Statement by NYS Senate Co-Leader Dean G. Skelos

This evening, working with Governor Cuomo, the State Senate passed a strong women’s equality agenda for New York.  The comprehensive package is made up of nine separate bills, and it ensures equal pay for equal work, combats human trafficking, extends protections to the victims of domestic violence, and creates a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment in the workplace, among other things.

These measures will improve the lives of women all across this state, and leading women’s groups have called on the Assembly to take up and pass them all.

After a week’s worth of rhetoric, the Speaker has closed the Assembly’s session and sent his members home without acting on these important bills.  It is unconscionable that the Speaker would jeopardize the tremendous progress we have made on behalf of New York’s women by refusing to vote on the nine bills that make up our historic women’s equality agenda.

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