Our goal is to advocate for our clients' interests and not our own, that's why we are proud of what we've been able to achieve on their behalf.
Malady & Wooten is proudly to be recognized as a prominent leading government relations firm in Pennsylvania. Below are just a few recent awards and acknowledgments of our ongoing accomplishments in our field.
There is no better time than the end of the year to offer a valedictory to the Pennsylvanians who have dedicated their careers and lives to making the commonwealth a better, safer place to live through adherence to the principles of environmentalism, sustainability and governance – in other words, to those who make a positive impact on our world.
Introducing the Impact 50, a select group of people who exemplify what it means to be socially responsible citizens and who City & State is proud to recognize. The leaders profiled in the following pages hail from across the spectrum – business, government, nonprofits and advocacy – and exemplify the optimism and idealism that are so desperately needed to help the state and its citizens persevere through challenges like the pandemic, community crises and political factionalism.
Thank you to all who submitted nominations for this year’s Impact 50, which has been researched by City & State and written by freelance writer Hilary Danailova.
Government relations expert John Malady is a founding partner of Malady & Wooten, a 23-year-old Harrisburg lobbying firm with a presence extending to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Over the course of his career, Malady has represented clients in health care, economic development, environmental outfits, social services and the cultural sphere. Malady, who has worked to secure funding for the Weinberg Northeast Regional Foodbank and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, serves as vice chair of Communities in Schools of Pennsylvania.
Stacy Gromlich, Member & Jenna McCarthy, Member
Key industries: Health care, energy, transportation, education, telecommunications
Notable clients: Merakey, Pennsylvania Life Providers Alliance, Highmark, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), Ayr Wellness
Other key employees: Lisa Dishong, Nicole Fidler, Dennis Giorno, PJ Lavelle, Micki Leininger, Drew Lyons, John Malady, Jodie Stuck, Andy Surra
Company news: Over the past year, the team at Malady Wooten has continued to grow. Their dedicated lobbyists represent a large and diverse group of clients before the state government.
Biggest achievement: The firm has focused on serving clients by collaborating with them throughout the process, working to understand the issues of critical importance to each client to achieve the best outcome. This is particularly true when serving clients in the complex world of health and human services, which constantly sees new technologies and interactions between various health care services. The team has extensive experience navigating these intricate systems through their representation of service providers, entities creating new and innovative treatments, medical marijuana companies and those trusted with caring for the commonwealth’s most vulnerable residents.
As Pennsylvania lobbyists and experienced government consultants, we work tirelessly to achieve results for our clients. Here are some of Malady &Wooten's recent successes, including key pieces of legislation, regulatory changes, and funding events.
Stopped the implementation of a new special education funding formula for charter schools which would have resulted in steep and unsustainable cuts.
Led the transit industry's efforts to obtain significant new sources of dedicated funding in the Act 89 package that was passed in November 2013.
Secured millions in redevelopment capital assistance funds for a variety of clients.
Secured $1 million for the construction of a new facility in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Engineered insertion of provider reimbursement standards into Appropriation statute, resulting in several million dollars of savings for a client.
Helped a charter school gain approval in three municipalities in the Commonwealth.
Changed the charter school law to enable charters to borrow for capital improvements.
Assisted a client in securing $65 million in new information technology contracts with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Assisted in the creation and subsequent expansion of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program.
Secured passage of legislation to allow optometrists to refer patients to occupational therapists for care and for pharmacists to perform medication therapy management in collaboration with physicians.
Secured several million dollars in recurring annual revenue for the Pennsylvania Chartered Schools for Deaf and Blind children.
The following case studies illustrate why our government affairs professionals are in demand. Our Pennsylvania lobbyists have a strong track record of successfully representing the interests of our business, association and nonprofit clients before government decision makers.
We were retained by Pennsylvania's smaller resort casinos (Category 3) as the General Assembly began to revisit and expand Pennsylvania's Gaming Act. Originally envisioned as an additional amenity to their existing resorts, the Category 3 casinos were limited to only 500 slot machines and 50 table games. Additionally, only guests of the resort were permitted to access the gaming facility. If a member of the general public wanted to enter the casino, they first had to spend $10 to “patronize the resort” before they could gain access. With the timing right to amend the Gaming Act, the resort casinos sought to remove the requirement that guests of the casino patronize the resort, add additional slot and table game capacity and be allowed to participate in the other gaming expansion options the General Assembly authorized.
