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Implementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA ** Implementation of Act 4 6 (Cancer Presumption) ** House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee and House Labor and Industry Committee Matthew Ryan Office Building Room 2 05 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - 10:03 a.m. --oOo-- COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Honorable Stephen Barrar, Majority Chairman Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee Honorable Karen Boback Honorable Rosemary M. Brown Honorable Lynda Schlegel Culver Honorable Frank A. Farry Honorable Mark M. Gillen Honorable Thomas P. Murt Honorable Kathy L. Rapp Honorable Rick Saccone Honorable Will Tallman Honorable Mike Tobash Honorable Chris Sainato, Minority Chairman Honorable Bryan Barbin Honorable Ryan A. Bizarro Honorable Maria P. Donatucci Honorable Patrick J. Harkins Honorable William C. Kortz Honorable Mario M. Scavello, Majority Chairman Labor & Industry Committee Honorable Stephen Bloom Key Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] ementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 2 1 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: (CONT’D) 2 Honorable Jim Cox Honorable Sheryl M. Delozier 3 Honorable Seth M. Grove Honorable Ryan E. Mackenzie 4 Honorable Dan Truitt Honorable William F. Keller, Minority Chairman 5 Honorable Maria P. Donatucci Honorable Patrick J. Harkins 6 7 NON-MEMBERS PRESENT: 8 Representative Gordon Denlinger 9 Representative Mark Longietti 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] ementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 3 1 STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: 2 Rick O ’Leary 3 Majority Executive Director Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness 4 Committee 5 Sean E. Harris 6 Majority Research Analyst Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness 7 Committee 8 Amy Brinton 9 Minority Executive Director Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness 10 Committee 11 Bruce Hanson 12 Majority Executive Director Labor & Industry Committee 13 14 Juanita Hoffman Majority Legislative Assistant II 15 Labor & Industry Committee 16 Noah Karn 17 Majority Research Analyst Labor & Industry Committee 18 19 Joanne Manganello Minority Research Analyst 20 Labor & Industry Committee 21 22 23 24 25 Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] ementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 4 1 INDEX OF TESTIFIERS 2 TESTIFIERS PAGE 3 Opening remarks by Maj. Chairman Barrar___ 8 Opening remarks by Min. Chairman Sainato... 9 4 Opening remarks by Maj. Chairman Scavello.. 10 Opening remarks by Min. Chairman Keller.... 10 5 Opening remarks by Rep. Denlinger.......... 10 6 Remarks by Congressman Lou Barletta....... 11 7 PA State Asso. of Township Supervisors Elam Herr, Asst. Executive Director..... 27 8 Ed Troxel, Director...................... 38 9 Don Konkle, Executive Director............. 66 PA Fire & Emergency Services Institute 10 PA Professional Firefighters Association 11 Art Martynuska, President................ ... 70 Rick Paulson, Esq., Legislative Counsel.. 77 12 Michael Dryden, Esquire.................. ... 80 13 Delaware Valley Insurance Trust Geoffrey Beauchamp....................... 98 14 Rick Lee.................................. 108 15 Gene Connell, Deputy Secretary.............138 PA Department of Labor & Industry 16 Bob Anspach, Director of Insurance Services 151 17 PA Municipal League/Penn Prime Trust 18 Patrick Harvey, Esquire.................... 162 Legal Counsel/Ballad Spahr 19 R. Scott Agar, CPCU, A R M................... 175 20 Principal Consultant Insurance Buyers’ Council, Inc. 21 Ed Mann......................................182 22 State Fire Commissioner 23 SUBMITTED WRITTEN TESTIMONY 24 (See other submitted testimony & handouts online). 25 Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] Implementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 5 1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Good morning, 2 everyone. I ’d like to call this meeting to order. 3 And I would ask our special guest here today is 4 Congressman Barletta, if he would lead us in the 5 Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (Pledge of Allegiance off the record). 7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Good morning, 8 everyone. We’re going to go a little bit out of 9 order today. Well, first thing I ’d like to do is 10 get the members in the room to -- starting at this 11 end, the members and the staff in the room to 12 introduce themselves, starting to my right, if you 13 would. 14 REPRESENTATIVE RAPP: Representative 15 Kathy Rapp. I represent the 65th district of 16 Warren, Forest and McKean counties. 17 MR. HARRIS: Sean Harris, Majority 18 Research Analyst. 19 REPRESENTATIVE FARRY: Frank Farry 20 representing the 142nd District in Bucks County. 21 REPRESENTATIVE BOBACK: Representative 22 Karen Boback, House District 117, parts of Luzerne, 23 Wyoming and Columbia counties. 