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Lawmakers aim to stop closure of 2 Pennsylvania institutions for disabled

Gov. Wolf vows to veto the bill and to continue a decades-old trend away from institutional care.

  • The Associated Press
Democratic state senator Art Haywood of Philadelphia supports closing White Haven and Polk and was one of just nine state senators to vote no on SB 906. At far right is rally organizer Amy Millar.

 Brett Sholtis / Transforming Health

Democratic state senator Art Haywood of Philadelphia supports closing White Haven and Polk and was one of just nine state senators to vote no on SB 906. At far right is rally organizer Amy Millar.

(Harrisburg) — A fight to block Gov. Tom Wolf from closing two state centers for the intellectually disabled produced a second large majority in the state Legislature.

The House voted 139-55 on Wednesday to prevent closing any of Pennsylvania’s four remaining state centers for at least five years.

Wolf vows to veto the bill and to continue a decades-old trend away from institutional care.  He announced in August that he’d close two state centers, White Haven and Polk.

The closures are being fought by employees and family members of the centers’ residents. They say they’ll file a federal lawsuit, noting the state centers are good for its residents.

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