The Assembly Health Committee favorably reported 31 bills at its January and February meetings. The Committee reported bills to extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers; reform the distribution of indigent care pool funds for hospitals serving low-income patients; create an emerging contaminants monitoring list in order to ensure that all water systems in New York are tested for potentially dangerous chemicals, lower lead levels in school water, and provide insurance coverage for medical marijuana.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Opposition to a revision in the Health Department’s new water standards say it could result in New Yorkers drinking toxic water.
The Department of Health has backtracked on its drinking water standards, say legislators, community advocates, and environmentalists. They want Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to rescind a revision that turns a three-month notification rule into a once-a-year requirement.
“New York should be strengthening, not weakening, our clean water protections,” said Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried in a statement. “There’s no reason to delay or reduce public notification processes, nor to delay installing treatment systems when we know how toxic these chemicals are.”
Assembly Health
Committee Hearing on Youth Tackle Football
Should children 12 and
under be playing tackle football? On
October 29, the Assembly Health Committee, which I chair, held a hearing in
Lower Manhattan on the health impacts of that.
There is a bill in the Assembly (A. 2692) to outlaw organized team
tackle football for children 12 and under.
The bill is sponsored by Assembly Member Michael Benedetto of the Bronx,
and I am a co-sponsor.
Following many news media
reports of cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) disproportionately
affecting professional football players and former players, many families,
physicians and researchers have been raising concerns regarding the health
effects of tackle football on children. Repeated
concussions can cause serious lifelong brain damage. The damage is greatest when players start
when their young brains are developing, and even more when play continues for
years.
Working Group Formed
to Consider Plans for Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses
Like almost all New York City
Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses
urgently need extensive and expensive work.
Because of concerns about the City’s
proposal for responding to this need, all of Chelsea’s local elected officials,
including me, called on Mayor de Blasio’s administration to put a hold on its
plans and participate in a working group with the elected officials, tenant
representatives, Community Board 4, and other advocates. We want real input from the tenants and the
community. We also stated that we will
not allow any plan that does not protect and preserve the Fulton Houses
community, with no displacement of residents from Fulton Houses or any
reduction of tenant rights or affordability.
The City agreed to put a hold on its
plans and join the working group, which is now looking at all the options for
organizing and funding the needed work.
Earlier this year, the City was developing
a plan to generate badly needed revenue to repair these public housing
developments in Chelsea. At Fulton
Houses, the City is proposing new construction, replacing some buildings,
repairs, and installing new private-sector management, to raise the funds
necessary to renovate, repair, and improve conditions at Fulton Houses and at
the nearby Elliott-Chelsea Houses. NYCHA
estimates that meeting the combined capital needs of the two developments would
cost approximately $344 million.
NYCHA’s draft plan for Fulton
entails constructing three new buildings in the complex, with tenants in two
existing buildings then moving into the first of the new buildings. The City would then replace two older,
low-rise buildings with two big new buildings.
Those buildings would be a mix of market-rate and affordable
apartments. The new income generated
would be dedicated to repairs and renovation of Fulton Houses and
Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
Under the City’s proposal, Fulton
and Chelsea-Elliott Houses would then enter the federal “Rental Assistance
Demonstration” (RAD) program, which uses Section 8 vouchers instead of
traditional public housing subsidies, and management of the complex would be
turned over to a private sector entity.
The working group held its first two
meetings in October. There will be more
meetings and public forums. We expect
the Working Group to present its proposals by year’s end.
I have serious concerns about the
City’s proposal. I am always wary of
privatization.
To raise critically needed funds for
the MTA’s capital plan, NYCHA and other programs, I am co-sponsoring several
proposals in Albany. These include
re-instating the stock transfer tax and raising the state income tax rate on
tax brackets above $1 million a year. I
also support proposals to increase corporate income taxes and to enact a
surcharge tax on so-called “pied-a-terre” luxury apartments that are not the
owner’s primary residence.
Enforcing the New
Law Against Floating Billboards
This past legislative session,
Senator Brad Hoylman and I sponsored legislation in Albany to prohibit boats
with illuminated billboards from operating in the navigable waters of the State,
such as the Hudson River. Governor Cuomo
signed our bill into law in August.
Despite the fact that it took effect immediately, Ballyhoo Media
continued to operate its “floating billboards” in New York waterways
in flagrant violation of the new law.
