Senator Rivera on Restrictive Excluded Workers Fund Regulations Put Forth by Governor Cuomo's Department of Labor

"Earlier this year, the Legislature reached a historic agreement to create a first-in-the-nation $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund (EWF) as there was a clear understanding that undocumented workers across the State desperately needed direct financial relief after being denied access to any government relief for more than a year. Now, Governor Cuomo and his administration are restricting the Fund's accessibility to effectively exclude the workers the program is designed to help, similar to the challenges that tenants are facing in accessing the state's rent relief program. This is not the first time this administration tries to bypass the Legislature's authority to create unnecessarily limiting regulations that disregard or override the intent of the law. It is time for the Governor to stop playing absurd and obscene games with the livelihoods of New Yorkers. His administration must ensure that the program's requirements, as well as the application process, are designed to reach our State's hardest-hit communities, which have already experienced too much loss. We need to do better for every New Yorker looking for help from their state as we recover."