Read MoreFor over two-and-a-half years we worked to form, expand and maintain a coalition of House and Senate members and staff who were supportive of the changes our clients were seeking. Equally important were the partnerships we formed, and partnerships we avoided, within Pennsylvania's casino industry. Understanding the changes our clients were advocating were not the driving force behind the gaming expansion, we strategically partnered and created relationships with casino properties around Pennsylvania. This allowed our clients to mutually advocate for each other's priorities to members of the General Assembly and the Governor's Office.
When the gaming expansion legislation was signed into law, our clients were given the ability to allow the general public to enter their casinos without paying a fee, add an additional 250 slot machines/15 non-banking tables and participate in iGaming and the Category 4 casino auction process. The multiyear process to enact the gaming expansion legislation gave our firm a front row seat to the inner workings of the Pennsylvania casino industry and allowed us to forge relationships with members and staff that credentialed Malady &Wooten as a superior advocate for gaming clients
Along with our client, the Justice Action Network, we set out to improve upon a law enacted just one session prior that allowed for a process to petition the courts to seal low level, non-violent summary and misdemeanors after ten years, while still retaining access to those records for law enforcement. The clean slate legislation removed the requirement to hire a lawyer and petition the court to seal criminal records, as it automatically seals records after the ten-year period.
Read MoreFor an issue that was very high profile and with the potential to impact millions of lives, a diverse coalition was essential. An incredible amount of effort was put into creating a group of advocates unlike anything that has ever been seen in Harrisburg. This group included statewide and national conservative and progressive organizations, five chambers of commerce, local and statewide labor groups, law enforcement (including district attorneys and defense attorneys), the mayors of Pennsylvania's two largest cities, bar associations, and various religious organizations.
The next essential step was to choose bill sponsors. Building on the theme of bipartisan cooperation, we approached conservative republicans Scott Wagner and Sheryl Delozier, both from central Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Democrats Anthony Williams and Jordan Harris. All four had different perspectives and were tremendous advocates both within their respective caucuses and with the public at-large.
One of the most challenging parts of this process was drafting the legislation, since Pennsylvania's various court computer systems are not interconnected. Our team understood that for this bill to succeed, it had to be easy, inexpensive and not overly burdensome on the system.
A two-year process working with the Pennsylvania State Police, the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC), clerk of courts and the stakeholder coalition finally resulted in the passage of the nation's first clean slate law. The bill that passed the Senate unanimously (twice) and the House with just two “no” votes. As a result, 50% of AOPC's entire database will be sealed on June 28, 2019 and approximately 60% is eligible to be sealed. This effort is now being replicated in other states across the nation.
Malady &Wooten's lobbyists saw to the legislation which legalized slot machine gaming in Pennsylvania. Our team collaborated with leaders in the executive branch and legislators in the House and Senate as the legislation was crafted to ensure that our clients' interests were addressed in the enacted final product.
Read MoreIn order to be eligible for a racing facility license under the gaming statute, harness racing credentials had to be procured for our client's new location. With sound strategic planning, developing and coordinating our client's position and message and ongoing discourse with state and local officials, we were able to deliver what was promised.
Our team also accounted for more technical issues while lobbying and drafting legislation for their enactment. We were intentional and thorough with the following factors: the issuance of temporary facility licenses, the applicability of Keystone Opportunity Zone laws under the new act, the time frame for licensure and the distribution of revenue. These all proved to be key variables in the final product.
Continually gaining acclaim as a trusted advisor in the PA executive realm, our lobbying efforts here were integral to ensuring that our clients' concerns were addressed in the final version of the legislation.
At the end of the Rendell Administration the General Assembly passed HB 101, an omnibus school code bill that included a laundry list of separate bills that had passed at least one chamber of the General Assembly. The amendment to HB 101 included priority legislation for all four caucuses.
Read MoreDue to a provision that codified local taxing, authorities could not levy taxes on public charter schools and Governor Rendell consequently vetoed the bill. The last Gubernatorial veto that had been recorded dated back to 1993. At the time, the Senate was controlled by Republicans and the House by Governor Rendell's own party, the Democrats.
Our challenge was twofold: convincing the House Democrats to override a veto of the Governor of their own party, and convincing the Senate, who pledged not to conduct any new substantive votes in a “lame duck” session to take up the bill if the House conducted the override.