In September, Senator Hoylman and I
wrote to Mayor de Blasio asking that the City provide a detailed plan of how it
would enforce the law. Soon after, the
City announced that it had reached an agreement with Ballyhoo that bans it from
operating its floating billboards on any New York state waterway. The company agreed to pay $100,000 to the
City, and has since relocated its billboard boat to Florida. Now President Trump can enjoy them.
Tues., Nov. 12:
Upper Manhattan Town Hall on New York Health Act
At 6:30 p.m. on
Tuesday, November 12, I will be speaking at a Town Hall hosted by NYS Senators
Robert Jackson, on the New York Health Act, my bill that would provide
universal health care coverage in New York state by establishing an “improved
Medicare for all” single-payer health care program. The Town Hall follows up on last month’s
joint hearing on the NY Health Act, held in the Bronx by the Assembly and
Senate Health Committees.
NEW
YORK HEALTH ACT: I
co-chaired a joint hearing of the Assembly and Senate Health Committee on the
New York Health Act in the Bronx in October.
The Town Hall, which
is free and open to the public, will be at the YM/YWHA of Washington Heights
and Inwood at 54 Nagle Avenue (take the A train to 190th Street). Please RSVP by going online to
SenatorRJackson.eventbrite.com.
Wed., Nov. 20: NYCHA
Town Hall Meeting
On the evening of Wednesday,
November 20, the Manhattan delegation of the New York State Assembly is hosting
a Town Hall meeting on New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing. It is free and open to the public. People will have a chance to voice their
concerns about NYCHA developments, hear from NYCHA officials on maintenance and
re-pairs, and learn how to connect with tenant lawyers.
The Town Hall meeting will be at
6:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 20 at the Boys and Girls Republic at 888 East
6th Street between Avenue D and the FDR Drive service road.
Census Job
Opportunities
Every ten years the United States
Census Bureau takes a count of every person living in the United States. It’s required by the Constitution. Getting accurate Census data in New York is
vital for ensuring that we receive our fair share of $650 billion in federal
funds for public education, public housing, infrastructure, and more — as well
as the number of seats we have in the U.S. House of Representatives. It also determines how much representation
each community has in the State Legislature and the city council.
It’s critical that every New Yorker
be counted in the 2020 Census. In the
last Census in 2010, New York City’s self-response rate was less than 62%,
significantly lower than the national 76% response rate.
There
are many jobs now available for workers to conduct the 2020 Census. To inquire about Field Representative Testing
in New York, please send an email with your name, zip code, and phone number(s)
to new.york.recruit@census.gov, or call 212-584-3495. For other questions or inquiries about Census
opportunities outside New York City, please call the New York Regional Census
Center at 212-882-7100.
Deadline to Register
to Vote for Presidential Primary
Under a new law passed by the
Legislature, you can now change your party enrollment closer to next year’s New
York presidential primary. February 14 –
Valentine’s Day – is the deadline to re-register to change which political
party you are enrolled in, or to enroll with a party for the first time, in
time to vote in New York’s April 28 presidential primary. If you are already registered at your current
address and enrolled with the party of your choice, you do not need to do
anything.
To make a change, send a Voter
Registration Form with your new choice to the board of elections office for
your borough or county. You can learn
more about registering or changing your party affiliation by going online: https://www.elections.ny.gov/VotingRegister.html.
If you want to print out and mail
your voter registration form, the address for the New York County (Manhattan
& Roosevelt Island) Board of Elections is:
New York County Board of Elections
200 Varick Street – 10th Floor
New York, NY 10014
EPL/Environmental
Advocates Name Me an “Environmental Champion”
In October, EPL/Environmental
Advocates, the leading statewide organization that has advocated for stronger
environmental protections since 1969, released its 2019 Environmental
Scorecard, which grades all state legislators’ voting records on environmental
legislation.
I was proud to earn a 100% score
this year, and EPL/Environmental Advocates named me an “Environmental
Champion.” I am honored by this
recognition, and will continue working hard to earn the trust and support of
New Yorkers who believe that helping to protect and preserve our environment
remains one of government’s most critical functions.
In its “Scorecard,” which you can
find online at www.eplscorecard.org, EPL/Environmental Advocates rated
legislators on their votes on several critical bills that have now been signed
into law by Governor Cuomo. These
include the Climate Leadership and Protection Act; congestion pricing in
Manhattan; allocating $500 million for water infra-structure; a ban on
single-use plastic bags; and a bill to deny offshore drilling companies access
to state marine and coastal district lands.
