U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and John Fetterman, D-Pa., announced on Friday that a coalition of Pennsylvanian organizations that will fund and organize the state\u2019s participation in the Great American State Fair on the National Mall during the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n
The announcement follows recent indications from Gov. Josh Shapiro that Pennsylvania would not participate in the event.<\/p>\n
McCormick and Fetterman said the effort will be funded entirely through private partnerships and will not use taxpayer dollars. They said they worked with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and several statewide groups to organize the initiative.<\/p>\n
The Great American State Fair has been a subject of controversy across the country, with 10 states opting out and several artists canceling their performances at the event, citing what they believe to be heavy politization.<\/p>\n
Organizations involved include the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, PennAg Industries Association, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Pennsylvania Manufacturers\u2019 Association and The Manufacturer & Business Association.<\/p>\n
In a joint effort that the pair described as bipartisan, the senators said the goal is to establish a Pennsylvanian pavilion to showcase the state\u2019s history, agriculture and business sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cPennsylvania is where America\u2019s story began, and there was no way we were going to let the Commonwealth go unrepresented during our Nation\u2019s 250th birthday celebration,\u201d McCormick said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Fetterman said the state\u2019s absence from the event prompted the effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe discovered our Commonwealth wasn\u2019t participating in the Great American State Fair on the National Mall and we should be,\u201d Fetterman said. \u201cWe are now making sure Pennsylvania\u2019s booth will highlight the Commonwealth\u2019s agriculture dominance, our businesses, and what makes PA a truly awesome and historic place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luke Bernstein, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, said the group will help lead the state\u2019s pavilion. Representatives from agriculture, manufacturing and small business groups said their sectors would also be featured.<\/p>\n
The senators said the initiative is intended to ensure Pennsylvania is represented alongside other states participating in the national celebration. They did not provide details on the size, cost or timeline of the pavilion beyond noting that it will be privately funded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and John Fetterman, D-Pa., announced on Friday that a coalition of Pennsylvanian organizations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3145,4283,99541,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-229927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-dave-mccormick","tag-john-fetterman","tag-joint-effort","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}