00:00 - Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Pennsylvania Press Club.

00:03 - I'm Dennis Owens of ABC 27 TV, Vice President

00:07 - of the Pennsylvania Press Club, and your host for today's luncheon.

00:11 - Joining me at the head table, Chuck Quinn and leading H.

00:14 - Pennsylvania, Todd Echis, Broadband.

00:16 - Communications Association of Pennsylvania, and Warren Houdak, Houdak, and company.

00:20 - Thanks to you, gentlemen.

00:22 - We certainly appreciate you being here.

00:23 - And thanks to all of our press club sponsors,

00:25 - the series would not be possible without

00:28 - the support of the generous organizations that are listed on our sponsor, Batter.

00:33 - Our guest today is Senate Majority Leader

00:36 - Joe Pittman, serving his second full term in the Pennsylvania Senate.

00:40 - He's a lifelong resident of the Indiana.

00:42 - County, represents the 41st senatorial district

00:45 - in Armstrong, Indiana, Jefferson, and Westmoreland counties.

00:49 - As legislative leader, I'm not sure if his job

00:53 - is more hurting cats, taming lions, or both.

00:56 - In these interesting times, especially, we

00:58 - get to hear from him as we're just five weeks

01:01 - before the midterm election, five weeks, in

01:03 - fact, from tomorrow we come to you on Monday.

01:05 - Prior to being elected to the Senate, Joe served as former Senator Don White's Chief

01:09 - and staff, and in that role developed strong working

01:11 - relationships with members of the General Assembly,

01:14 - legislative staff, and officials across several state agencies.

01:17 - He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Penn State University, when

01:21 - I bring up Wisconsin Game on Saturday night.

01:23 - He resides in Indiana County with his wife,

01:26 - Gina, and their four children, Joe Jr., Sam, Rosie, and Franny.

01:30 - He and Gina are members of the St. Thomas More University Parish in Indiana.

01:34 - Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the majority

01:37 - leader of the Senate, Senator Joe Pittman.

01:39 - [APPLAUSE]

01:46 - Thank you, Dennis. Appreciate it.

01:48 - Appreciate the introduction, the reminder of the Penn State

01:51 - loss, but the only solace that I have is

01:54 - that Michigan loss too, so we will take that

01:57 - as great comfort. It's an honor to be here with

01:59 - all of you today, and prior to the beginning

02:02 - of the program, I thought it was very

02:04 - appropriate to honor the life and legacy of John Bear.

02:08 - I didn't know John personally very well.

02:11 - I had very few interactions with him, but

02:15 - I was struck when I read over the weekend the.

02:18 - Penn Live article about his life, and some

02:21 - of the comments that he made, particularly

02:25 - about going to the press pool with his dad who

02:30 - was also a journalist. In a remark that there

02:33 - were all kinds of newspapers at his home,

02:35 - the Philadelphia Enquire, the Post-Gazette, the.

02:38 - Patriot News, and he referred to all of those

02:41 - periodicals as information. He used the word

02:44 - information, which I thought was a very important

02:48 - word to think about whenever it comes to journalism.

02:53 - As a younger member of the staff

02:56 - in the capital over a few years, I will tell

03:00 - you that the information that individuals like John Bear and Pete T'Corci and Brad.

03:07 - Bunsted and Elmery and the list goes on and on,

03:12 - that they had provided was extremely important to legislators and staff alike.

03:19 - And so I value the relationship that I have with the news media.

03:23 - I think there is an important role for the news media, and it's because of

03:28 - people like John Bear that I believe that,

03:31 - because at the end of the day, contrary to

03:34 - popular belief, I do not have a grand plan sitting

03:37 - in my desk on what's going to happen in the next three weeks, next three months, next

03:42 - 12 months. The capital is a very organic place.

03:46 - And a lot of times we all rely on the

03:51 - information that we received from the news

03:53 - media to understand the feel and the temperature

03:58 - of the capital, and this whole commonwealth.

