Cumbo, Williams Laud De Blasio On Parental Paid Leave
City Council Members Laurie Cumbo (Fort Greene, Clinton Hill) and Jumaane Williams (Flatlands, East Flatbush) yesterday praised Mayor Bill de Blasio on the signing a personnel order to provide paid parental leave to about 20,000 city employees.
The order provides six weeks of paid time off for maternity, paternity, adoption, and foster care leave, at 100 percent of salary – or up to 12 weeks total when combined with existing leave. The City is also immediately sitting down with its municipal unions to extend the policy to their covered employees, as required by collective bargaining rules.
“It has been a long road, but today we have made history for families throughout New York City. As Chair of the Committee on Women’s Issues, I was so proud to stand alongside Mayor Bill de Blasio, First Lady Chirlane McCray, and my colleagues in government as the Paid Family Leave Bill was signed into law. This legislation gives 20,000 municipal workers, including parents of adopted and foster children, six weeks of paid family leave. This is huge and a giant step in the right direction. The United States is one of a few nations that still does not have a paid family leave mandate and I am hopeful that what we did here in New York City will transcend throughout the nation,” said Cumbo.
Williams said bonding with your children should never be reserved for the privileged, and is a right for all New Yorkers including working and immigrant families.
Adams Participates At Guns In America Town Hall With President Obama
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams last night was one of the invited guests in CNN’s special “Guns in America,” a nationally-televised town hall with President Barack Obama at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Adams was called to attend based, in part, on his law enforcement background, having served 22 years in the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
“I’m honored to represent Brooklyn, America’s fourth-largest city, in a nationwide conversation about the role of guns in our society,” said Adams. “From Fort Hood to Fort Greene, Blacksburg to Bed-Stuy, San Bernadino to Sunset Park, unchecked gun violence is carving highways of death that have connected our nation in a sad and shameful way. In the face of congressional gridlock and dangerous radicalized rhetoric, President Obama is pushing forward on this issue. As a former police officer, a current lawmaker and, most importantly, a father, I am interested to learn our country’s next steps forward in the face of this growing crisis.”
In addition, Adams will use this trip as an opportunity to meet with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, including Representative Carolyn Maloney, a noted gun control advocate, and Representative Daniel Donovan, a former district attorney, to discuss proposals for gun control and other priorities for Brooklyn.
Donovan Says Obamacare Leading To Possible State Tax Hike
Southern Brooklyn/Staten Island Congressman Dan Donovan yesterday noted that the State Senate is discussing potential tax hikes in the wake of New Republic of New York going belly up and leaving tax-payers with more than $200 million in unpaid doctor and hospital bills.
New Republic is one of a number of struggling health care plans created under the Affordable Care Act that was envisioned as an alternative to the traditional insurance companies that dominate the nation’s health coverage landscape.
The State Senate hearing on New Republic’s collapse discussed options to cover the loss, including a tax on health insurance policies. It also came the day after Donovan voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act in Congress.
“Health Republic’s collapse, together with the failure of 12 of 23 similar insurers around the country, is evidence that Obamacare is fatally flawed. It’s not enough that the un-Affordable Care Act results in astronomical premiums for middle class, working families. It’s not enough that sky-high deductibles render many health policies useless anyway. Now, middle-class, working families might have to bail out the bankrupt company that Obamacare created to provide them the affordable coverage they need in the first place. It’s sickening,” said Donovan.
“Since 2010, 18 revisions to Obamacare have passed Congress and been signed into law. I will continue working with my colleagues to enact meaningful, patient-centric reforms so middle class families can stop spending money they don’t have on health policies they can’t keep,” he added.
