State Rep. Tim Hennessey (R-26)
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. 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. This committee has oversight over Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges, public transit systems, railroads, airports and seaports. It also oversees the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
“I lobbied hard to be appointed to chair the Transportation Committee,” said Hennessey. “I believe that my life-long residency in Southeast Pennsylvania makes me well-suited to oversee its transportation infrastructure. Our five-county region (Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Bucks and Montgomery) is home to thirty-two percent of our state’s population, and contributes forty-one percent of Pennsylvania’s economic activity. It’s essential to protect transportation for all of Pennsylvania, but especially in the southeast, the economic engine of the Commonwealth.”
Recently, Hennessey spearheaded the effort to save the state’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) from being drastically changed into a stand-alone brokered service. “I led a successful effort to keep MATP as part of our counties’ “shared-ride” systems, which provide free or low-cost rides to veterans, the elderly, physically and mentally-challenged persons, in addition to MATP riders. 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.”
As Chairman of Transportation, Hennessey has moved several pieces of legislation which prior committees had kept bottled up. The biggest proposal is to allow local police departments to use radar as a component in its traffic-safety plans. “We’ve gotten acquiescence from the major law-enforcement associations, and we’ve added express language to assure that municipalities cannot use radar as a money-generator,” said Hennessey. “It’s time to have this debated openly in the Legislature, and to set standards to assure public safety.”
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’s Older Adult & Protective Services Act is currently pending in that committee.
Hennessey’s 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.
He’s also authored legislation to protect the Pennsylvania Lottery for Pennsylvania’s senior citizens, by preventing any Administration from “borrowing” from the Lottery fund to fill holes in the Annual Budget, as former Governors – both Democrat and Republican – have done.
Hennessey’s legislative efforts have been recognized both locally and statewide. Both the Transportation Management Association of Chester County and the Housing Partnership of Chester County have honored him with Legislative Accomplishment awards.
Statewide, the Alzheimer’s Association named him Advocate of the Year, as did the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association. Hennessey was also honored as a Legislative Leader by the Pennsylvania Healthcare Association.
“I’m 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. I work with committee staff to modify bills to meet every legitimate concern, regardless of party. Several proposals have passed the House with large margins, some even unanimously. That’s a tribute to our committees’ efforts to identify and work out the problems even before we report bills to the floor. My goal has always been to work in a bipartisan manner. It’s the best way to get things accomplished in Harrisburg and everywhere else.”
Hennessey sees his long service in the Pennsylvania House as a benefit to his constituents and to the local governments he serves. He currently is the most-senior Republican in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Hennessey has long resided in North Coventry Township with his wife, Carol. They have three adult children.
The 26th 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.