04:00 - And so I appreciate what John had done for the industry.

04:04 - I appreciate that he had founded this press club because at the end of

04:08 - the day, this mission is extraordinarily

04:12 - important, and that is to build a future generation

04:18 - of journalists, which our government will only be as good as responsible journalism

04:23 - will allow. And so John's legacy, I think, is

04:27 - very broad in ways that many won't realize,

04:31 - but I do appreciate everything that he provided

04:34 - through this capital in this commonwealth

04:36 - for all of these years. And I'm very honored

04:39 - to be here again after three and a half years

04:41 - with the press club. Again, to share a few

04:44 - thoughts about where we are as a commonwealth

04:47 - and where we may be going. The adage, the more

04:50 - things change, the more they stay the same,

04:53 - maybe appropriate in terms of what's occurred over the last three and a half years.

04:57 - In this 250th anniversary of our nation, I think is an important point of reflection

05:04 - in terms of this commonwealth and the role

05:07 - that we played in the founding of this nation,

05:10 - the role that we've continued to play in continuing to keep this nation strong.

05:16 - And at the end of the day, we have a responsibility

05:20 - to keep this keystone state, the keystone

05:25 - of these 50 United States. I believe we have been founded by divine providence.

05:32 - I truly, truly believe that our nation and this commonwealth

05:35 - have been founded for the express purpose

05:38 - of continuing this constitutional republic, well beyond our first 250 years.

05:44 - Now make no mistake, we are at a crossroads.

05:47 - This commonwealth is the purpose of purple states.

05:50 - That hasn't changed in the last three and a half years since I was first here.

05:56 - We all know that the political makeup is a Senate Republican

05:59 - majority, a House Democrat majority, and

06:01 - a Democrat governor. We're one of only three

06:04 - states of the 50 states that has a divided

06:07 - legislature politically, which puts us in a

06:10 - unique position, and often times a very difficult position.

06:17 - Often we see our policy movements between the 49 yard lines as we have these debates

06:23 - here in Harrisburg about the competing visions

06:26 - that we have for the future of this commonwealth.

06:31 - And make no mistake, there are deep philosophical

06:34 - divisions in Harrisburg, and that's okay.

06:37 - It's okay to have deep philosophical divisions

06:41 - on policy, but it also requires us to have

06:44 - given take and compromise on issues when the moment

06:48 - arises and requires it. Now I'll tell you that

06:51 - despite this divided government, our Senate.

06:53 - Republican majority is quite proud of the agenda that

06:56 - we have advanced. And we believe much of the

06:59 - agenda that we have advanced is critical to

07:02 - unleashing the promise of Pennsylvania. We believe in the promise of Pennsylvania.

07:09 - In frankly, much of our agenda that's successful

07:12 - as it's been in this divided government

07:15 - is often embraced by the other side of the island, the governor, after it's completed.

07:21 - And that's okay because as they say success has

07:24 - a thousand fathers. But I assure you that if it

07:28 - wasn't for our Senate Republican majority, we

07:31 - would not have continued to reduce taxes on job creators.

07:36 - We would not have enacted meaningful permitting reform on a number of levels.

07:44 - We would not have grown exponentially the EITC

07:47 - program to empower parents to make decisions

07:51 - their best for their children's future. We would not have had the investments in

07:55 - career and technical training that we've seen

07:58 - over the last several years. We would not have

08:01 - enacted grow Pennsylvania, which is a tentative

08:05 - our Senate Republican majority to encourage young

08:09 - people to be educated in this Commonwealth to move

08:12 - to this Commonwealth to stay in this Commonwealth.

08:16 - That's why we advanced all of those initiatives.

08:20 - You know, part of the crossroads that we're at

08:24 - is that our fastest growing age demographic

08:26 - in this Commonwealth is the 85 plus community.

08:30 - And every year that goes by, we are educating

08:33 - fewer and fewer students in our schools.