Our strategy was clear – first work with all of the House Democrats who were prime sponsors of the provisions which made their way into the omnibus school code bill and have them implore their leadership to call up the bill. These members were on the cusp of seeing important legislation they deeply cared about vanish by the stroke of a pen. It worked. The pressure from the members persuaded House Democratic leadership to agree to the veto override if they had assurances that the Senate would act.
After careful consideration and encouragement from the Senate Education Chairman and other members who had priority bills incorporated into HB 101, the Senate concluded that they would not be taking up any “new business” during a lame duck session but instead concurring on “old business.” Despite late lobbying by the Rendell Administration to avoid the embarrassment of a rare veto override, HB 101 passed again with huge bi-partisan majorities and became a law.
Incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1976, Quest Diagnostics is the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services that patients and doctors need to make the best healthcare decisions. Quest Diagnostics offers expansive access to diagnostic testing services through its wide network of laboratories and over 200 patient service centers located throughout the Commonwealth. Until recently, however, Quest's ability to deliver the highest quality healthcare products and services, available to over 300 Pennsylvania customers, was threatened by an inconsistent interpretation of the state's Clinical Lab Act of 1952, with regard to prohibited practices. Specifically, Quest Diagnostics, a state licensed lab, was being held to stricter anti-kickback regulations than its unlicensed out-of-state competitors.
Read MoreMalady &Wooten's lobbyists mounted a sophisticated government relations campaign to persuade the Department of Health, members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor's Office to level the playing field between in-state and out-of-state laboratories conducting business in the Commonwealth. This required extensive outreach to the legislative and executive branches of state government in addition to a diplomatic approach amongst competitors in the lab industry.
In the end, it was determined that the introduction of legislation was necessary to achieve Quest's goal to expressly prohibit all laboratories operating in the Commonwealth from: 1) placing laboratory staff, specimen collectors or other laboratory personnel in a provider's office; 2) providing payment or other inducements to a provider in return for specimen collection referrals; and 3) renting space from a provider or paying rent for a space located within the provider's office for the purpose of establishing a collection center. After a 12 month legislative campaign, Malady &Wooten was successful in delivering Quest its first legislative victory in Pennsylvania when Act 122 of 2013 was signed into law.
Demand for wireless service is growing exponentially. Estimates show that in 2014 wireless networks in the United States will carry forty times the amount of traffic carried in 2009. New devices and technologies consume more bandwidth and attract more wireless subscribers. In order to meet this growing demand, it became apparent that wireless providers, including Malady &Wooten's client, T-Mobile, must be able to build out and upgrade their existing networks in a manner which rationally and reasonably respects local government control.
Read MoreIn February 2012, President Obama enacted the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, which contained provisions to streamline the approval process for wireless collocations and modifications. Unfortunately, little guidance was provided in the federal legislation to determine what entities were permitted to collocate or what the approval process entailed. Considering Pennsylvania has 2,563 municipalities with varying degrees of municipal ordinances governing the installation and collocation of wireless towers, maintaining consistency in the application of the new federal law was paramount.
Malady &Wooten successfully spearheaded state legislation on behalf of its clients to leverage existing wireless infrastructure to expand and enhance wireless broadband services throughout the Commonwealth by streamlining the mobile network deployment process. Act 191 of 2012, otherwise referred to as the Wireless Broadband Collocation Act, streamlined procedures for reviewing applications for the modification or collocation of wireless communications facilities and wireless support structures upon an existing wireless support structure. The law provides the wireless industry with the tools necessary to deploy next generation wireless networks to meet the needs of their customer base while preserving local authority over wireless tower siting processes.
Strong and lasting relationships are rooted in mutual respect and measurable investments of both time and energy. Malady &Wooten's special commitment to the Bridge Educational Foundation over the years has resulted in substantial support to a worthy organization. Our firm's advocacy for Bridge resulted in state-appointed funds that make it possible to educate needy children, and we personally work to serve its network. Rick Wooten and Dennis Giorno actively sit on its board, and Rick also serves as treasurer. These relationships allow us to give back to our community, sharing our insight and know-how to promote its advancement.
Malady &Wooten is Proud to Join our Client, Walgreens in sponsoring the 2017 Red Nose Day. This Annual Charity Drive is on a mission to end child poverty through the power of entertainment, Red Nose Day raises awareness and money to help the kids who need us most, both at home and in some of the poorest communities around the world.
- John F. Malady
Principal &Founder
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