Rose Supports Renegotiated Worker Protection Agreement
U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-South Brooklyn, Staten Island), who previously called for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to be renegotiated to strengthen worker protections and eliminate carveouts that benefited big drug companies, issued the following statement announcing his support for the updated deal.
“While others rushed to support the original USMCA that protected drug companies and screwed over American workers, I refused to stand by and let another trade deal pass in Congress that repeated the mistakes of the past,” Rose said. “The final USMCA is proof that if we stick to our principles and negotiate in good faith, we can get to a place where we all win. This deal is by no means perfect but I do believe this is a huge improvement to the status quo and is a strong, bipartisan compromise that will help workers, patients, consumers and our economy.”
Earlier this year, Rose joined a group of 27 Freshmen Democratic Members of Congress in raising concerns on the original USMCA agreement. Rose and his colleagues wrote a letter to United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressing changes need to be made.
They wrote, “Unless the current text’s labor and environmental standards are strengthened, and swift and certain enforcement mechanisms are added, corporations will continue to outsource jobs and pollution to Mexico where they can violate international labor rights and pay workers unconscionably low wages. Disincentivizing that practice is good for North American workers. Unless the new monopoly rights added to [USMCA] for pharmaceutical firms are eliminated, they will lock in policies that keep U.S. drug prices outrageously high.”
Treyger Spearheads Comprehensive Special Education Legislation
New York City Council Member Mark Treyger (D-Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Gravesend, Sea Gate) sponsored a package of bills that passed unanimously Thursday at the New York City Council Stated Meeting. The bills will provide school-by-school special education compliance data to ensure children are receiving the services required.
“We learned about a broken system in need of transparency, we learned about the extraordinary steps that parents and guardians must take in order to get their children the most basic of educational services,” said Treyger, Chair of the Committee on Education. “About 20 percent of all of New York City’s students have a disability. This special education bill package will give us a better idea if there is a pattern between the failure to deliver services and certain zip codes in New York City. Our students deserve the best, and these bills make sure there is true accountability.”
Introduction 559-A would amend Local Law 27 of 2015 to require the Department of Education to disaggregate by school its report on individualized education program compliance rates and provide the number and percentage of students, by school, that are receiving the full services they are entitled to. Most importantly, this bill highlights what services students are not receiving.
Resolution 749-A urges the New York City DOE to create a chief compliance officer position within the Department. to ensure that DOE complies with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The Act guarantees a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities through and Individualized Education Program.
Approximately 224,160 children currently enrolled in the city’s school system are special education students who qualify for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). That number represents about 20 percent of the 1.1 million schoolchildren in the city. The NYC Department of Education (DOE) reported in their latest special education report that only 78.4% of school-age students with IEPs in DOE settings were fully receiving their recommended services, 19.1% were receiving partial services, and 2.5% did not receive any services. Further, and even more disappointing, in 2018, only roughly 50% of students with disabilities graduated from high school within four years.
Cornegy Reflects on 5 Year Anniversary of NYPD Officers Deaths
NYC Council Member Robert E. Cornegy, Jr. (D-Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights) released the following statement on marking the 5 year anniversary of the murders, on December 20, 2014, of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. The officers were murdered as they sat in their patrol vehicle near the corner of Myrtle and Tompkins Avenues.
“It has been five years since I received the chilling call that two police officers were murdered in an ambush at Myrtle and Tompkins Avenues. Two wives lost a husband, children lost a father. My thoughts and prayers are still with the families that needed to heal and rebuild their lives after losing Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. These public servants, model citizens of the community, were taken too soon, in a senseless act of violence,” Cornegy said.
He continued, “In the immediate aftermath of this tragedy, I was concerned with how this might impact the men and women of the NYPD who are designated to serve and protect the citizens of Bedford Stuyvesant, especially considering the sometimes fraught nature of police relations with communities of color. But in the following days, I was grateful to see the community come together to heal and continue the work of improving community relations.”
“Despite the sometimes popular narrative, the core of my community has always supported the police, and continues to support them today. The leadership of Police Service Areas 2 and 3, the 77th, 79th, and 81st NYPD Precincts that serve the district I represent has made incredible strides in bridging gaps and strengthening bonds. We continue to embrace the men and women of the NYPD as our friends, family, loved ones, and neighbors and aim to deepen the recognition of our common humanity and enhance mutual respect. I commend the work of community leaders and the police force in reducing crime, strengthening our community, and advancing community policing,” Cornegy concluded.
Cuomo Announces $10 Million to Protect Non-Public Schools and Religious-Based Institutions
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced more than $10 million has been awarded to make security enhancements at non-public schools and cultural centers, including religious-based institutions, to protect against the threat of hate crimes. This is the second round of funding distributed through New York’s Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes Grant Program and will support 207 projects. Round one included $14.8 million in grants that funded more than 300 projects. Projects will help strengthen security measures to prevent hate crimes or attacks against facilities on the basis of their culture, religion or beliefs. Governor Cuomo secured an additional $25 million in the 2019 state budget to extend this program another year.
“The cancer of hate and division spreading across this country is repugnant to the values of diversity and inclusion we hold dear in New York,” Cuomo said. “We are continuing to do everything we can to stamp out threats and acts of violence targeting religious and cultural institutions, and this new grant funding will allow many of these organizations to enhance their security measures and help keep people safe.”
Hate crime statistics indicate a surge of anti-Semitism and hate crimes against the Jewish community, nationally and in New York. Nearly half of all hate crimes in New York over the last several years have been against the Jewish community. The October 27, 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and the recent terror attack at a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, in which a local Yeshiva and Catholic school faced gunfire, underscore the need to protect Jewish institutions from violent extremism and anti-Semitism.
The grant will provide up to $50,000 in funding for additional security training, cameras, door-hardening, improved lighting, state-of-the-art technology, and other related security upgrades at each eligible facility. Organizations that operate more than one facility have the opportunity to submit up to three applications for a total request of up to $150,000.
The Hate Crimes Task Force was created last year to mitigate recent incidents of bias-motivated threats, harassment, and violence in New York. As part of the Task Force, New York State Police, the Division of Human Rights and the Division of Criminal Justice Services engage local stakeholders and law enforcement agencies and work to identify and investigate hate-motivated crimes and bias related trends, community vulnerabilities and discriminatory practices.
