Politics

Legislative action is moving in Harrisburg. The house passed a 28.3 billion dollar budget. State Rep. Paul Clymer says 280-million dollars more has been earmarked for education in this budget.

“We also increased pre-k education by almost 5-million dollars, head start supplemental assistance, we increased dollars for that as well and dollars for higher education.”

Clymer was a guest on the am-edition Friday morning. The senate is expected to weigh-in on the bill during the week of June 24th.

Pennsylvania U-S Senator, Bob Casey says, it’s a delicate between the privacy rights of citizens and keeping track of potential terror threats.

“What it does is that we’ve got to be vigilante and make sure that folks are following the law and we’re striking that balance. But the balance is never going to be perfect. The balance is always going to be difficult to achieve. I  want to make sure we don’t have an overreaction here and out people and risk.”

Edward Snowden is currently at the center of the controversy. Snowden is the former N.S-A employee who blew the whistle on N.S.A spying activities while overseas. Casey says, the information could put Americans in danger and compromise the nation’s ability to intercept terror threats. Casey was a guest on the AM-Edition on WNVP Thursday morning.

The Montgomery County Supervisors have amended their employment agreement with Township Manager, Larry Gregan. The change brings it into compliance with a state law that requires agreements of this type to run no longer than an election cycle. The idea is to not saddle future supervisors with a manager that lacks their confidence. Supervisor Chairman, Joe Walsh says the amended employment agreement does not increase the salary of the township manager but it does include a provision that might help him sleep better.

“The reality is Mr. Gregan is an employee of will. He can be terminated with or without cause at the board’s discretion, but there is a provision in there about a severance package in the event he is terminated.”

Gregan has been Township Manager for about two-and-a-half years and earns 130-thousand dollars.  

Local Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick would support a Re-evaluation of the Patriot Act. The 8th District Congressman Republican says, the National Security Agency has overstepped its use of surveillance.

“I was not in Congressman when the Patriot Act was passed. I was there for its 1st reauthorization, four years later. I expressed some fairly significant concerns that I had. I wanted to make sure that they were not gathering mage-data information on average American citizens where there was no suspicion, but it was being used as a law enforcement tool.”

Fitzpatrick voted against reauthorization of the Patriot Act several years after it’s original passage in the wake of 9-11.