Senator Farley To Host Senate Majority Leader Skelos On July 17th

State Senator Hugh T. Farley (R, C, I - Schenectady) is pleased to announce that he will host a tour for Senate Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos (R - Rockville Centre) on Thursday, July 17th, with stops that include a visit to the Fulton-Montgomery Community College.

A media availability will be conducted at 1 p.m. at the College Union building by both Senators Farley and Skelos to discuss Majority Leader Skelos’ Upstate New York Listening Tour and his views on issues that impact this region.

"I am terribly honored that Senate Majority Leader Skelos is coming to my district," Senator Farley said. Senator Farley’s district includes all of Fulton, Montgomery and Schenectady counties, and part of Saratoga County. "Senator Skelos has told me that he has made the Mohawk Valley and my district a priority. By meeting with local leaders and listening to their concerns, he is taking a proactive approach to addressing the issues we all face. I am confident that Senator Skelos will follow through with his commitment to Upstate New York and that we will see positive results from this visit."

Senator Skelos has been Deputy Majority Leader since 1995. In November 2006, Senator Skelos was re-elected to serve his twelfth term in the New York State Senate.

As the author of Megan’s Law, Senator Skelos created the New York State Sex Offender Registry and authored numerous measures strengthening this powerful statute, including the Workplace and Campus Registration acts and laws establishing lifetime registration for dangerous sexual predators and posting information and photos about more sex offenders on the Internet. This year, Senator Skelos worked with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to enact the new e-STOP law which prevents registered sex offenders from accessing social networking websites, including MySpace and Facebook, and prohibiting online communication between sex offenders and children.

In addition, Senator Skelos wrote laws eliminating the statute-of-limitations in cases of rape and violent sexual assault and, to further assist law enforcement, dramatically expanding the state’s DNA Databank. To fight fraud, waste and abuse in the state’s Medicaid program and save billions of dollars for state and local taxpayers, Senator Skelos authored the nation’s most sweeping Medicaid fraud law in 2006.

Prior to his election to the State Senate in 1984, Senator Skelos represented New York State’s 19th Assembly District for two years.

Born, raised and educated in Rockville Centre, he graduated from South Side High School, Class of 1966. In 1970, Senator Skelos received a B.A. in History from Washington College in Maryland and, after attending at night, graduated from Fordham University School of Law with a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1975.