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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ORIGINA COMMONWEALTHOF PENNSYI,VAI{IA HOUSE APPROPRTATIONS COMMITTEE IN RE: BUDGET HEARING . MAIN CAPITOL MA.JORITY CAUCUS ROOM ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYI,VANIA WEDNESDAY,MARCH 3, 2OO4, 10:00 A.M. BEFORE: ' HON. DAVID G. ARGAIJL, CHAIRMAN HON. DWIGHT EVANS HON. PATRICK E. FI-,EAGI,E HON. MATTHEW E. BAKER HON. STEPHEN E. BARRAR HON. STEVEN W. CAPPEI,I,I HON. CRAIG A. DALI,Y HON. GENE DiGIROLAMO HON. PATRICK E. FLEAGLE HON. TERESA FORCIER HON. JEFFREY E. HABAY HON. ,JIM LYNCH HON. ,JOHN A. MAHER HON. SAMUEIJ E. ROHRER HON. CURT SCHRODER HON. .]ERRY A. STERN HON. PETER J. ZUG HON. .JAKE WHEATLEY, JR. HHiSfill*"_ft#fu"Til";:. -.Se l-H:+F-l 2336 N. SecondStreet (717) 234-5922 l=l={|-r lflHtl Harrisburg,PA 17110 EAX(717) 234-6190 -I ilJllrl faoocl o/p 2 l_ APPEARANCES :, (CONT, d) I z HON. DAN B. FRANKEI, HON. FRANK LaGROTTA .HON. 3 KATHY M. MANDBRINO HON. ANTHONY ,J. MELf O 4 HON. PHYI,LIS MUNDY HON. ,]OHN MYERS 5 HON. MICHAEL P. STURLA HON. THOMAS, A. TANGRETTI 6 HON. DON WALKO ' . HON. ,fAKE WHEATITEY, ,JR. 7 AI,SO PRESENT: B HON. PAUL I. CLYMER 9 10 l_L L2 13 14 L5 16 l7 1B I9 20 2t 22 23 24 25 .-: L N E 2 3 SPEAKER PAGE rr. David Sanko 5. 5 Edward Mann 2T ,6 Donald Cunningham,,Jr. 63 7 Donald Yarkin 139 8 Co1 . ilef f rey Mil1er 153 9 Lt. CoI. Henry Oleyniczak 168 10 Lt. CoI. Ralph Periandi 166 LL Estelle Richman 228 t2 Michael Nardone 23r L3 Steve Rosskopf 233 t_4 David Feinberg 279 l_5 Wayne Stevenson 3]-2 16 Kathy Yorkievitz 330 t7 L8 L9 20 2I 22 23 24 25 L . CHAIRMAN ARGAITIT: WeLcome to Day 9 2 3 we review the Governor's suggest,ed budget f or the 4 upcoming fiscal- year Before we begin with the 5 . o Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Itd 7 like my colleagues on the committee to introduce . B themselves,'beginning with Representative Evans. 9 REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Good morning. 10 Dwight Evans. 11 REPRESENTATIVE LAGROTTA: Frank t2 LaGrotta, Warren, Butler, and Beaver County. o L3 REPRESENTATIVE MELIO: Tony Me1io, I4 Bucks County. 15 REPRESENTATIVE BARRAR: STCVE 16 Barrar, Delaware and Chester Counuy. t7 REPRESENTATM CAPPELI-.,f: Steve L8 Cappe11i, I'ycoming CountY. 19 REPRESENTATIVE BAKER: Matt Baker, . 20 Tioga and Bradford Counties. 2I REPRESENTATIVE FLEAGIIE: PAt, 22 Fleagle rom Franklin County. .f 23 ' REPRESENTATIVE ZllG: Peter Zu!, 24 Irebanon Count,Y. 25 REPRESENTATfVE FORCfER: Teresa 1 Forcier, Crawford. 2 REPRESENTATIVE LYNCH: Jim LYnch, 3 Forest, McKean and Warren Counties. = REPRESENTATIVE DIGIROI,AMO: GCNC 5 DiGirolamo from beautiful Bucks County. 6 CHAIRMAN ARGALL: You know a 1ittle 7 bi.t about Bucks County, I think, Mr. Sanko. I Welcome to the committee and please begin your 9 statement. 10 DIRECTOR SANKO: Good mornitg, 11 everyone. I am Dave Sanko, the director of the t2 Emergency Management Agency. This is not the 13 press conf erence where ,John Ed.wards is going,to L4 be dropping out of the race. 15 Wit,h me is Ed Mann, the State Fire L6 Commissioner, who will be available for comments L7 at the conclusion of the testimony. 18 Mr. Chairman and members of the t9 committee, I am pleased. to have the opportunity 20 to appear before you to discuss the state budget 2T proposed for PEMA, the Pennsylvania Emergency 22 Management AgencY. 23 behalf of our emergency 24 responders across the state and more than a 25 hundred thousand men and women who comprise our 1 fire, EMS, and police first response community, 2 our red, white, and blue line of defense if you 3 wil1, I want to thank You, the members of the 4 GeneraL Assembly, for your continued interest and 5 supportr. 6 These are extraordinary t'imes for ' 7 those involved in publ ic saf ety'. And it a time : B of great challenge, as well as a time of 9 tremendous opPortunitY. 10 In response to the tragedies three 11 years ago on September 11, the federaL government t2 has committed unprecedented resources to help L3 ensure the safety of our communities. L4 The combination of these resources 15 and'legislative framework authorized by you in l-5 Act 2OO2'227 which recognized Pennsylvaniars t.7 regional counterterrorism task force has allowed L8 uS to create a public safety preparedness program 19 that directly impacts every resident of this great Commonwealth and' is second to none' .20 2J. must te11 You, Mf,. Chairman, that 22 these federal funds, while substantial, are 23 significantly restricted' in how they can be 24 spent. 