Pennsylvania’s Republican majority raised skepticism this week about Gov. Tom Wolf’s new Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps.
Wolf told reporters the program will focus on testing and contact tracing and provide jobs in the public health sector this fall. He said more information will be released in the coming weeks.
“To reopen our economy to its maximum potential, we will need to boost our ability to contain this highly transmissible virus,” Wolf said. “The Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps will serve as a public service program that will expand our ability to conduct contact tracing and testing and mobilize Pennsylvanians to contain COVID-19.”
GOP lawmakers, however, said the vague announcement was just part of a series of one-sided, opaque decisions that do little to ease the hardships felt residents.
“These jobless Pennsylvanians were made jobless by his unilateral decision to shut down the Pennsylvania economy and to keep it shut down,” said Rep. Seth Grove, R-York.
“As House Republicans have moved legislation to safely reopen our economy, time and time again we have been met with the opposition of Gov. Tom Wolf,” he continued. “But now, it is safe for the creation for a new shiny government bureaucracy to employ these same people.”
Rep. John Hershey, R-Juniata, wondered how the state can afford hundreds of new employees to conduct the recommended 800,000 daily tests when the budget deficit is projected to exceed $3.9 billion.
“This plan has little transparency and details – much like the plan to lift stay-at-home orders in a haphazard way,” he said.
More than 1.7 million residents have lost their jobs over the past eight weeks of Wolf’s economic shut down. Some 24 counties will see pandemic restrictions – including stay at home orders – lifted on Friday, but with limitations likely to extend widespread unemployment.
“Gov. Tom Wolf is clearly out of touch with Pennsylvania’s citizenry if he believes that an additional layer of government is at all helpful at this point,” said Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland. “I remind him that our workforce is struggling. Businesses are permanently closing, and unemployment compensation claims are months late. Families are struggling to put food on the table.”