Other
environmental legislation that has passed both houses of the Legislature and is
awaiting the Governor’s signature include bill to ban the dangerous pesticide
chlorpyrifos; bar the sale in New York of personal care products that contain
the toxic chemical 1,4-dioxane; and The Child Safe Products Act, which requires
manufacturers to list toxic chemicals that are present in their products, as
well as begin the process of phasing them out.
Yesterday in Albany I joined with environmental and health advocates and other legislators to urge the immediate passage of legislation I’m sponsoring in the Assembly to protect New York’s drinking water. My bill, (A.7839), would require testing drinking water all across New York State for a list of harmful chemicals, and establish a deadline for the New York Department of Health (DOH) to conduct such testing.
By Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried
The election of Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress are a serious threat to programs and policies that protect our health. Washington could make radical changes to Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, reproductive care, and other programs that could drastically undermine our right to health care, cost New York State billions of dollars a year in federal funds, and destabilize health care providers.
The first step in stopping or reversing these attacks is to clearly understand what’s at stake and spread the word. There is hardly anything more rigged against working people than health care. The Trump-Republican agenda will make it worse. This is a time to redouble efforts in more progressive states like New York to create universal access to health care, with funding based fairly on ability to pay, through an “improved Medicare for all” system.
For years, congressional attacks on funding and programs have been defeated by the threat or use of presidential vetoes. Now we will have a president who may be leading the charge.
ALBANY — A string of water pollution incidents blamed on industrial chemicals is prompting calls for more money to detect whether New Yorkers are exposed to unregulated but “emerging” contaminants from their faucets.
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, chairman of the Assembly Health Committee, said in an interview he hopes there will be “more funding for expanded investigation of possible contamination” in next year’s budget.
The influential architect of much of the health-related programs advanced at the Capitol said money is needed because small communities often cannot afford testing.
“And millions of New Yorkers get their water from either very small systems or from private wells,” he said.
ALBANY — Residents of Hoosick Falls compare the water contamination in their village of 3,500 people with the crisis in Flint, Michigan, where lead-laced drinking water created a public health emergency.
State health officials say they’re doing all they can to help the village on the Vermont border deal with toxic chemicals in the groundwater. But residents and several state lawmakers are steamed, saying more people could have been sickened in the time it took the state to react.
“The lesson for all Americans here is that people need to know what’s in their drinking water, and know what state officials are doing to keep it safe,” said Michele Baker, an organizer of a grassroots group focused on the contamination. “New York state knew what was in our water and allowed us to keep drinking water with contaminants for months.”
Baker said the pollution is the result of years of dumping harmful chemicals used in manufacturing — complicated by government inertia.
ALBANY — Under intense grilling at a legislative hearing, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker admitted Wednesday he and his staff knew for years that a chemical in the water in Hoosick Falls was a danger to residents, but didn’t sound the alarm.
“Yes,” Zucker relented when asked repeatedly by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) if his agency was aware of information “it took [resident] Mike Hickey five minutes on Google to find.”
Gottfried pointed to a fact sheet issued by the Health Department in December 2015 stating residents of the upstate village had nothing to fear.
ALBANY— Wednesday’s hearing on Hoosick Falls and water pollution issues turned into a five-hour grilling of state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker and other officials who organized the state’s response to the crisis.
The hearings were intended to take a broad look at water quality issues across the state. And while they touched on Hudson River water quality, road salt runoff in waterways and fracking waste, they largely centered on the state’s response to Hoosick Falls, the Rensselaer County village where water was found to be contaminated by an industrial chemical, perflurooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Thursday she would introduce federal legislation to fight the water-contamination crisis in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., shortly after a congressional committee launched a probe into the state’s handling of the issue.
The measures mark mounting federal scrutiny of how Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other public officials have addressed the matter in the upstate New York community, located about 35 miles from Albany.
“I’m grateful the governor has done a couple of things,” Ms. Gillibrand, a Democrat, said in an interview. “But we need to do a lot more.”
I represent Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, and parts of Murray Hill and the Lincoln Center area in the State Assembly. I have been chair of the Assembly Health Committee since 1987. During off hours, I like to write Chinese calligraphy.
