HARRISBURG – Earlier this week, Sen. Cris Dush (R-25) joined 20 state senators in submitting this letter to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) regarding the Shapiro Administration’s proposed regulations that would vastly expand the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s (DOH) authority to infringe upon our homes, our schools, our parental rights and our privacy.
This is in addition to the thousands of comments submitted to IRRC by the public.
“In May 2021 — more than a year after Gov. Tom Wolf locked down Pennsylvania’s economy with a swipe of his pen — Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly rejected Wolf’s emergency disaster declaration and other COVID-19 dictates in favor of our most sacred, God-given freedoms and liberties,” said Dush. “I am equally proud of the more than 5,000 private citizens who also went on public record with the IRRC in the hope of preventing Shapiro and the DOH from implementing these overreaching regulations that would drastically violate the personal privacy rights of every Pennsylvanian.”
Comments from both state lawmakers and the public were submitted asking the IRRC to reject the proposal, which would give the state more power to enter homes and businesses without a warrant, speak to students without parents present, access private health records, and much more.
“Imposing universal mask mandates, warrantless searches, extended quarantines and ‘vaccine passports’ via DOH regulations is merely another unilateral executive branch attempt to circumvent the checks and balances of your state legislature, our state constitution and the WILL OF THE PEOPLE,” Dush said. “Shapiro and the DOH should now listen to the people and withdraw this 502-page regulatory monstrosity. Pennsylvanians endured the previous governor’s Orwellian mandates during COVID-19 lockdowns, and we can never afford to go back.”
DUSH CONTACT: Ty McCauslin, 717-787-7084