“As the system is now, we are failing to maximize the benefits that WIC can provide for our single parents and struggling families,” Bullock said. “This legislation will help to modernize and update the process from top to bottom and get the people who need assistance the assistance they need.” Read more
HARRISBURG, June 20 – The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee held a voting meeting Tuesday, where it reported H.R. 152 out of committee and to the House chamber. This resolution would recognize June 19, 2023, as Juneteenth in Pennsylvania. The first Juneteenth was June 19, 1865, when the last of the enslaved people located in Galveston, Texas, were informed of the Emancipation Proclamation. “Juneteenth is a beautiful day and a celebration of self-improvement, of African culture and respect for all cultures. The holiday’s meteoric rise in recent years goes to show just how important it is to people throughout the country and how important it is to continue to help spread this important tradition,” state Rep. Donna Bullock said. “This day of pride is incredibly significant to many Pennsylvanians, and as such, it deserves to be recognized in the commonwealth.” Read more
HARRISBURG, June 12 – A bill ( H.B.664 ) sponsored by state Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Phila., that would establish a Women, Infants and Children State Advisory Board passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives today by a vote of 155-48. This legislation would establish the WIC State Advisory Board within the Pennsylvania Department of Health and task the board with advising the department on ways to increase WIC enrollment and utilization, improve service quality and outreach, and enhance technology used for the program. “We need to ensure that we’re taking full advantage of the federal funding we receive for WIC in the commonwealth,” Bullock said. “As the system is now, we are failing to maximize the benefits that WIC can provide for our single parents and struggling families. This legislation will help to modernize and update the process from top to bottom and get the people who need assistance the assistance they need.” The bill will go to the Pennsylvania Senate for consideration. Read more
HARRISBURG, June 6 – A bill sponsored by state reps. Donna Bullock, Malcolm Kenyatta and Chris Rabb, all D-Phila., that would require an environmental impact statement be produced before the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issues a permit for the building of certain facilities in environmental justice areas passed the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee today. “Environmental racism is a longstanding issue in the commonwealth. Facilities that pollute the environment have been built in burdened communities without their consent because they lacked the influence to stop it. Enough is enough,” Bullock said. “By empowering the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to deny a permit application if the environmental impacts are found to be too harmful and requiring DEP to consider public testimony, we are putting the power in the hands of the community.” “Incinerators, landfills, sewage plants — there’s a long history of environmentally harmful facilities like these being built in Pennsylvania’s most marginalized communities, polluting the environment, poisoning the water and lowering property values, disproportionately impacting Black and brown households whose homes are often their own financial asset,” Rabb said. “It’s time to substantially combat environmental racism. A clean environment is a constitutional right that is Read more
“Some of these offending companies treat fines for illegally dumping trash as the cost of doing business. We cannot allow that to continue to be the case,” Bullock said in a statement. “More than just being an eyesore, illegal dumping does long term damage to the environment and health of community ecosystems and costs taxpayers money with the strain it puts on municipalities.” Read more
HARRISBURG, May 24 – A bill sponsored by state Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Phila., that would increase the maximum fines for illegally dumping trash in the commonwealth passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by a vote of 122-79. The legislation would increase the maximum fine for a first offense of misdemeanor of the third degree to $2,000; second and subsequent offenses of misdemeanor of the third degree to $5,000; a first offense of misdemeanor of the second degree to $10,000; and $20,000 for second and subsequent offenses of misdemeanor of the second degree, as well as potential imprisonment. “Some of these offending companies treat fines for illegally dumping trash as the cost of doing business. We cannot allow that to continue to be the case,” Bullock said. “More than just being an eyesore, illegal dumping does long term damage to the environment and health of community ecosystems and costs taxpayers money with the strain it puts on municipalities.” Cleaner blocks are safer blocks, Bullock said. According to a 2015 report from The World Bank, removing garbage from streets has a positive impact on communities and leads to lower rates of crime. A 2022 WHYY article reported that a group of community organizations were working together to enact positive change in Philadelphia by cleaning up communities. The bill will go to the Read more
HARRISBURG, May 23 – The Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus held its second annual K. Leroy Irvis Day of Action today in honor of the first Black speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and to celebrate its 50th year as a formal legislative caucus. “Today is a joyous day. It is a reminder of the hard work this caucus has done over the last 50 years and the hard work still left to do,” State Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Phila., chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, said. “We honored our past by remembering the life and legacy of former Speaker K. Leroy Irvis, and we invested in our future by presenting scholarships to the bright and promising young men and women who earned them with their scholarly prowess.” Following a 10 a.m. news event on the front steps of the Speaker K. Leroy Irvis building, Black Pennsylvanians — youth, community leaders, small business owners, clergy and advocacy organizations — gathered for a series of panels on the state of Black Pennsylvania, labor, cannabis and voter disenfranchisement. As part of the day of action, the PLBC congratulated the following recipients of the 2023 PLBC James Roebuck Scholarship: Mamadou Bah, Upper Merion High School; Kayla Banks, Cheltenham High School; Jayant Bullet, Cumberland Valley High School; Makalya Coleman, George Washington Carver High School; Ellyssa Elliot, Reading High School; Read more
