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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STATE GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARING STATE CAPITOL HARRISBURG, PA MAIN CAPITOL BUILDING ROOM 60, EAST WING MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2 021 9:00 A.M. PRESENTATION ON GOVERNMENT TELEWORK POLICIES AND DATA DURING COVID-19 MEMBERS PRESENT: HONORABLE SETH GROVE, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE RUSS DIAMOND HONORABLE MATTHEW DOWLING HONORABLE BRETT MILLER HONORABLE ERIC NELSON HONORABLE CLINT OWLETT HONORABLE FRANK RYAN HONORABLE PAUL SCHEMEL HONORABLE LOUIS SCHMITT HONORABLE CRAIG STAATS HONORABLE JEFF WHEELAND HONORABLE MARGO DAVIDSON, DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN HONORABLE JARED SOLOMON HONORABLE REGINA YOUNG 2 MEMBERS PRESENT VIRTUALLY: HONORABLE DAWN KEEFER HONORABLE ANDREW LEWIS HONORABLE RYAN MACKENZIE HONORABLE ISABELLA FITZGERALD HONORABLE KRISTINE HOWARD HONORABLE MALCOLM KENYATTA HONORABLE MAUREEN MADDEN HONORABLE BENJAMIN SANCHEZ HONORABLE JOSEPH WEBSTER Pennsylvania House of Representatives Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 3 COMMITTEE STAFF PRESENT: MICHAELE TOTINO MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL HECKMANN MAJORITY RESEARCH ANALYST SHERRY EBERLY MAJORITY LEGISLATIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT MATTHEW RINDFUSS NICHOLAS HIMEBAUGH DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 4 I N D E X TESTIFIERS ~k ~k ~k NAME PAGE MICHAEL NEWSOME SECRETARY, OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION............................ 11 ACCOMPANIED BY: REID WALSH DEPUTY SECRETARY, HUMAN RESOURCES AND MANAGEMENT, OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION SUBMITTED WRITTEN TESTIMONY ~k ~k ~k 'See submitted written testimony and handouts online. 1 5 1 ~k ~k ~k 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN GROVE: Good morning, everyone. 3 Welcome to the public hearing of the Pennsylvania House 4 State Government Committee on governmental work policies 5 and data during COVID-19. I ’m the Committee’s Chairman 6 Seth Grove from York County. This is the second hearing of 7 four which this Committee will review the executive 8 branch’s COVID-19 policies from agencies which fall under 9 this Committee’s oversight jurisdiction. These four 10 Committee hearings were originally going to be held by our 11 Subcommittees, but they have not been populated yet. 12 So specifically the telework policies fall under 13 the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Information 14 Technology and Communication chaired by Representative Russ 15 Diamond. Subcommittees are designed, at least for this 16 Committee, to build technical expertise in their area of 17 jurisdiction. In order for this to occur, I ’ll be turning 18 over the remainder of this Committee to Representative 19 Diamond, as I also may have to step out. 20 Chairman Diamond, it is all yours. 21 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 22 Good morning, everyone. I ’m very much looking 23 forward to this hearing and hearing the testimony from our 24 testifiers covering a very important topic. For the last 25 year, it’s been kind of a nightmare for our constituents to 6 1 have interaction with the State when they need to, so this 2 kind of lies at the heart of that is that where our State 3 workers are working and how they're staying in contact, 4 that sort of thing. 5 In the Members' packets there are numerous 6 documents on teleworking, and these have also been emailed 7 to Members attending virtually. 8 Chairwoman Davidson, do you have any opening 9 comments? 10 DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN DAVIDSON: Yes, thank you, 11 Chairman. 12 I just want to say that I want to express my 13 appreciation for the hardworking members of the State 14 Government staff just in terms of all the work that they've 15 done in an extremely trying situation, which is the global 16 pandemic that has taken over 500,000 lives of U.S. 17 citizens. It’s been a horrific year the last year for 18 Pennsylvanians because there is a pandemic. 19 My constituents are extremely happy with the 20 services that have been provided by my office, which is 21 their first point of contact with State Government, as well 22 as the rest of the State Government functioning. There has 23 been some glitches to the unemployment compensation that 24 has caused some stress to citizens, but that mostly has to 25 do with the fact that the gerrymandered Republican majority 7 1 has refused to fully fund the operating systems of our 2 State employees. And so, you know, when you’re dealing 3 with an antiquated 20- to 30-year-old computer system, 4 there’s going to be problems when you have high levels of 5 unemployment, unprecedented levels of unemployment in a, 6 again, global pandemic that has ravaged our country. And 7 from the top executive branch of the United States of 8 America up until recently there was no coordinated response 9 to that global pandemic. 10 And so, once again, I want to say thank you to 11 State employees who, through their heroism, have done a 12 yeoman’s job of making sure that our citizens are taken 13 care of in a way that was not done from the Federal level 14 but is now being done by our great President Joseph R. 15 Biden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 16 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Alrighty then. Thank 17 you, Chairwoman Davidson. 