loan program. So I still think we're looking for long-term sustainable resources to pump into this program. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

amendment a zero three five four five extends the basic life support ambulance

appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Chair Gillen. Any negative votes on Rep Scott's

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This morning we are looking at House Bill 996. EMS is in crisis in this commonwealth. Our fire service is in crisis in this commonwealth. Quite frankly, public safety is in crisis in this Commonwealth. Our local governments have a responsibility to support our fire and EMS services. But we also have a responsibility as state legislators to make sure that our fire and EMS services are supported. And I believe that this committee has done that and continues to do that through the years. This morning we have House Bill 996 in front of us, which would extend the sunset date for BLS staffing until April of 2032. And why is this important? Well, prior to 2015, a BLS ambulance could leave the firehouse, leave its station with one qualified driver and one EMT and respond to a 911 emergency. In 2015, unbeknownst to most, there was a regulation change, which required now at least one EMT and one EMR or two EMTs to be on that BLS unit before it could leave the firehouse or the station. In 2020, we faced the COVID pandemic, and we suspended that regulation, allowing for one qualified driver and one EMT. So in 2022, Act 72 of 2022 is my legislation to extend that suspension of the regulation to allow for one qualified driver and one EMT on every BLS unit. And Act 72 of 2022 extended that until April of 2027. As we all know how things work here in Harrisburg, they don't work real fast. And so it's really, really important that we get this extension done now so that we're not facing the beginning of 2027 with a four-month window to try to get this done. So I appreciate Chairman Solomon bringing this bill up. This bill, again, just extends staffing to allow one qualified driver and one EMT on a BLS unit coming out of our fire stations until April of 2032. I'd appreciate the committee's support on this bill. Thank you.

Beautiful.

Chair Gillen. I think this approach offers the best possible scenario for deployment of our resources. So moving forward, I think it's everybody's goal to have more qualified personnel on the ambulances, but that's the situation that we're in, and so I certainly support this bill.

I know this sounds like something that's happened in Texas recently or in other places, but when I was in the Boy Scouts, I camped out on Treasure Island on multiple occasions in the middle of the Delaware River. It's actually two islands, Treasure Island and Marshall or Eagle Island. In the catastrophic flood of the mid-50s in 1955 in August, the Delaware River rose 40 feet over its normal levels. In 2005, the flooding again destroyed the scout camp that was there. They spent a million dollars to rebuild, and in 2006 it was destroyed again. Eventually, the Boy Scouts sold the camp to a private entity. and they are allowed to use the camp periodically. So this is not something that happens somewhere else. There's a series of camps along the Delaware River and some of our major waterways, and so I think it's wholly appropriate that we deal with this. And as an addendum, because there's joint jurisdiction in the middle of the Delaware River, Um, uh, Kingwood, New Jersey, uh, the municipality in Hunterton County, uh, has oversight over one aspect of Treasure Island and Tinnicum Township in Bucks County has oversight on the other side. as a little bit of tongue-in-cheek observation, since there's joint jurisdiction, the scouts decided to put the archery and rifle ranges on the Pennsylvania jurisdiction side, as you can well imagine why there was less restriction there. And so if you'll go ahead and Google and look back, you'll realize that military helicopters were deployed to evacuate campers and staff from the island. So I think this is something that rightfully should be on our front burner, and I wholly support the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you Chairman This legislation is rather straightforward in taking the effort to protect our first responders in the event of an emergency at a data center We've been talking about data centers now for several months, but the one thing we haven't talked about is what could potentially go wrong inside some of these facilities. They are large in most cases. They have long corridors. They have different rooms with different types of equipment. And our first responders at an alarm would not know what they were walking into. So this legislation points to the need for floor plans and interior contents to be listed in order to obtain a permit of occupancy. And it's rather simple, but the consequences of not having something like this in place could really potentially be catastrophic, not only to first responders but to nearby communities. These data centers will likely be adjacent to refineries, nuclear power plants, natural gas, and electric stations. So it's very important that we're thinking about what our first responders could potentially be responding to. And it's not too much to ask that if there are any changes over the course of a year, that the facility owners would make those changes with the local entities to let them know some contents have changed or a floor plan has changed. If there have been no changes, they can just say no changes. but there is also accountability built in here in fine civil penalties for not putting this information with the local entities. And finally, the last thing that I feel is important is we don't want to share this information widely for security reasons, for obvious security reasons, but the folks that really need to know are listed in this legislation. So I thank you for your consideration and hope for your support today.

I just want to thank the prime sponsor of this bill. This is very, very important. Right now, the data center across the board is a hot topic, and often our first responders are overlooked in that conversation, but it is a very real conversation. In Fayette County, we're almost exclusively volunteer firefighters, and they're putting their life and safety in jeopardy, and we need to make sure that they have all the tools and resources that they need to respond appropriately. We're hearing a lot of promises from the potential developers about what they will do until it makes its way to the fine print. I think there's the potential that there are a lot of empty promises. So I fully support this bill and look forward to getting it to the House for a floor vote. Thank you.