08:37 - That is a long-term recipe for disaster. And we must change that trajectory.

08:45 - Now puts us in a difficult situation because we

08:48 - have the immediate needs of balancing our budget year over year.

08:52 - And unlike our friends at the federal government, we don't get to borrow money,

08:56 - we don't get to deficit spend. We have to balance

09:00 - our budget as well. And so we take the efforts

09:04 - of making targeted investments with the balance of reducing taxes on job creators

09:11 - to fix our ultimate problem, which is economic

09:15 - growth and economic prosperity, and ultimately

09:18 - turning our demographics in this Commonwealth around.

09:22 - And again, that's why permitting reform

09:25 - has been so important to us. You can't have

09:27 - economic development without putting a shovel in the ground.

09:30 - You can't get a shovel in the ground

09:33 - without having a permit to advance any given initiative.

09:40 - It's why for seven years we fought to remove the anvil of Regi from every consumer

09:45 - of electricity in this Commonwealth, in every family

09:48 - sustaining job that comes from the responsible

09:52 - use of our God-given natural resources that makes

09:56 - us the largest export of electricity in this nation.

10:00 - It took us seven years to achieve that.

10:03 - And thankfully, given what we see in the market

10:07 - today, we removed that anvil of Regi over the

10:10 - consumers of electricity. And quite frankly,

10:16 - it was Governor Wolf's scheme, Governor Shapiro

10:19 - hugged it until he decided his focus group didn't like it.

10:24 - And then it was okay to get rid of it.

10:26 - But make no mistake, if it wasn't for our majority,

10:31 - the Regi electricity tax could very well be alive and well.

10:35 - You know, so much of what we focused on

10:39 - is limitation of executive authority.

10:41 - What I like to call the fourth branch of government,

10:44 - which is the bureaucracy. And Regi is one

10:47 - example of that limitation. Permitting reform is

10:50 - another example of that limitation.

10:53 - We just saw probably the most salient example of that

10:58 - limitation on Friday, when after a massive

11:01 - grassroots uprising throughout this Commonwealth,

11:05 - the Department of Health and the Shapiro

11:09 - administration withdrew 502 pages of bureaucratic

11:13 - gobbledygook that was probably the most invasive

11:17 - effort that I've ever seen of the government

11:20 - coming into individuals' lives in usurping local

11:24 - control, particularly in our school districts.

11:28 - And the other thing that we've done to rein in the fourth branch of government

11:34 - is that we have flattened the couch cushions

11:36 - of bureaucracy like a pancake. Think about it.

11:40 - Three and a half billion dollars is what we have

11:42 - pulled out of the bureaucracy over the last two budgets.

11:47 - Tax dollars previously allocated to given government agencies

11:53 - that just literally sat on the money.

11:56 - So we took it back. We took it back and we reallocated it.

12:02 - We used some of it to allow those job creator

12:06 - tax cuts to continue. We also used it to fully

12:11 - protect the rainy day fund. The rainy day fund

12:15 - is an extremely important element to our fiscal

12:20 - stability and protecting the taxpayers from a

12:24 - future rainy day. And you know I've thought a lot

12:27 - about our fiscal situation and quite frankly it

12:31 - reminds me of the 1990 Google tutorial election

12:36 - whenever Barbara Hayfer made it very clear to

12:39 - the electorate the structural deficit that was in

12:43 - front of the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.

12:46 - The governor at the time demeored and dismissed

12:51 - and we all know he was reelected. But we also know what happened in August of 1991.

12:59 - And it certainly our focus is a Senate Republican majority to make sure that

13:09 - doesn't unfold again. So we've achieved a lot in this divided government.

13:12 - There are things that we have done that we don't particularly enjoy doing which is

13:17 - especially spending more than we would prefer.

13:20 - I've been very open that our budgets have spent

13:23 - more than certainly I would prefer or the majority of our caucus.

13:28 - But at the end of the day that's

13:30 - the element of give and take. Now we think there's much more work to do in the future.