"If we value our children, we must invest in the folks who are caring for our children. We must invest in the industry, in the industry, that is providing the care and education for our children. Our best, our #1 product is this commonwealth is our children." said Rep. Donna Bullock. Read more
HARRISBURG, May 1 – The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed H.B. 666 today by a vote of 172-29. This legislation would remove the requirement in the Housing Authorities Law that executive members of the Philadelphia Housing Authority be “at will” employees, enabling the PHA board to negotiate performance-based contracts and compensation arrangements. “This brings the Philadelphia Housing Authority back into alignment with the other 89 public housing authorities in Pennsylvania,” said state Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Phila., the bill’s prime sponsor. “We cannot hope to retain talent, be competitive with other major cities and keep our public housing authority on an upward trajectory if it’s not even legally allowed to compete for executive level staff.” The provisions requiring PHA executive members to be “at will” employees were primarily established in 2011 in response to governance issues with the city housing authority under a prior city administration and previous PHA board. The board was dissolved and the PHA was put in the hands of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under an administrative receivership until 2013. In nine years since, the PHA and its new board have operated to high standards and earned the trust of stakeholders, Bullock said. Read more
"There is no community in Philadelphia, perhaps across the commonwealth, that has not seen illegal dumping," said Bullock, a Democrat representing House District 195 which encompasses North Philadelphia, Fairmount Park, Strawberry Mansion and other nearby areas.Bullock's bill increases fines for illegal dumping, making the maximum penalty up to $20,000. Read more
“While this is not yet widely covered by insurance, it should be — and in government, we should help to move the initiative along,” wrote Bullock in a recent op-ed announcing her legislation. Read more
Pennsylvania’s over-burdened juvenile detention system was described to lawmakers Thursday as a “serious public crisis,” as the House Children & Youth Committee met to hear testimony on the problem. Read more
“The folks who are doing the illegal dumping are not paying significant fines. In fact, many of them see it as the cost of doing business,” Bullock said. Read more
HARRISBURG, April 21 – The Pennsylvania House Children & Youth Committee held a hearing Thursday to discuss the issue of overcrowding in juvenile detention centers across the Commonwealth. “As an advocate for young people, the issue of overcrowding in juvenile detention centers is something I find particularly pressing,” Children & Youth Committee Majority Chairwoman Donna Bullock said. “We must get kids all the care they need while they are in the system so that when they leave, they enter society as functioning and productive young adults. When facilities are overcrowded and understaffed, court ordered treatment or services are delayed, students miss out on educational and recreational opportunities, young people are sleeping in unacceptable conditions and detained youth are victimized — all of which are unacceptable.” Experts in the field such as Laval Miller-Wilson, acting deputy secretary of the Office of Children, Youth, and Families; Chadwick Libby, president of the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers; Kimberly Ali, Department of Human Services commissioner with the City of Philadelphia; Malik Pickett, Esq., staff attorney with the Juvenile Law Center; and Bryanna Hood, an advocate with the Juvenile Law Center, testified during the hearing. “Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice System is decentralized. County, courts of Common Pleas Read more
HARRISBURG, April 17 – The Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus is calling on the General Assembly to act and pass gun safety legislation following multiple mass shootings across the nation and the unjust expulsion of two legislators, and the attempted expulsion of a third, in Tennessee for so-called “disorderly behavior” following their protest in favor of gun reform in the Tennessee House chamber. Today they joined Black legislators across the nation in decrying the parliamentary rules and procedures Republican majorities are using – or abusing – to stifle Black voices and avoid holding votes on the issues people want addressed, such as gun violence, but that they and their big moneyed backers don’t like. According to PLBC Chair Donna Bullock, D-Phila., Republican legislators in Tennessee thought they could hide behind the veil of rules and procedure when expelling Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, but the racist undertones prompting their expulsion were obvious. People should look no further than the recently leaked video of Tennessee Republican lawmakers discussing the vote, she said. In recent weeks, the nation has been shocked by the news of not one, but two mass shootings occurring at a school in Nashville, TN and a bank in Louisville, KY. A total of 11 people combined lost their lives in these shooting sprees. PLBC lawmakers are saying enough is enough, and that Pennsylvania and Read more
