A state House committee Tuesday approved a challenge to Pennsylvania’s school mask mandate.

A letter signed by state Rep. Kathy L. Rapp, R-65th, chairwoman of the House Health Committee, argues the newest mask mandate constitutes a “regulation” and, as such, the health secretary should follow the lengthy process proscribed by the Regulatory Review Act to promulgate it.

The letter, sent to the Commonwealth Joint Committee on Documents — an 11-person committee with the power to determine whether an order is a regulation — asks the committee to exercise that power for the newest mandate.

Rapp argues in the letter the health secretary’s order constitutes a regulation, and should follow the roughly two-year process it takes for regulations to become enforceable.

The House committee’s seven-page letter largely echoes many of the arguments made by Butler attorney Tom King in a lawsuit he filed in Commonwealth Court on behalf of several Butler County parents, state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-34th, and Rep. Jesse Topper, R-78th. In that lawsuit, King argues the acting health secretary unlawfully promulgated her order because it should be considered a regulation and should follow the same regulatory review process as any other regulation.

A hearing in that case in scheduled for Thursday in Harrisburg.