13:37 - There are plenty of initiatives that we pass to

13:40 - our friends in the House Democrat majority that

13:43 - we would love them to take up felony to murder being won.

13:48 - We put a very thoughtful legislative

13:52 - initiative in place there. We also sent them constitutional amendment on voter ID

13:59 - which is very simple. All we're saying is a voter

14:02 - should say that they are who they say they are improving.

14:07 - You actually have to do that the first time you vote.

14:09 - So it seemed to me that the second

14:13 - the third and the fourth time would be pretty

14:15 - easy to show the same ID you showed the first time you voted.

14:18 - Save women and sports act.

14:20 - We pass that by a bipartisan majority in the state Senate

14:25 - and it remains stuck in the House. And there's even

14:27 - initiatives that we've worked with our Democrat

14:30 - friends in the Senate such as Tina Tartaglione

14:32 - to bring responsible governance to open-air drug markets.

14:37 - We passed it with 40 votes.

14:39 - It continues to languish in the House Democrat majority.

14:45 - And the one last thing I'll touch on and then we'll turn to Q&A.

14:48 - I'm sure Dennis may have one or two.

14:53 - Okay. I noted the governor announced the $775 million

14:57 - of rapid deployment for highway infrastructure.

15:01 - And I'm glad he announced it. But make no mistake

15:04 - those dollars would not be coming out the door

15:07 - if it wasn't for the tenaciousness of our Senate.

15:10 - Republican majority. For two years we've been

15:14 - asking the question why? Why does Penn dot have a $3.

15:18 - 3 billion balance in the motor license fund

15:26 - when in 2015 it was $750 million?

15:28 - And keep in mind that's cash in the bank. $3.3 billion.

15:32 - We've been asking why does the public transit

15:36 - trust fund have $2.4 billion of cash in the bank?

15:40 - When in 2015 it was about a billion dollars and it's grown by $1.4 billion.

15:45 - In fact, SEPTA has $850 million of capital funds that

15:49 - have been sitting there. The port of 40 has $250

15:53 - million of funds that have been sitting there.

15:57 - Why? Why have those funds grown as revenues

16:03 - continue to come into them whenever we keep

16:05 - hearing about a transit crisis? We know full well

16:07 - our roads are not exactly in great shape the next

16:10 - time the paved second street here will be the

16:13 - first time I think. So we certainly have our

16:16 - own set of challenges whenever it comes to our

16:20 - infrastructure needs. But make no mistake if it

16:23 - wasn't for us there wouldn't have been honesty

16:27 - in admitting that those balances are there.

16:30 - Let alone finally an effort to drive them out the door.

16:35 - And so that is one area where if I could encourage

16:37 - my friends in the news media to maybe take a

16:40 - stronger look at something we've been talking about for two years.

16:44 - Penned that itself is sitting on $6 billion.

16:48 - Why? I think we need to understand the answer to that question. Why?

16:54 - So there are many other initiatives that we have worked on

16:58 - and in despite some of the partisan challenges

17:01 - we've worked on a lot in a bipartisan way human

17:05 - trafficking protections on AI development.

17:12 - I'm sure we'll get into that in the Q&A.

17:13 - In areas such as that that we also find very important

17:18 - where we do find common ground because at the

17:19 - end of the day we are all elected by our own

17:21 - constituencies but we have our obligation to

17:23 - come to the Capitol and recognize that all

17:26 - 203 of us were elected just as each and every

17:29 - one of us were coming from different places

17:35 - and we have just as much a voice as each and every one of us.

17:36 - So thank you for the opportunity to say a few words. I'm eager for the questions

17:39 - and we'll go from there. Thank you.

17:47 - Thank you Senator Pimenti. I just leave it right there.

17:49 - That's fine. If I had to own the

17:51 - one there and these questions come from throughout the room.