25 While program emPhasis and Public 7 1 discussion revolves around terrorism 2 preparedness, what we are building at PEMA and 3 across the Commonwealth with the help of our 67 4 county partners is a capacity to address all 5 hazards, natural as well as man-made. 6 At the end of the day, after a lot 7 of hard work and careful investment in a B comprehensive regional program 9 necessary equipment, plannitg, training and 10 exercises Pennsylvaniars communities will be 11 more safe and more security. l2 rn order to accomplish this, under 13 the umbrella of the regional counterterrorism l4 task forces .werre creating partnerships''that. 15 include all aspects of our communities elected L6 officials, first responders, business and t7 industry, hospitals, medical community, 1B education, critical infrastructure, volunteer 19 community, the news media, and many others 20 working together to ensure the safety of all our 2L ne ighborhoods . 22 . Last year I told You that 23 P'ennsylvania had one of the finest emergency 24 management platf orms in Amer j-ca. I 25 Wetve not resLed on that 1 accompLishment but continue to build upon this 2 so1id, foundation. Irm pleased to report that the 3 Federal Department of Homeland SecuriUy uses 4 Pennsylvania' s program as a nat ional mod.e1 . 5 Also, Mr. Chairman, earlier this 6 year we submitted. to the Federal Department of 7 Homeland Security the Pennsylvania Statewide 8 Homeland Security Assessment'and Strategy, which 9 represents an extremely comprehensive review of 10 our risk potential and resource inventory. That L1 is a three-year strategy, a blueprint, if you I2 wiI1, that we will use over the course of the 13 next three years to build capacity and to qualify 14 for federal federal resources. 15 It was a lot of effort that went l_6 into that over the course of this past year with l-7 all of our communities and responders. I can l_8 assure you that there is the regional 19 . partnerships have taken into account economies 20 and efficiencies to make sure that this is not an 27 e_verybody-gets-something program, but it ..1q 22 intended to use the resources we have mosL wj-se1y 23 and build capacit,y regionally. 24 This document was developed last 25 year to provid.e .the road map f or that f uture 1 spending p1an. We identify high risk potentials z and balance them against our existing resources 3 to develop what a list of unmet needs would be. 4 We work closely with the Governorrs 5 Homeland Security Adviser, the Pennsylvan j-a State - o Po1ice,. the Department of Health, National Guard, 7 DEP, agriculture actua11y, I canrt think of a B single staL,e agency that we do.n't interact with 9 or coordinate with as it relates to - either r.-0 preparing for or responding Lo or recovering from 1L a disaster. t2 ' CollectiveIY, we regularly meet with 13 regional counterterrorism task forces as we l4 proceed to implement this important strategy. 15 While werre making significant l_6 progress in helping prepare our communities for L7 response to t,errorism event, it's important to L8 remember that we also continually refine our 19 hazard preparedness Platform. 20 I-rast year PEMA coordinated federal 2t disasL,er aids for residents and businesses as 22 well as local governments and ot,her qualified 23 applicants for six catastrophic events to include 24 f j-re, f lood, tornado, and severe storms. 25 Early 2003 the severe winter storm 10 1 impacted 3 6 counties. PEMA, oD the Governorrs 2 request, did request for fed.eral aid. resulted in 3 some in excess of $20 million being paid out 4 in leverage from the federal government' to local 5 communities to assist in snow removal costs for 6 over a thousand municipal governments, 29 7 hospitals and healt,h care f aciliLies, 19 higher I ed. institutions, ? state agencies, 113 school 9 districts, as we]1 as the City of Philadelphia- l_0 In the,July through September severe tl_ storms there was addit ional $ l-2 mill ion in L2 damag€, of which nearly 7 million has been l_3 distributed. In those applications,we continue L4 to work through the process with those remaining l_5 municipalities to get have Lhem file the J-O appropriate forms so they qualify. t7 In September of that -- last Year, 18 on the tail of the hurricane, S to 10 inches of L9 rain fe11 in Chester County resulting. in over 'was 2A $1.4 million worth of damage that eligible 2t for federal assistance and 1ow interest loans to 22 the businesses and residents of Chester County. 23 Additionally, there were three sma11 24 business administration disaster loans and three 25 localized disasLers. One was in Tionesta Borough l_1 1 Business District, a fire in March of last year; 2 Cameron County Bmporium Business District, a fire 3 in February; and then most recently f lood.ing in 4 the last November in Greene County.