Pennsylvania’s governor deserves reasonable and appropriate security protection provided by the Commonwealth. The ability of a lone assailant to breach and set fire to the Governor’s Official Residence on April 13, 2025, exposed unacceptable weaknesses in existing security measures and rendered the Official Residence temporarily uninhabitable. Unfortunately, the Administration’s needless secrecy and failure to collaborate fully with the General Assembly in the unprecedented response to this incident, involving more than $32 million in emergency security upgrades at the Official Residence and $1 million at Governor Shapiro’s private home (which we were not informed about until October 24, 2025), has resulted in ongoing issues about statutory authority, procurement methods and cost, compliance with the State Ethics Act, and use of official resources to enforce private matters.

My legislation, the Executive Protection Oversight and Ethics Compliance Act, would avoid these problems by establishing an Executive Protection Oversight Board to ensure transparency, accountability and statutory compliance for executive protection activities conducted on an emergency basis at the Governor’s Official Residence, and, during the temporary uninhabitability of the Official Residence, specifically allow for emergency procurement to be used for private real property not owned by the Commonwealth.

The Board, comprised of seven voting members—the three statewide row officers and an appointee of the four legislative caucuses—and one nonvoting member appointed by the governor, would review and approve any covered emergency procurements, contracts and expenditures for construction, installation, legal services, consulting services and any similar service proposed by the Pennsylvania State Police or other agency, providing assurance that such measures are supported by an independent threat assessment and implemented in accordance with the State Ethics Act.

The Board would also ensure that, prior to any procurement or other commitment of Commonwealth funds related to executive protection activities on private real property, written notice is provided to legislative leadership. Additionally, the Board would issue confidential reports to the legislature and annual public summary reports, appropriately redacted, regarding executive protection activities and expenditures.

Please join me in providing the necessary transparency, accountability and statutory compliance structure so that we can protect both the governor and Pennsylvania taxpayers, and prevent a repeat of the situation that occurred after the arson at the Governor’s Official Residence.