The endless cycle of mass shootings, collective grief and debate continues to divide our nation. As Black legislators, we navigate this cycle looking for the right moment to highlight the oft-ignored daily gun violence in our communities, and to offer solutions. We look for allies. We stand in the gap for others. We carefully express justified outrage that doesn’t fit neatly in the box of decorum or culture of the legislature. It is a delicate balance -- a skill set many Black legislators have learned in state capitols across our nation. The latest school shooting started another cycle with no solutions, another opportunity for Black legislators to lead. It resulted in the expulsion of two young, Black Tennessee lawmakers who dared to help the people of their state be seen and heard in the one place that holds the power to help. Tennessee Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Democrats in a legislature controlled by Republicans, took a peaceful stand in their chamber after six children and staff at a Nashville school were slaughtered by an assault weapon in the hands of an ordinary citizen. Instead of acknowledging the issue staring them in the face – gun violence and the senseless murder of innocent people – the Republican majority in the Tennessee House focused their outrage on decorum and likened the demonstration to the Jan. 6 insurrection, when a mob of more than 2,500 people incited by former President Trump stormed Read more
The endless cycle of mass shootings, collective grief and debate continues to divide our nation. As Black legislators, we navigate this cycle looking for the right moment to highlight the oft-ignored daily gun violence in our communities, and to offer solutions. We look for allies. We stand in the gap for others. We carefully express justified outrage that doesn’t fit neatly in the box of decorum or culture of the legislature. It is a delicate balance -- a skill set many Black legislators have learned in state capitols across our nation. The latest school shooting started another cycle with no solutions, another opportunity for Black legislators to lead. It resulted in the expulsion of two young, Black Tennessee lawmakers who dared to help the people of their state be seen and heard in the one place that holds the power to help. Tennessee Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Democrats in a legislature controlled by Republicans, took a peaceful stand in their chamber after six children and staff at a Nashville school were slaughtered by an assault weapon in the hands of an ordinary citizen. Instead of acknowledging the issue staring them in the face – gun violence and the senseless murder of innocent people – the Republican majority in the Tennessee House focused their outrage on decorum and likened the demonstration to the Jan. 6 insurrection, when a mob of more than 2,500 people incited by former President Trump stormed their way into the Read more
HARRISBURG, April 3 – State Reps. Malcolm Kenyatta, Donna Bullock and Danilo Burgos, all D-Phila., are introducing legislation to increase state oversight of Temple University to help address violence near the campus. In the last four years, the number of shootings within the Temple campus patrol area nearly tripled, going from 11 in 2018 to 26 in 2022. This year, 2023, there have already been multiple shootings, including one that killed Temple police officer Christopher Fitzgerald. In addition to this, Temple’s enrollment has declined 16.5% since 2017. Recently, Temple University President Jason Wingard resigned from his position, causing an upheaval in the school’s leadership. To combat the issues Temple faces, the lawmakers are introducing legislation to increase the number of state-appointed board members to the Temple University Board of Trustees by giving one more appointment to the governor, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the speaker of the House of Representatives. The legislators said that more state-appointed board members on the Board of Trustees would ensure that the state has greater oversight over the important decisions before the board and can guarantee that state money is being used effectively. Kenyatta, a Temple alum, said that as a state-related university, Temple enjoys many benefits of state funding each year, and the school should receive more oversight from the state to ensure the safety of Read more
HARRISBURG, March 20 – State Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Phila., announced nearly $2 million in Commonwealth Financing Authority awards for projects in the 195 th District. “The state dollars that come back to the district for these projects enhances our daily lives in a variety of ways and is a great use of tax dollars for residents,” Bullock said. The projects awarded are: $1 million for structural renovations to homers adjacent to John Coltrane Museum. $171,535 for dock replacement at Lloyd Hall Rec Center. $789,750 for Cecil B. Moore Rec Center renovations. The Commonwealth Financing Authority was established in 2004 to administer Pennsylvania's economic stimulus packages. The CFA holds fiduciary responsibility over the funding of programs and investments in Pennsylvania's economic growth. Read more
HARRISBURG, March 14 – State Rep. Donna Bullock, D-Phila., chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, announced the awardees of the PLBC Crystal Bird Fauset Leadership Award, which is now an annual recognition event for the PLBC during Women’s History Month. Honorees will be awarded in a virtual ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 23. The ceremony can be viewed live at Facebook.com/PALegislativeBlackCaucus/. The award is named in honor of former state Rep. Crystal Bird Fauset, who was a Democrat elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1938 and represented Philadelphia’s 18th Legislative District. She was the first Black woman elected in any state legislature. “For so long, the accomplishments of Black women have been ignored or minimized,” Bullock said. “While we celebrate these women all year long, we wanted to highlight extraordinary Black women in Women’s History Month and all that they do here in the commonwealth. It’s important for everyone – especially little Black girls and boys – to see someone who looks like them making big impacts in Pennsylvania and in leadership roles. These women are leaders we look to everyday - in both their professional and personal lives. We are so proud of each of them and are grateful for their service to this commonwealth.” The honorees this year are former state House member from Pittsburgh and current U.S. Rep. Summer Lee; former Read more
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