24 REPRESENTATIVE KORTZ: Good morning, 25 everyone. My name is Bill Kortz, 38th District, Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] Implementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 6 1 Allegheny County. 2 MR. O ’LEARY: Rick O ’Leary, Executive 3 Director for Chairman Barrar. 4 MINORITY CHAIRMAN SAINATO: 5 Representative Chris Sainato. I am the Democratic 6 Chairman of the Veterans Affairs and Emergency 7 Preparedness Committee. 8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SCAVELLO: Good 9 morning. I’m Representative Mario Scavello. I’m 10 the Republican Chair of the Labor and Industry 11 Committee. 12 MINORITY CHAIRMAN KELLER: Bill Keller. 13 I represent the 184th District, south Philadelphia. 14 Congressman. 15 REPRESENTATIVE DONATUCCI: Maria 16 Donatucci, 185th District, representing south 17 Philadelphia, southwest Philadelphia and Delaware 18 County. And I ’m on both committees. 19 REPRESENTATIVE GILLEN: State 20 Representative Mark Gillen from southern Berks 21 County, and I am on both committees. My 22 understanding, Mr. Chairman, we get double time 23 today - 24 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SCAVELLO: Yes. 25 REPRESENTATIVE GILLEN: — for that? Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] Implementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 7 1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Double time. 2 MINORITY CHAIRMAN KELLER: As long as 3 we're not a right-to-work state etiquette. 4 REPRESENTATIVE DENLINGER: Good morning, 5 everyone. Representative Gordon Denlinger, 99th 6 District, eastern Lancaster County. 7 REPRESENTATIVE HARKINS: Good morning, 8 Pat Harkins, 1st District up in Erie. 9 REPRESENTATIVE CULVER: Good morning. 10 Lynda Culver, Northumberland and Snyder counties, 11 and I sit on both committees as well. 12 REPRESENTATIVE MACKENZIE: Good morning. 13 Representative Ryan Mackenzie, representing the 14 134th, Lehigh and Berks counties. 15 REPRESENTATIVE BLOOM: Good morning. 16 Stephen Bloom, representing the 199th District, 17 which is Cumberland County, and I'm secretary of 18 the Labor and Industry Committee. 19 REPRESENTATIVE SACCONE: Good morning. 20 Representative Rick Saccone representing the 39th 21 district of southern Allegheny and northern 22 Washington County. 23 REPRESENTATIVE MURT: Representative Tom 24 Murt, Philadelphia and Montgomery County. 25 REPRESENTATIVE TALLMAN: Representative Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] Implementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 8 1 Will Tallman, parts of Adam and York counties. 2 REPRESENTATIVE LONGIETTI: Good morning. 3 Mark Longietti. I represent part of Mercer County. 4 REPRESENTATIVE BIZARRO: Good morning. 5 Representative Ryan Bizarro from Erie County. 6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Anyone else? 7 (No response). 8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Okay. This 9 meeting is a joint committee meeting today. We are 10 the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency 11 Preparedness Committee is doing this hearing with 12 the Labor and Industry Committee. We’re here today 13 to examine the implementation of Act 46, which was 14 signed into law two years ago and provided a cancer 15 presumption for firefighters across Pennsylvania. 16 Today’s hearing will be a healthy checkup for this 17 important emergency responder benefit program. 18 I would ask everyone in the room if they 19 would please, we are being videotaped, and if you 20 would please turn off your cell phones, and take 21 that into consideration. 22 But before we get started, we have a 23 special guest in the room that I would like to 24 introduce. Congressman Lou Barletta is with us. 25 And in his current work, on a very important piece Reporters 717.764.7801 [email protected] Implementation of Act 46 (Cancer Presumption) Page 9 1 of legislation that relates to, in part, of our 2 subject matter here today, Chairman Scavello and I 3 would like to have him address the committee on his 4 legislation to exempt our volunteer emergency 5 responders from the employer mandate under the 6 Affordable Care Act. 7 Chairman Sainato, do you want to add 8 anything? 9 MINORITY CHAIRMAN SAINATO: Chairman 10 Barrar, I ’d like to thank you and thank all those 11 that’s going to testify today. And Chairman 12 Scavello, Chairman Keller, this is always -- w e ’ve 13 had joint hearings in the past, and it’s always 14 great when we can get together, the two committees, 15 when you have such an important issue which w e ’re 16 talking about today. So, Congressman, welcome to 17 our committees. 18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Mario. 19 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SCAVELLO: Good 20 morning, Congressman. What a pleasure to have you 21 here today. I ’m looking forward to hearing your 22 testimony, and also the testimony of all the ladies 23 and gentlemen in the audience here. This is a very 24 important matter, especially