Tell Lawmakers to Act Before it’s Too Late

As you work to finalize our state budget and engage in other important negotiations in the coming days, you will no doubt weigh a number of crucial proposals that can either help or hurt New Yorkers.

I’m writing to ask you to protect New Yorkers from ICE’s cruelty, make big investments in universal childcare, and create a funding stream to ensure trans people can get the health care they need. You should also oppose harmful legislation that would chill protest and roll back our state’s landmark climate law.

SUPPORT

1. Immigrant Legal Services
The increase in ICE arrests and detentions under the second Trump Administration has created an enormous need for robust immigration legal services. In this year’s budget, lawmakers must invest resources to sustain and expand funding for immigrant legal services, as well as permanently guarantee robust legal representation for immigrant New Yorkers. You can do this by passing the Access to Representation Act (S.9756/A.270) and the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense Act (S.4538/A.2689).

2. Universal Childcare
Too many families find themselves in an impossible predicament: They cannot afford to lose the wages they need to survive, but they can’t afford to pay for the childcare that allows them to go to work. These issues impact millions of people across our state, but they are especially urgent for women of color. Families urgently need childcare vouchers to help them afford care, and lawmakers must also fund the essential labor of the childcare workforce.

You should also address the fact that the same state and local agencies that administer childcare also oversee Child Protective Services. CPS is the same entity that unjustly takes children away from many low-income families of color. CPS must be separated from any agency that supports, funds, or coordinates childcare.

3. Trans Health Care

President Trump has launched an all-out assault on the rights of trans people. His administration has tried almost everything possible to prevent trans people from getting the health care they need to live as their authentic selves. Lawmakers must step up to blunt these unprecedented attacks by passing two pieces of legislation.

The Gender-Affirming Care Access Program (S.7924-A / A.8841-A) would create the first dedicated funding stream in New York State to support access to gender-affirming care. And S.9275/ A.6596-B would make crystal clear in the law that New York’s Medicaid program and private health insurance plans regulated by New York are required to cover medically necessary gender-affirming care.

OPPOSE

1. No-Speech Zones

Over the last two years, millions of people have taken to the streets to protest the Trump administration. There has not been a time in recent memory when more New Yorkers were using their voice. But in the midst of this wave of protest, lawmakers are considering proposals that would outlaw demonstrating near houses of worship and other facilities. This would chill speech in thousands of neighborhoods across the state.

2. Climate Law Rollbacks
In 2019, New York lawmakers made a decisive move to counteract the first Trump administration’s vast rollbacks of environmental protections by enacting the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The law provides strong protections for Black and Brown neighborhoods that have long faced environmental racism and injustice. Lawmakers must reject Gov. Hochul’s proposed rollbacks to this law, which would put these communities of color at risk.

As you negotiate the budget and other important legislation, I’m counting on you to take these important actions in the coming days.