17:54 - First one what do you see as the Senate Republican caucus's top priorities for

17:58 - Pennsylvania employers and what should small business

18:01 - owners expect the Senate to actually accomplish

18:04 - before the end of this session? Well the key that

18:07 - we always have is trying to keep government out

18:10 - of the way of small business as much as possible.

18:14 - Now that's not always achievable within this divided government.

18:17 - And one of the things I will point

18:21 - out is sometimes stopping things from happening

18:25 - is equally as important as what can be achieved.

18:29 - What we can do over the next couple of weeks I

18:31 - think is very much an open question. Obviously most

18:34 - of our work has been in the budget what we've tried to do with small employers.

18:38 - And the one provision in the tax code that we did a couple

18:41 - years ago that we haven't talked a lot about.

18:44 - It's kind of wonky is the net operating loss carry

18:47 - forward provision. Up until a couple years ago

18:50 - us in New Hampshire were the only two states

18:53 - in the nation that did not allow for net

18:55 - operating loss carry forward. And I know that

18:58 - that's been a very important piece for the small

19:02 - business community so they can make capital

19:03 - investments and defer the losses over multiple tax years.

19:09 - These next two are kind of related but why are you not coming up with a skill

19:12 - game solution when so many people will lose their

19:15 - jobs and veteran posts will close without them?

19:18 - Well we came up with a proposal and we've been

19:21 - very candid about the view that anything being

19:24 - done in gaming requires really all five parties

19:27 - the four caucuses in the governor to come together

19:32 - and figure out what a consensus product can be.

19:35 - About 18 months ago I introduced a bill which I

19:40 - thought was a consensus effort to regulate games of skill.

19:45 - That provision that bill was rejected by various stakeholders in no uncertain terms.

19:51 - And so we put forward a proposal to try to move

19:55 - the conversation along. That wasn't accepted

19:58 - for any number of reasons. I would hope that the

20:02 - governor in the house would do the same.

20:04 - We do at least have the governor in his budget address saying

20:09 - he wants a 52% tax with 40,000 machines.

20:11 - I still don't know what the house democrat leadership would

20:15 - do. Perhaps they should just rubber stamp what the

20:17 - governor proposed and send it over.

20:19 - But this is something that we need to tackle as not a partisan issue.

20:24 - But come together and understand that

20:27 - there are small businesses, there are clubs and

20:29 - taverns that have gotten the rely on these games for

20:32 - the last several years and figuring out a regulatory

20:35 - path on them makes sense. Whether we can get there

20:39 - is a very open question and quite frankly in the

20:42 - conversations in June even though the governor said

20:45 - he wanted all the money to go to the general

20:48 - fund the house and senate democrat leadership

20:51 - insisted on reopening the transit conversation

20:53 - which led to a lot of problems because we're willing

20:56 - to talk about transit as long as we have accountability

20:59 - that comes with it. And kind of related what

21:03 - do you say to constituents who question why lawmakers

21:05 - didn't have a more robust session schedule given

21:07 - front burner issues like second degree life

21:09 - and skill games there is work to be done why

21:12 - have you not been doing it? Well I can't speak

21:14 - for the house but from my vantage point whenever

21:16 - we're in session we are very efficient whenever

21:19 - it comes to moving things forward and we move

21:22 - felony to not just once but twice over to the house.

21:26 - The Pennsylvania Racehorse Development Trust Fund has been negatively impacted by

21:32 - significant gaming expansion and evolving skill game situation.

21:37 - Can you speak to whether a deal on

21:38 - skill games will be reached and if the legislation

21:41 - will address the need to stabilize Pennsylvania's

21:44 - horse racing industry? I do think that the

21:47 - horse race development fund is an important part of

21:49 - our economy in Pennsylvania. When you think about

21:53 - when gaming was enacted in 2004 no matter what

21:56 - your point of view of it may have been at the time

22:00 - or is now a lot of that conversation was about

22:02 - the agricultural community in the value of horse racing.