I'd like to thank the prime sponsor of this bill, Representative Sappy, for this very thoughtful legislation. And I think that it's a great starting point for us. I do think that we need to make sure that we are really taking into consideration the amount of money that these people have as well. And I think it's important that not only that their buildings are sprinkled with the appropriate material that could put out the fires on some of these computers and the other material that's inside in a safe way, but there also needs to be talk about remediation, decommissioning with respect to after a fire, what happens. I think the other part is, too, like making sure that the fire departments that are supporting that local area, that service area, have the ability to buy whatever is needed, whether it's this particular type of foam or whatever the material that it needs. Some of our fire departments don't have the financial resources to go out and get the appropriate specialized foam and the specialized material that is needed to put out these fires. The onus should not be on taxpayers when these are billion-dollar corporations that have the resources to put this stuff forward. This is a great piece of legislation, Representative Sappy. Thank you for bringing it, but we cannot lose sight of the financial burden that some of these data centers will put on our fire service, especially the fire service who are out there doing it, have pre-plans in place. What good is having a pre-plan if we don't have the finances to buy the supplies we need to put out the fire? So thank you again.

I want to thank the sponsor of the bill for bringing up this important topic to talk about. However, I don't think I'm going to be supporting the bill as a fireman and somebody who's literally ready to respond at a moment's notice day in and day out of my life. You know, from my understanding and research of data centers, the fact that we already have, you know, well over 50 to 60 of these in our communities today, I already have them in my district or things that I would consider a data center. There's nothing here that necessarily concerns me. I think we already have strong building codes when it comes to commercial, industrial use. And, you know, as just pointed out, the best firefighters actually are those sprinklers. So they're actually better firemen than our volunteers and our career firefighters. All those sprinklers, I mean, typically they'll put out about 70% to 80% of that fire, and then the steam typically does the rest of the work. But I just, you know, I have some concerns about some of the terminology in the bill, And I just, you know, today I don't think this is ready to move on.

Thank you, and I appreciate the gentleman's comments. I think it is important for us to have someone in the county and someone at the local level understand what the contents are inside for toxic reasons. I think there's a lot going on inside that we don't know. And we are really pointed at not the data centers that we know of the last 10 years that are supporting medical offices and banks. We're talking about hyperscale large load users. So these could be a very different animal in the event of an emergency. So I think we have to have something in place before they take occupancy.

Chairman, this might be for staff. Aren't SARA plans already required of these types of facilities in our community, which they're putting these plans forward to our counties, which then share it with our local townships, boroughs, and fire companies? Isn't this already a requirement?

Yes, Representative, ma'am. For those purposes they are state law pretty much mirrors although some provisions are not in line right now But federal regulations dictate that It has to do with the amount of chemicals any institution or organization may have on site. They have to meet a certain threshold, and then they have to report as well as pay for those permits to have the chemicals.

Yeah, I'm just shocked to hear that a sprinkler system could replace a professional firefighter. There's so much more than the electric that's going into these buildings. And then you have the fact of diesel generators on site tells me that there's diesel fuel on site to run the diesel generators. And then some of these sites are putting in batteries as backup for their power. and to say that our professional firefighters, and by the way, I think even volunteer firefighters, in my opinion, are very professional people. They cannot be replaced by a fire sprinkler system. When so much more materials have to be used in firefighting to this degree with the heavy load of electric and all this diesel fuel that's going to be stored on site, I just couldn't let that comment go through without saying something about it. I strongly support this bill. It's a step in the right direction. And to Greg Scott's comment, in Luzern County, a data that the center just put out, because they couldn't get the approval, $165 million in bonuses, $10,000 per household for the entire community, which added up to $45 million, $105 million in bonus or perks to the municipality. And then they threw $15 million out to the community for school-type things and charity-type things. But guess what that data center developer forgot to take care of? The fire departments and the EMS that would respond to that call. Not a dollar went to them. And I think we have to say if a data center is going to throw $165 million as a perk to get an approval, they should take care of firefighters and EMS people.

During the recently consummated budget hearings, there was a comment that the fire commissioner had made relative to a question that I asked during the appropriations committee hearings. in terms of our training regimen, our protocols, what information was flowing and percolating from the fire commissioner's office down to the local fire departments. And it became apparent, and by the fire commissioners, it's no fault of its own, that we do not have in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania currently standardized statewide protocols for managing fires at data centers. At that point, I made a decision. I'm opposed to data centers in the midst of our communities for that reason, and that reason alone I don't need a second reason. I commend the comments of my colleagues relative to data centers and the principles behind them dispensing resources properly to our emergency medical services. That ought to be the highest priority, and it ought to be our highest priority in terms of public safety and health. So, and I support this bill. We sit here really at the cusp of a larger opportunity to grapple at the emergency medical service level as to how we're going to approach this if we're asking people to risk their lives and we're not sure what the best practices and protocols are, If we're not certain that the training regimens have percolated down to the lowest levels of government in our volunteer fire departments, we ought to take a serious moment of pause. Certainly, I'm supportive of this effort. It's a beginning step. There's a lot more that needs to be done here relative to how we are going to mitigate, and it's a multilayered approach for those that are in the professional business or volunteer firefighting. I don't want to send our volunteers. I do not want to send our professional firefighters into the midst of the unknown. And this bill takes a step in the direction of quantifying perhaps some information that needs to be disseminated to our local fire departments. It's just the beginning. It's just the start. I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are committed to getting this right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Solomon yes represent Barowski yes i represent Brown does a nation yes i represent abac two represent against i have Haddock represent angles designation yes represent Monroe does a nation yes representative of Mara represent PLE designation yes represent Representative Sapi, Representative Scott, Representative TACAC, designation yes. Representative Webster, Chairman Gillen, Representative Banta, Representative Batchline, Representative Cooper, Representative Ham, Representative Kerwin, Representative Krupa, Representative Mako? Representative Stare? Representative Sender? Representative Watro? Representative Williams?