18 We do have Members and testifiers in attendance 19 virtually, as well as the public viewing via live stream. 20 Due to Sunshine Law requirements, if either of these 21 platforms experience technical difficulties, we will pause 22 the meeting in order to correct the issues. 23 For the Members participating virtually, please 24 mute your microphones. Please know when you speak, we hear 25 all of what you say. If you want to be recognized for 8 1 comments, please use the raise-hand function. After being 2 recognized but prior to speaking, please turn on your 3 camera and unmute your microphone. After you’ve completed 4 your question, please mute your microphone again. 5 I do want to begin with Committee Member 6 introductions, and we will start with Committee Members in 7 the room. And for Members attending virtually, I will call 8 on you one by one. Let’s begin with Representative 9 Wheeland. 10 REPRESENTATIVE WHEELAND: Good morning, acting 11 Chairman -­ 12 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Good morning. 13 REPRESENTATIVE WHEELAND: — Mr. Chairman. Good 14 morning. Jeff Wheeland, 83rd District, Lycoming County. 15 REPRESENTATIVE NELSON: Good morning. 16 Representative Eric Nelson, Westmoreland County. 17 REPRESENTATIVE SCHMITT: Good morning, everybody. 18 Representative Lou Schmitt, 79th District, city of Altoona 19 and parts of Blair County. 20 REPRESENTATIVE DOWLING: Good morning. I ’m 21 Matthew Dowling, the 51st Legislative District in Fayette 22 and Somerset Counties. 23 REPRESENTATIVE RYAN: Representative Frank Ryan, 24 101st District, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. 25 REPRESENTATIVE OWLETT: Representative Clint 9 1 Owlett, all of Tioga and parts of Bradford and Potter 2 County. 3 REPRESENTATIVE STAATS: Good morning. Craig 4 Staats proudly representing the 145th District in Bucks 5 County. 6 REPRESENTATIVE MILLER: Brett Miller, 41st 7 District, Lancaster County. 8 REPRESENTATIVE SCHEMEL: Paul Schemel, portions 9 of Franklin County. 10 REPRESENTATIVE YOUNG: Regina Young, Philadelphia 11 and Delaware Counties. 12 REPRESENTATIVE SOLOMON: Jared Solomon, State 13 Rep, 202nd, northeast Philly. 14 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: And beginning with the 15 Members participating online, Representative Lewis. 16 REPRESENTATIVE LEWIS: Good morning, Chairman, 17 Members of the Committee, and Secretary. Andrew Lewis 18 representing the 105th District in Dauphin County. Good to 19 be here. 20 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Representative 21 Fitzgerald. 22 REPRESENTATIVE FITZGERALD: Good morning. 23 Isabella Fitzgerald, representing the 203rd Legislative 24 District, Philadelphia, West Oak Lane, East Oak Lane, and 25 the lower northeast. 10 1 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Representative Howard. 2 REPRESENTATIVE HOWARD: Hi, it’s Kristine Howard 3 from the 167th District in Chester County. 4 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Representative Kenyatta. 5 REPRESENTATIVE KENYATTA: Hey, good morning, 6 everybody. Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, the 181st 7 District in Philadelphia County. 8 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Representative Webster. 9 REPRESENTATIVE WEBSTER: Good morning, everyone. 10 It’s Joe Webster. I ’m from the 150th in Montgomery County. 11 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Representative Sanchez. 12 REPRESENTATIVE SANCHEZ: Good morning, everybody. 13 Ben Sanchez from the 153rd District in Montgomery County. 14 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: And Representative 15 Mackenzie. 16 REPRESENTATIVE MACKENZIE: Good morning. Ryan 17 Mackenzie representing the 134th District in portions of 18 Lehigh and Berks Counties. 19 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: Alrighty then. New to 20 House operating rules is the provision of swearing in 21 testifiers for standing Committees. Today, we have joining 22 us Secretary Michael Newsome of the Office of 23 Administration and Reid Walsh, who is the Office of 24 Administration’s Deputy Secretary for Human Resources and 25 Management. Secretary Newsome and Deputy Secretary Walsh, 11 1 would you raise your right hands, please? 2 3 (Witnesses sworn.) 4 5 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: All right, thank you. 6 Secretary Newsome, I ’m going to -- we do have written 7 testimony from you. If you would like to open with a brief 8 summary of that testimony, that would be very much 9 welcomed. 10 You are muted, sir. Still muted, sir. We heard 11 you before when you were testing your microphone. Mr. 12 Secretary, if you would log off and log back in again, that 13 may help us. 14 SECRETARY NEWSOME: I think I ’m on right now. 15 REPRESENTATIVE DIAMOND: We have you, Mr. 16 Secretary. You are free to begin. Thank you. 17 SECRETARY NEWSOME: Okay, great. Great, thank 18 you. Good morning, everyone, and to acting Chairman and 19 Chairwoman Davidson, Members of the Committee. As 20 indicated, I ’m Michael Newsome, Secretary of the Governor’s 21 Office of Administration. And on behalf of the Office of 22 Administration, thank you for the opportunity to testify 23 before this Committee to discuss telework policies and 24 practices.

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