Josh Shapiro unveils housing plan in Philadelphia

February 12, 2026

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Good afternoon,

It’s Thursday, Feb. 12, and welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report.

Today, we’re taking a quick look at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new housing plan that he announced in his budget address earlier this month, and how Pennsylvania Republicans in the US House voted when it came to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Spoiler alert: they all voted in favor.

Sean Kitchen,

Political Correspondent, The Keystone

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Philadelphia on Thursday to unveil the commonwealth’s first-ever Housing Action Plan, which addresses Pennsylvania’s housing shortage, affordability issues, and streamlines outdated regulations to build more housing stock.

According to the administration, Pennsylvania’s housing deficit will grow to 185,000 homes by 2035 if nothing changes.

In his budget address, Shapiro proposed $1 billion in infrastructure spending to help build and preserve more housing, bring new energy generation onto the grid, and upgrade municipal and school facilities.

“The best social program is a great union job and great housing, and Dr. Martin Luther King said the fierce urgency of now is never a bad time to do the right thing. This is the right thing,” Ryan Boyer, President of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council said in a statement.

“Housing is about dignity, it’s about hope, and it’s about connectivity… We have the need and we have the prescription for the need. We can be the problem solvers.”

(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

What does $1,000 mean to you?

A new study released by the non-partisan Tax Foundation found that the average American household has paid an extra $1,000 for goods and services thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariffs in 2025. Heading into the midterm elections, that figure is expected to eclipse $1,300 for 2026.

Late on Tuesday evening, Democrats were able to force a vote and pass a resolution reigning in Trump’s tariff policy with six Republicans defecting in support of their proposal.

However, all of Pennsylvania’s Congressional Republicans, including US House Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne), Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh) and Scott Perry (R-York), voted to keep Trump’s tariffs in place.

“Every chance they get, Pennsylvania Republicans continue to show they’re more loyal to President Trump’s toxic, cost-raising agenda than working to lower costs for Pennsylvanians,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale said in a statement.

With more than $6.6 billion in debt, QVC, the longtime TV shopping network located in West Chester, is moving closer to bankruptcy, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The New York Times takes a deep dive into the long-simmering feud between the US Sen. John Fetterman and Gov. Josh Shapiro. Here’s a gift link to read more.
I think it’s getting easier to ask which Trump administration officials weren’t associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Mehmet Oz is the latest to become ensnared in the Epstein files after he invited Epstein to a 2016 Valentine’s Day party, which sounds extremely creepy.

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

Voters across Pennsylvania are left scratching their heads after US Sen. John Fetterman reversed his opposition to voter ID legislation while appearing on Fox News this past weekend.

Fetterman told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that he supports voter ID but is not in favor of the Save America Act, which would disenfranchise up to 21 million Americans at ballot boxes, but the timing of his comments seemed off because Republicans were in the process of passing their voter suppression legislation while he made his statements.

Tracy Baton, director of Indivisible Pittsburgh, is concerned for Fetterman’s well being after his latest flip-flop.

“The voters of Pennsylvania continue to want consistent things from our senators. [Fetterman] is just fundamentally inconsistent and flip-flopping so hard that we’re concerned he is gonna hurt himself.”