State Senator Lisa Boscola

Airport grant announced

Boscola announced that Lehigh Valley International Airport has been awarded $1.76 million in state funding to continue its terminal connector and security checkpoint expansion project and to enhance terminal commercial development connectivity. Funding for these projects are made through PennDOT’s Aviation Transportation Assistance Program.

State Rep. Jeanne McNeill

Bill targets carbon monoxide

Jeanne McNeill introduced H.B. 2505 -Carbon Monoxide legislation aimed at reducing the amount of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning incidents at child care facilities across the commonwealth. Currently, there are no statewide carbon monoxide alarm requirements in place.

Carbon monoxide has no smell and no color. According to McNeill, hundreds of Americans die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning, with an estimated 50,000 sent to the emergency room from accidental exposure annually.

Several municipalities were awarded a total of $185,905 in grant allocations for leaf composting, curbside recycling and other waste management and recycling efforts.

The local governments in Lehigh County receiving grant money are:

• Coplay Borough - $9,243

• Fountain Hill - $34,821

• Salisbury Township - $132,598

• Whitehall Township - $9,243

State Rep. Bob Freeman

Grant for ‘traffic calming’

Rep. Bob Freeman said Lafayette College will receive a $710,000 grant to install traffic-calming devices. The college will use money to install curb bump-outs and marked crosswalks, and add light fixtures, bicycle racks, benches, landscaping and street trees.

The local grant is one of 43 projects across the state to improve transportation alternatives and enhance mobility and public accessibility that were funded through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

State Rep. Steve Samuelson

HBM&S gets grant

State Rep. Steve Samuelson said $1.25 million in redevelopment grants were awarded by Gov. Tom Wolf for two projects in the city of Bethlehem.

Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites will receive $753,397 to repair the historic Grist Miller House. A $500,000 grant was provided to Collaboration 3 LLC to stabilize and renovate the 100-year-old Goodman Building. The money also will be used to create an architecturally complimentary building in an adjacent empty lot at a key location in the” Samuelson worked together with state Sen. Lisa Boscola in securing funding for both projects.

State Rep. Susan Wild

Bill includes substance abuse funds

Wild voted to pass H.R. 2471, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, which includes $530 million for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); $10 million for the Child Abuse Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and State Grants and Community Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) program; and $411 million for the Social Security Administration.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey

Act strengthens health preparedness

Key priorities have been included in the PREVENT Pandemics Act, legislation intended to strengthen the Nation’s public health preparedness and response in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The PREVENT Pandemics Act passed in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and is headed to the Senate floor for consideration by the full Senate. Provisions include:

The Building a Sustainable Workforce for Healthy Communities Act, which provides funding to recruit, hire and train community health workers. Studies show that community health workers can better identify and address the specific health needs of their communities, promote healthy behavior and reduce hospitalization.

The GAIN TOOLS Act, which expands eligibility of treatments to fight antimicrobial infections to include biological products, which are not currently considered “drugs” under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and therefore not eligible for incentives previously established for so-called “qualified infectious disease products.”

Provisions of the PREVENT Medical Device Shortages Act to strengthen medical device supply chains and expand notification requirements during medical device shortages, giving the Food and Drug Administration better tools to help prevent or mitigate shortages.

The SUPPORT Act, which directs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to support access to mental health and substance use disorder services during public health emergencies.

LANTA gets REscue Plan funds

The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) will receive $12,544,967 in new funding from the American Rescue Plan. The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021, provided relief to families, businesses, local governments and others to help ease the burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bill curbs oil company profiteering

With gas prices rising in recent days against a backdrop of continued Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, Casey joined his Senate colleagues in introducing the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act proposal to curb profiteering by oil companies and provide Americans relief at the gas pump. This legislation would impose a new excise tax on oil extracted or imported by large oil corporations, and revenue raised from a tax on the windfall profits of these companies would be returned to consumers in the form of a quarterly rebate.

Anti-union busting act proposed

Casey is one of five senators to introduce the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act to end the taxpayer subsidization of corporate union busting campaigns. As workers around the country join together to fight for better pay and safer working conditions by unionizing, they often face million-dollar corporate intimidation campaigns to prevent unionization. To add insult to injury, corporations are allowed to write off these anti-unionization efforts as run-of-the-mill business expenses.

The No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act would end the taxpayer subsidization of anti-union activity by corporations. The bill would classify businesses’ interference in worker organization campaigns like political speech under the tax code and therefore not tax deductible. Activities denied a deduction would include both unlawful attempts to influence employees, and lawful activities that nonetheless should not be subsidized by taxpayers. These include violations of the National Labor Relations Act, so-called “captive audience meetings” – where employers hold mandatory meetings during work hours and pressure employees against joining a union or interrogate workers-and million-dollar anti-union advertising campaigns around union organization elections.

Support given women’s health act

Casey recently spoke of his support for the then upcoming vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act: “I will again vote yes to advance debate on the Women’s Health Protection Act and I will support the bill if there is a vote on final passage in the future. In the nearly three months since the Senate last voted on the Women’s Health Protection Act, the circumstances around the entire debate on abortion have changed. In light of the leaked Supreme Court decision draft overturning Roe v. Wade, and subsequent reports that Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate will introduce legislation to enact a nationwide six-week ban, the real question of the moment is: do you support a categorical ban on abortion? During my time in public office, I have never voted for – nor do I support – such a ban.”