During the Centennial Gala Celebration for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce on Saturday evening, U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan (R -Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island) who is running for re-election in New York’s 11th Congressional District, sat down with Kings County Politics to discuss the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), infrastructure and opioids.
“It’ll be addressed and we will fix it,” said Donovan. “We’re not going to deport people who have been brought here by their parents, who have done nothing wrong themselves. “This is just a matter of sitting down at the table and defining the parameters of it,” said Donovan.
In September, President Donald Trump ended the six-year-old former President Barack Obama executive order, forcing Congress to overhaul an Obama era executive order. The issue was tabled during last month’s budget negotiations causing the government to temporarily shut down twice within one month. The legislative branch has until Mar. 5 to determine the fate of 800,000 DACA recipients, of which 30,000 live within the 5 boroughs.
Donovan said the recent debate in Washington did not revolve around the deportation of DACA recipients, but rather if the issue should have been apart of the spending budget. According to Donovan, D.C. lawmakers will address four pillars at the same time, including DACA, border security, the termination of diversity lottery visas and defining chain migration.
“I think it’s pretty outrageous for people to come into our country just because we don’t have enough people from their home country,” said Donovan. “We’re asking other people who we’ve trained in medical schools and residencies that they have to leave. Our system makes them leave because we have enough people from their home country here.”
The Congressmember anticipates some debate on border security funding and suggested other areas need border control as well.
“The northern borders are very porous as well and we need to secure those as well,” said Donovan.
Pleased with the $6 billion recently approved to fund the opioid crisis, Donovan spoke to what the new funding will mean to areas battling the epidemic, including his own backyard of Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn.
“Part of that will go for law enforcement, part of that will go for educating those who have not yet experimented with these dangerous substances and a lot of it will go towards recovery and rehabilitation,” said Donovan who sits on the Opioid Caucus Task Force in Congress.
The National Institution of Health (NIH) will also receive funding for opioid research.
“There’s no geographic boundaries to the problem that our nation is suffering,” said Donovan who also went on to say the crisis does not discriminate against age, nationality, gender or sexual orientation. However, the Congress member refused to comment on his colleagues recent remarks that flagged the opioids were “not a ghetto drug.”
On whether or not pharmaceutical companies contributed to opioid addiction, Donovan referred to the 1990s decision to name pain as a vital sign while at the same time Perdue Pharma secured the pattern for OxyContin.
“It’s either a strange set of coincidences or it was done purposely,” said Donovan.
Addressing another issue plaguing the Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn, Donovan said the $1.5 trillion infrastructure funding will go to projects like the Gateway Tunnel project.
In November, Donovan, New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (D) along with U.S. Rep. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and others met with the president to talk about the importance of the project. But Donovan gave much pause to the idea that feds would shell out a high percentage for the $30 billion project.
“It’s a match by local governments as well,” said Donovan. “Sometimes those matches are 80 percent federal money, 20 percent local money. This one is a little more of an investment of the local entities.”
The Congress member also said New York City can apply for money from the new infrastructure fund to finally fix projects like the Gowanus Canal. This, on top of the Superfund money allocated to the project.
On criticisms that the incumbent rarely visits the Brooklyn side of the district, Donovan pointed to his victory in the borough over Richard Reichard in the 2016 election –– the first Republican win in a congressional race [on the Brooklyn side of the district] within the last 10 years.
“Three out of every four weeks I’m in Washington, the one week that I’m in New York I split it evenly between Staten Island and Brooklyn,” said Donovan.
The Council member did not confirm plans for any future coffee tours but said he is always open to meeting with people on an individual basis and has taken eleven 20-minute meetings in a row from constituents.
“When you get your 20 minutes with me, it’s your 20 minutes,” said Donovan.