22:06 - Now I do think that consumer habits have

22:08 - changed over the decades and we've seen that in

22:12 - casino revenues generally particularly with

22:15 - four machine slot games which has had the effect

22:19 - on the horse race development fund but I would

22:21 - certainly be open if we do some gaming reform

22:23 - to try to figure out how to better stabilize horse

22:26 - racing because I do think it's very important

22:29 - to our agricultural community. If the PA Senate

22:32 - flips to democratic control will the legislature

22:36 - do mid-decade redistricting? It won't.

22:39 - In your review will the PA Senate flip to Democrat? No.

22:44 - Why? Because we're going to grow our majority.

22:48 - After the voucher debacle with Governor Shapiro

22:51 - has the Senate reset its relationship with the governor?

22:54 - Well we've obviously had to work with them

22:57 - but it was a very very disappointing process in his first year.

23:02 - It really did set the tone for

23:06 - the remainder of the three years. It really let

23:08 - us know who was in charge and it clearly wasn't the governor.

23:10 - It's the House Democrats.

23:12 - Several small bills have been introduced relative to adult use marijuana.

23:16 - Does anything get across the line before this session ends? I don't see it coming

23:22 - before this session ends but I go back to the

23:24 - lack of seriousness on this issue that we received

23:27 - from the House Democrats. I mean think about this.

23:30 - They sent us a recreational marijuana legalization

23:34 - proposal that would have marijuana in the state stores.

23:38 - Now come on. I mean we're not going to put

23:42 - weed in state stores. Number one because they can't

23:45 - functionally do it because they couldn't comply

23:49 - with federal law. People tend to forget that

23:51 - recreational marijuana for better or worse is a

23:55 - scheduled narcotic at the federal level and I

23:57 - think we would all be well served to have some

23:59 - more national direction on how to deal with this

24:02 - issue and I'd also point to the auditor general's

24:06 - report just recently that the Department of Health

24:09 - has not exactly done a bang-up job on medical marijuana.

24:13 - So I don't have a whole ton of confidence in our ability even if we were to legalize

24:17 - recreational marijuana to do it well and I think

24:21 - that 502 page bureaucracy document that we saw

24:25 - withdrawn on Friday by the Department of Health

24:27 - is another good example of that. Will anything

24:38 - pass before the end of this session in your view?

24:42 - Yes. Care to elaborate? No. No. Kent rhymes with sounds like.

24:47 - Why or why not do you oppose a gift band?

24:51 - From my vantage point if you look at

24:56 - the gift band get the ethics act and our campaign finance law.

25:01 - Both of them are built on transparency

25:04 - and one of the things that I've think has been

25:08 - conflated whenever I hear about campaign finances

25:13 - and gift bands is campaign contributions are not gifts.

25:17 - Let's be very clear a campaign contribution

25:21 - is given to a political committee to influence

25:25 - the outcome of an election. That's campaign contributions.

25:30 - That's campaign finances.

25:32 - As it relates to the ethics act it's very clear

25:36 - that we cannot accept anything of value for

25:40 - official action. That is not only the law but it's

25:44 - also part of our Senate rules and so from my vantage

25:48 - point if a member of the legislature receives

25:51 - transportation or receives lodging of some kind

25:55 - the thresholds are well known that that should

25:58 - all be reported and allow the public to discern

26:01 - what's been received. If you could change one

26:05 - thing about Harrisburg to create a more

26:07 - efficient legislative process what would it be?

26:17 - Take the cameras out of the chamber.

26:18 - Press the cameras? Just saying people like to talk in front of cameras.

26:24 - I hadn't noted that. Given the federal government approving a pilot program for

26:30 - whole home repair should the Pennsylvania legislature

26:34 - require the provide the program at the state level.

26:38 - When it comes to housing I think the better

26:41 - approach is allowing the market to efficiently

26:45 - effectively and cheaply build homes. Quite frankly

26:49 - permitting reform is one of those conversations.

