{"id":20311,"date":"2020-01-10T09:18:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T14:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=20311"},"modified":"2020-01-10T09:18:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T14:18:27","slug":"hennessey-announces-reelection-bid-in-26th-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=20311","title":{"rendered":"Hennessey announces reelection bid in 26th District"},"content":{"rendered":"
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State Rep. Tim Hennessey (R-26)<\/p><\/div>\n

Tim Hennessey (R-26) has announced his candidacy for re-election as State Representative in Pennsylvania House District 26.<\/p>\n

First elected in 1992, Hennessey has served as Representative for 27 years.\u00a0 After serving as Chairman of the House Aging & Older Adult Services Committee for twelve years, Hennessey was appointed one year ago to Chair the powerful and very busy House Transportation Committee.\u00a0 This committee has oversight over Pennsylvania\u2019s roads and bridges, public transit systems, railroads, airports and seaports.\u00a0 It also oversees the Pennsylvania Turnpike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lobbied hard to be appointed to chair the Transportation Committee,\u201d said Hennessey.\u00a0 \u201cI believe that my life-long residency in Southeast Pennsylvania makes me well-suited to oversee its transportation infrastructure.\u00a0 Our five-county region (Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Bucks and Montgomery) is home to thirty-two percent of our state\u2019s population, and contributes forty-one percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s economic activity.\u00a0 It\u2019s essential to protect transportation for all of Pennsylvania, but especially in the southeast, the economic engine of the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Hennessey spearheaded the effort to save the state\u2019s Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) from being drastically changed into a stand-alone brokered service.\u00a0 \u201cI led a successful effort to keep MATP as part of our counties\u2019 \u201cshared-ride\u201d systems, which provide free or low-cost rides to veterans, the elderly, physically and mentally-challenged persons, in addition to MATP riders.\u00a0 When people started to see how our current shared-ride programs would be devastated by losing their MATP ridership, more people spoke up and we were able to persuade the Administration to take another, more-detailed look at our current system to keep it functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Chairman of Transportation, Hennessey has moved several pieces of legislation which prior committees had kept bottled up.\u00a0 The biggest proposal is to allow local police departments to use radar as a component in its traffic-safety plans.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten acquiescence from the major law-enforcement associations, and we\u2019ve added express language to assure that municipalities cannot use radar as a money-generator,\u201d said Hennessey.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s time to have this debated openly in the Legislature, and to set standards to assure public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to chairing the Transportation Committee, Hennessey still serves on the House Aging & Older Adult Services Committee, where his bill to overhaul and modernize the state\u2019s Older Adult & Protective Services Act is currently pending in that committee.<\/p>\n

Hennessey\u2019s House Bill 511 – a proposal to prohibit drug companies from forcing our elderly to get their medicines through mandatory mail order – led directly to Act 207.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also authored legislation to protect the Pennsylvania Lottery for Pennsylvania\u2019s senior citizens, by preventing any Administration from \u201cborrowing\u201d from the Lottery fund to fill holes in the Annual Budget, as former Governors \u2013 both Democrat and Republican \u2013 have done.<\/p>\n

Hennessey\u2019s legislative efforts have been recognized both locally and statewide.\u00a0 Both the Transportation Management Association of Chester County and the Housing Partnership of Chester County have honored him with Legislative Accomplishment awards.<\/p>\n

Statewide, the Alzheimer\u2019s Association named him Advocate of the Year, as did the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association.\u00a0 Hennessey was also honored as a Legislative Leader by the Pennsylvania Healthcare Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased that much of the legislation I have shepherded through the Transportation and the Aging and Older Adult Services Committee have passed with large bipartisan support.\u00a0 I work with committee staff to modify bills to meet every legitimate concern, regardless of party.\u00a0 Several proposals have passed the House with large margins, some even unanimously.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tribute to our committees\u2019 efforts to identify and work out the problems even before we report bills to the floor.\u00a0 My goal has always been to work in a bipartisan manner.\u00a0 It\u2019s the best way to get things accomplished in Harrisburg and everywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hennessey sees his long service in the Pennsylvania House as a benefit to his constituents and to the local governments he serves.\u00a0 He currently is the most-senior Republican in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Hennessey has long resided in North Coventry Township with his wife, Carol.\u00a0 They have three adult children.<\/p>\n

The 26th<\/sup> House District includes the townships of North Coventry, South Coventry, East Coventry, East Vincent, Warwick, East Nantmeal, West Nantmeal, Wallace, Honey Brook, West Caln and West Sadsbury and the boroughs of Elverson, Honey Brook and part of Pottstown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Hennessey (R-26) has announced his candidacy for re-election as State Representative in Pennsylvania House District 26. First elected in 1992, Hennessey has served as Representative for 27 years.\u00a0 After serving as Chairman of the House Aging & Older Adult Services Committee for twelve years, Hennessey was appointed one year ago to Chair the powerful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8577,8248,3162,216],"class_list":["post-20311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-26th-district","tag-election-2020","tag-featured","tag-tim-hennessey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20312,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311\/revisions\/20312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}