Queens Lawmakers On The Move Nov. 9, 2018

Queens County City Council News

Katz To Attend Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony For New Mother-Baby Unit

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz/via Facebook

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz will deliver remarks today at the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new Mother-Baby unit at NYC Health + Hospital Elmhurst.

The new unit will take a holistic approach to caring and treating mother’s and their infants. The facility will have maternity facilities offering the highest levels of breastfeeding education and support and for having environments that foster and encourage maternal-infant bonding.

The event is slated for 12-noon, today, at Elmhurst Hospital, at 79-01 Broadway in Elmhurst.


Kim To Discuss Impact of Corporate Welfare

Assemblymember Ron Kim/Facebook

Assembly member Ron Kim (D-Flushing, Whitestone, College Point, Murray Hill) will be joined by Ms. Fennie Wang, Co-founder of ixo today to discuss the impact of corporate welfare.

Kim and Wang will livestream their discussion on social media platform, Twitter and will discus how blockchain technology can easily track and measure the impact of all public funding and investments, especially corporate incentives and big economic development projects.The duo will also discuss ixo’s network and protocol, impact tokens, and how decentralized tools can hold government accountable.

Corporate welfare is often used to describe a government’s bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment for corporations.

The ixo Foundation is a non-profit open-source software development foundation building the ixo Blockchain for Impact. With ixo, all measurable changes that have an impact can now be transformed into Verified Impact Data with crypto-economic Proof of Impact, which enables anyone to value what counts for sustainable social, environmental and economic development.

The event is slated for 11:15 a.m., today, Nov. 9, on Kim’s twitter account @rontkim or www.twitter.com/rontkim.


Gillibrand Announces Legislation To Revise VA Mission To Be More Inclusive Of Women

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of Senate Armed Services Committee, and U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice announced yesterday that they will introduce a new bill to revise the mission statement for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to be more inclusive of women veterans and surviving family members.

The current VA mission statement is a quotation from President Abraham Lincoln that reads: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.” As it stands, this mission statement fails to recognize the service and sacrifice of the thousands of women in uniform who have served the United States.

The bill Gillibrand and Rice are introducing would change the mission statement to read: “To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those ‘who shall have borne the battle’ and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.”

In addition to changing the motto, the bill will also require that within 30 days of enactment, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs publish a notification on the department’s website explaining the mission statement change, update each department website, and issue guidance and a timeline to the entire department for updating all previous mission statement references. Within six months, the Secretary will be required to submit a report to Congress on the department’s compliance.

The number of women serving on active duty has grown substantially in recent decades – over 345,000 women have deployed since 9/11 – and as a result, the number of women veterans is expected to reach a record high.

“I’m proud to introduce this legislation to recognize the extraordinary sacrifice of all of our veterans, including women veterans, and I urge my colleagues to quickly pass it into law. Our women veterans were willing to give their lives to this country, and I will always do everything in my power to make sure their service and sacrifices are given the respect they deserve,” said Gillibrand.