YNN State of Politics: Sen. Espaillat, Sen. Krueger and Sen. Gianaris call on the Senate Republicans to take up bills passed by the Assembly; Sen. Espaillat says it is dangerous to play games with people around Same Sex Marriage and Rent

Senate Dems Show Frustration

By Liz Benjamin

June 24, 2011

Senators Mike Gianaris, Liz Krueger, and Adriano Espaillat (who all have been tweeting up a storm trying to make several hashtags trend) held a press conference this morning to blast the lack of progress at the capitol.

“Unfortunately we have been here all week when were just supposed to be here on Monday. There are important issues to decide. We stand as a conference on the Democratic side ready to vote on all the issues of the day that have been outstanding all week. We cannot understand what the hold up is,” Gianaris said. ”

“We were in the capitol yesterday for 13 hours, we were in session for one hour. We all know there are significant important pieces of legislation that thousands of people throughout the state, and even people throughout the country are watching and hoping we can resolve one way or the other. There is no excuse for the slowness we are seeing and the delay in the legislative activity.”

Senator Krueger specifically called for the chamber to take up the bills that have been printed, or passed by the Assembly already. Specifically same-sex marriage, which we are told the Republicans have not decided about as a conference though they have subsequently been working to have religious carve outs put into the bill language.

Krueger also called for a vote on the creation of a health exchange, which also has passed the Assembly – and which we thought was agreed to by Skelos, Silver and Cuomo. Krueger says they might as well bring bills that have been printed to the floor, while they wait for other bills to be printed.

Senator Espaillat echoed her comments, and even suggested it is “dangerous” to not move on some of these issues. He also suggested that the Senate GOP is playing with people’s lives, because of the passionate supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage who are lining the halls waiting for something to happen.

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