December 18, 2002—Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker has signed Senate Bill 1569, legislation that will strengthen Pennsylvania’s homeland-security efforts through a coordinated approach to prevention, preparedness and responsiveness.
Under the legislation, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) is required to work with other state agencies and the Office of Homeland Security to establish, develop and maintain a counter-terrorism planning, preparedness and response program.
PEMA’s responsibilities include defining the membership of regional task forces, providing training and technical assistance, providing guidelines, coordinating emergency-response activities, providing grants and other funding assistance, conducting terrorist exercises, and establishing a certification program for the specialized regional counter-terrorism response teams.
The legislation also outlines the general structure for the regional counter-terrorism task forces; specialized regional counter-terrorism response teams, including teams of local personnel skilled in a particular area such as chemical, biological and nuclear incidents; urban search and rescue task forces; and specialized statewide response teams, including disaster medical-assistance teams.
In addition, the Governor, in consultation with the Secretary of Health, may issue a written order temporarily isolating or quarantining an individual or group of individuals infected with a contagious disease.
The legislation also includes a judicial review process when the Department of Health or a local health department seeks to isolate or quarantine an individual or group of individuals.
For more information, contact Michael Lukens in the Pennsylvania Office of the Governor at 717/783-1116.
