In April of this year, a little over a month into the COVID-19 global pandemic, I launched my Restore, Rebuild, & Reimagine Pennsylvania initiative with the goal of developing a strong legislative agenda alongside my constituents so that we could collectively restore, rebuild, and reimagine a stronger Pennsylvania in the aftermath of this pandemic.
Step 1: Outreach
For months, I collected feedback from constituents and community leaders to gain a better understanding of their thoughts, ideas, challenges, and solutions to issues that they see and experience firsthand in their communities, schools, farms, businesses, and families. I provided four ways for residents to participate and submit their feedback to me:
- A dedicated Restore, Rebuild, & Reimagine PA phone number that constituents could call at any time to leave a voice message with a brief description of their idea.
- A web contact form on my website where constituents could write a brief description of their idea to submit directly to me.
- A number of virtual outreach events that constituents were invited to attend so that they could tell me about their idea face-to-face.
- A Restore, Rebuild, & Reimagine PA Survey that constituents could fill out to express their preferences on a variety of COVID-19-related issues.
Step 2: Share Updates & Results
In the spirit of transparency, the Restore, Rebuild, & Reimagine PA website was regularly updated with recordings of previous outreach events so that constituents could listen to and keep up to date with what their neighbors were contributing to the conversation. General updates and announcements related to the initiative were also shared regularly on social media and in my e-newsletter. Finally, the COVID-19 Response Timeline was also updated regularly so that constituents could read more about what actions had already been taken to combat the virus.
Step 3: Compile Results & Develop Legislative Strategy
From the beginning, I made it clear that the purpose of collecting feedback from my constituents on this scale was to use it to help me develop a legislative agenda to share with my colleagues in the General Assembly. As such, this report details the methods used to reach out to constituents, the results from those outreach events, and the legislative response to those results.
Based on the survey results described in detail in the report, it is broken out into five different policy categories that will serve as a blueprint to inform my legislative agenda for the next few years:
- Health
- Economy
- Education
- Family & Community
- Government Reform
To be clear, these categories and the corresponding legislative proposals detailed in the report are merely a start in the overall pursuit of rebuilding this great Commonwealth. To effectively restore, rebuild, and reimagine a stronger Pennsylvania, I will need the continued engagement of my constituents and local leaders, as an ongoing dialogue between lawmakers and those they represent is absolutely critical to succeed. As such, I encourage those reading this to contact me with any further questions, thoughts, or concerns, because collaboration is key to a strong legislative agenda.