Quantcast

West Central PA News

Monday, September 23, 2024

Smith hosts second hearing on preserving benefit integrity

Webp pqoedo6acha6b8eyyeocexlqz666

State Rep. Brian Smith | Pennsylvania 66th Legislative District

State Rep. Brian Smith | Pennsylvania 66th Legislative District

Last week, Rep. Brian Smith (R-Jefferson/Indiana) and the House Republican Policy Committee, led by Chairman Josh Kail (R-Beaver/Washington), convened the second in a series of hearings to discuss ways to safeguard Pennsylvania’s social benefit programs from fraud, waste, and abuse, and to ensure the state’s resources are efficiently allocated and accessible to those who truly require assistance.

The hearing, titled “Excellence in Government: Preserving Benefit Integrity,” featured testifiers Sam Adolphsen, policy director at the Foundation for Government Accountability, and Roy Lenardson, state government affairs director at the same organization. The testifiers provided insight into the fraud taking place in Pennsylvania’s Medicaid, SNAP, and unemployment insurance programs. They emphasized that program benefit integrity starts with holding government accountable.

According to the testifiers, Pennsylvania is experiencing welfare disparity. Currently, 43% of Pennsylvanians receiving Medicaid are able-bodied adults. Meanwhile, there are 14,000 Pennsylvanians truly in need on the Medicaid waiting list.

“By hosting this hearing, I am committed to finding out how we as legislators can give a hand up, not a handout, and how we can reduce the waste in welfare,” said Smith. “My plan is to go back to Harrisburg and share the commonsense counsel given by the testifiers -- deter fraud and waste, protect resources for the truly needy, and secure peace of mind for taxpayers.”

“We need to be smart with taxpayer dollars, ensuring those who need government benefits get them. For those who do not need to be receiving benefits, they have great unrealized value. Let’s engage them and find out what we need to do to get them back to our workforce and contributing to our economy,” said Kail.

To watch the complete hearing and the previous hearing from May 29 visit . The next hearing will be held on June 5 in Harrisburg.

Representative Brian Smith

66th Legislative District

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Media Contact: Jake Gillespie

jgillespie@pahousegop.com

ORGANIZATIONS IN THIS STORY

!RECEIVE ALERTS

The next time we write about any of these orgs, we’ll email you a link to the story. You may edit your settings or unsubscribe at any time.
Sign-up

DONATE

Help support the Metric Media Foundation's mission to restore community based news.
Donate

MORE NEWS