As part of my community engagement platform, I promised to provide a regular weekly update on what’s happening up in Albany. This is an update from week nine(ten?) of the 2023 session.

As always, you can email me directly at gounardes@nysenate.gov if you have any other questions, ideas, or want more information about what’s happening in Albany or the district.

*Session Week Nine*

This week I attended press events focused on getting our working families the support they need and higher education access:

The press conference I held this week on S277A, the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC), emphasized the urgent relief families need and why it’s imperative the WFTC is included in the Senate one-house budget . The families of New York are stretched thin amidst rising costs and lowered affordability. As we enter the final stages of budget negotiations, we must continue fighting to ensure no family is left behind.

Later in the day, I stood with hundreds of CUNY students as we rallied to fully fund CUNY to ensure the opportunity and accessibility of a high quality education to all New Yorkers. Previously, the Senate held a budget hearing on Higher Education where I raised concerns about CUNY’s disparate funding making up only 35% of the budget allocation for higher education. Cuts to funding and raising tuition at the expense of working-class students who already feel the impacts of rising prices can’t be our way forward. Instead, we have a clear solution: my bill S2146 which establishes the New Deal for CUNY.

*Session*

Remember that you can watch sessions live on the NYS Senate website and follow along with session proceedings on the official NY Senate Twitter.

This week the Senate passed important legislation to highlight Women’s History Month and support families across our state:

• S1792, designates March 8th each year as a day of commemoration, to be known as International Women’s Day. This legislation will commemorate our state’s historic and current leadership in the advancement of women’s rights.
• S2175, provides for paid family leave after a stillbirth. This legislation would amend the workers’ compensation law to include the birth of a stillborn child as a qualifying condition for family leave in New York State, allowing individuals who lose a child to take time to grieve and come to terms with a life-altering loss is critical to the healing process

Thanks for reading! As always, you can email me directly at gounardes@nysenate.gov or call my office as 718–238–6044.