(The Center Square) – Saying he wanted to maintain Pennsylvania as a place where people are respected and loved for who they are, Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday signed a set of executive orders aimed at improving protections for people with disabilities.
His action came on an afternoon the state House was addressing a hefty series of bills, including one sponsored by Allegheny County Rep. Arvind Venkat that would expand the state Board of Pharmacy from five to seven people. It would give the board what Venkat called a deeper pool of knowledge.
One of the orders signed by Shapiro will create a new “Governor’s Advisory Commission on People with Disabilities” which Shapiro said would have direct access to him. The others direct state agencies to step up efforts to avoid discrimination and update a developmental disabilities council within the state Department of Human Services.
Shapiro said the new commission would advise the administration on on laws, policies and programs that affect state residents with disabilities. Its members, he said, will include people with intellectual disabilities, autism, physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, and those who are deaf or blind.
He got praise from Sherri Landis, executive director of The Arc of Pennsylvania, who said the new commission would “ensure that people with disabilities have a voice, and not just a voice but a seat at the table.”
The order involving new efforts by state agencies also is intended to strengthen privacy protections to keep the personal information of state residents with disabilities from being disclosed “without legitimate need,” Shapiro said. Concerns have been heard that the federal government wants to assemble a national database of people with disabilities, Shapiro said, and he vowed to stand in the way of any effort like that.
“Far too often, decisions are made about people with disabilities, not with them. That changes today, here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.
Meanwhile, the state House gave unanimous approval to the bill from Rep. Venkat, a Democrat, and Republican co-prime sponsor Rep. Andrew Kuzma, also from Allegheny County. It will now go to the Senate for consideration.
“These new appointments will provide the Board of Pharmacy with a deeper pool of knowledge and broader perspectives on pharmacy practice in Pennsylvania,” said Venkat, an emergency room physician. The bill, he said, would give the state “more informed, inclusive, and insightful oversight of pharmacy practice.”