26:52 - We hear a lot from housing developments that they

26:55 - are so stymied by permitting that they have a

26:57 - hard time bringing housing to the market.

27:00 - We do a lot through the PHFA, the housing tax

27:03 - credit program particularly for the 55 plus community.

27:06 - I very much concerned that a whole

27:10 - home repair program would just turn into another bureaucracy.

27:13 - The Senate Republican majority

27:15 - has played a critically important role in moderating

27:18 - the legislative agendas of Governor Shapiro and.

27:20 - House Democratic majority. Why should this matter

27:22 - to the everyday voter who are primarily concerned

27:25 - about kitchen table issues? At the end of the day

27:28 - we bring balance to the conversation quite frankly.

27:31 - As I talked about we are the purplest of purple

27:33 - states, which means that this state government right

27:36 - now, quite frankly, reflects the overall perspective

27:40 - of the Commonwealth. We've been a check on the

27:44 - governor and the House Democrat majority on a number

27:46 - of areas and I would say increased spending is

27:49 - at the top of the list. As I've said our budgets in my opinion still spend too much.

27:55 - But if you think about what the governor's proposed budgets

27:58 - and what the House Democrats have enacted,

28:00 - not just in their budgets but in any number of programs that would require funding,

28:05 - that to me is an important check that we provide in this state government.

28:11 - And frankly, also the oversight. I talked about the murder

28:14 - license fund and the public transit trust fund.

28:17 - Both of those are important elements that if our majority again was not in place,

28:22 - we wouldn't have been having the honest

28:24 - conversation about those balances that we've had.

28:27 - This question asked you've been a senator and now leader for more than a few years.

28:31 - How, if at all, has the capital changed, different

28:34 - ideologies, a general difference in lawmakers

28:37 - and willingness to compromise, to make it easy,

28:39 - is it easier or more difficult to get stuff done?

28:42 - It's certainly more difficult and I do as much

28:46 - as I value the relationship with the news media.

28:50 - I do think that 24/7 news and social media

28:54 - have made our ability to have conversations,

28:58 - thoughtful conversations in this building.

29:01 - I am sure by the time I leave here someone will clip

29:04 - something from what I've said and spin it into

29:08 - something to my detriment, which is part of the process.

29:12 - But I do think that the overall tone of governance has become much more biting

29:20 - than it was before. Should Pennsylvania

29:21 - cooperate with federal efforts to stop fraud?

29:24 - Well, absolutely. I think one of the things you've

29:27 - seen us advance and we haven't done enough of this.

29:31 - Our fastest growing budgetary item is the.

29:34 - Department of Human Services and we think it's

29:37 - absolutely critical to shine a light on waste

29:41 - fraud and abuse, not just within the DHS,

29:44 - but other areas of the Commonwealth budget and so

29:47 - I do think we should be a partner in that front.

29:51 - Two more questions. Which God or God's established the U.S. and Pennsylvania through

29:55 - divine providence and is it the role of the.

29:58 - Commonwealth Constitution and the U.S. Constitution to

30:02 - serve that God or those gods to which we owe our founding?

30:06 - Well, I would just say that if you look at our founding documents, they reference.

30:11 - God, they reference divine providence

30:14 - and to me that answers the question. I think carefully on this last question,

30:19 - should Hershey Kisses or Bethlehem's peeps be the state candy?

30:24 - I do not believe we should pick a winner and loser and stay clean.

30:32 - We would like to thank Leader Pitt and wish him well.

30:34 - We do have some amenos for him, the gifts,

30:36 - or compliments of World Affairs Council of

30:38 - Harrisburg, PCN, and the Pennsylvania Press Club and closing.

30:41 - We want to thank you for being with us. Our next luncheon is Monday, October 26th,

30:46 - when our guests will be PA House Appropriations.

30:48 - Chair Representative Jim Strussey. For scheduling

30:50 - information, visit our website at PAPressClub.org.

30:53 - Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much.

31:21 - [Music]