Legislative Issues
Passage of
Senate Bill 47, Act 54 of 2009:
I introduced an amendment to Senate Bill 47 that allows Department
of Welfare caseworkers from the county assistance offices to report
suspected fraud directly to the Office of Inspector General for
investigation. The
employee can report the fraud without obtaining permission from
management and without fear of sanctions, which they couldn’t do
until Act 54 became law.
“I introduced this amendment due to the serious issues uncovered by
the Auditor General’s Office showing that the Department of Public
Welfare had numerous cases of fraud, waste and abuse,” Delozier
said, referring to her campaign promise that she hold state
government accountable. “Who better to report suspected fraud but
the state employees that deal with these issues daily”.
House Bill 1416,
FY 2009-2010 State Budget:
Voted against the 2009 Budget presented by Governor Rendell which
had huge spending increases and tax increases.
The massive budget spends $27.8 billion.
“I fought hard against this unsustainable budget because it was not
the best approach to protecting the residents of the 88th
district from paying for more state spending”, said Representative
Delozier. She further stated, “Part of the budget was balanced by
draining the Rainy Day Fund of $755 million, $708 from the Health
Care Provider Retention Account, $150 million from the Tobacco
Endowment Account and $100 million from the Medical Care
Availability and Reduction Fund to balance the budget.
While we had gaps to fill in
the 2009-10 budget and some of these dollars may have been needed,
if we had not increased spending we would not have needed to use all
the dollars last year and would have had some left to help fill the
gaps we have in the 2010-11 budget.”
House Bills
2000-2001
I co-sponsored House Bill’s 2000 and 2001 which would allow for the
office of the jury commissioner to be abolished by a referendum
vote. The office of the jury commissioner was originally designed to
assist in the selection of potential jurors. With the influx of
technology, computers handle the selection of jurors today. The
elimination of this office will provide
House Bill 169
House Bill 169 would increase the prize limits our local community
organizations (VFW’s, American Legions, fire companies, and private
clubs) would be allowed to award. The current law, which has not
been updated since 1988, allows for a $5,000 weekly prize limit.
Under House Bill 169 that limit would increase to $25,000 a week.
The increased prize limits would allow for more community giving and
allow for the community organizations to use a portion of raised
money for capital investment projects.
As a co-sponsor of this bill, on March 22, 2010, I had a press
conference to urge legislative leaders to bring this bill to the
House floor for a vote. Local communities throughout
Introduction of
House Bill 1870
After the Governor held state workers hostage again during the
2009-10 budget negations, I introduced House Bill 1870 so that
people’s families would not have to suffer at the hands of political
posturing and bitter partisanship. The bill would provide for the
payment of state employees during a lengthy budget impasse. The line
items to pay workers do not change and therefore are non-negotiable.
This bill was introduced to protect state employees and their
families from being used as pawns in the Rendell Administrations
nefarious game of chess.
Introduction of
House Bill 2171
This bill that I introduced would prohibit a government agency from
hiring a lobbyist to lobby another state agency or members of the
General Assembly. Government needs to control spending whenever
possible and prohibiting this expenditure is necessary to eliminate
wasteful abuse of taxpayer dollars. All facets of the state
government are working towards the same goal, the betterment of the
Commonwealth. I do not see a reason for a state agency to hire
someone to lobby for them when the lines of communication should be
open at all times between state agencies and the legislature.