Albany Update

In the aftermath of last week’s failed coup attempt by Senate Republicans, I wanted to give you a brief update on the recent developments in Albany.

As a result of the deadlock caused by Senate Republicans and Senator Pedro Espada during the crucial final weeks of the legislative session, the debate or passage of many of my top legislative priorities has been stalled. Those priorities include the repeal of vacancy decontrol, marriage equality, firearm microstamping, mortgage and pension fraud legislation, the Climate Change Solutions Act, and school governance reform.

To end the deadlock and make action on such crucial measures possible, Senate Democrats proposed a power sharing agreement that would include the following provisions:

• Democratic and Republican Presidents of the Senate would alternate daily;
• Floor Leaders would alternate daily (from a different party than that day’s President of the Senate); and
• A 6-member Senate Conference Committee (3 Democrats, 3 Republicans) would work together to determine what legislation reaches the floor.

Unfortunately, Senate Republicans rejected our good-faith, bipartisan offer and walked away from the negotiating table.

We will continue to urge the Republicans to come back to the negotiating table to forge a bipartisan solution that will allow us to address the issues that matter most to the people of this district.

There is far too much at stake to allow this political circus to hijack the people's agenda. Now is not the time for partisan games and power grabs, it’s time to get back to work and represent the interests of the people who elected us.