1108
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
5
6
7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 March 10, 2026
11 3:31 p.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
15
16
17
18 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR ANTONIO DELGADO, President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
20
21
22
23
24
25
1109
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 THE PRESIDENT: The Senate will
3 come to order.
4 Everyone please rise and recite the
5 Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 THE PRESIDENT: In the absence of
9 clergy, let us bow our heads in a moment of
10 silent reflection or prayer.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 THE PRESIDENT: Reading of the
14 Journal.
15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Monday,
16 March 9, 2026, the Senate met pursuant to
17 adjournment. The Journal of Friday, March 6,
18 2026, was read and approved. On motion, the
19 Senate adjourned.
20 THE PRESIDENT: Without objection,
21 the Journal stands approved as read.
22 Presentation of petitions.
23 Messages from the Assembly.
24 The Secretary will read.
25 THE SECRETARY: Senator Fahy moves
1110
1 to discharge, from the Committee on Education,
2 Assembly Bill Number 4382A and substitute it for
3 the identical Senate Bill 6734A, Third Reading
4 Calendar 437.
5 THE PRESIDENT: So ordered.
6 Messages from the Governor.
7 Reports of standing committees.
8 Reports of select committees.
9 Communications and reports from
10 state officers.
11 Motions and resolutions.
12 Senator Gianaris.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: Good afternoon,
14 Mr. President.
15 THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: On behalf of
17 Senator Jackson, on page 24 I offer the following
18 amendments to Calendar Number 443, Senate Print
19 5183, and ask that said bill retain its place on
20 Third Reading Calendar.
21 THE PRESIDENT: The amendments are
22 received, and the bill will retain its place on
23 the Third Reading Calendar.
24 Senator Gianaris.
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: I now move to
1111
1 adopt the Resolution Calendar, with the exception
2 of Resolutions 1718 and 1723.
3 THE PRESIDENT: All those in favor
4 of adopting the Resolution Calendar, with the
5 exception of Resolutions 1718 and 1723, please
6 signify by saying aye.
7 (Response of "Aye.")
8 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
9 (No response.)
10 THE PRESIDENT: The Resolution
11 Calendar is adopted.
12 Senator Gianaris.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: At this time
14 please recognize Senator Weber for an
15 introduction.
16 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Weber.
17 SENATOR WEBER: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 Today I rise to recognize a truly
20 remarkable group visiting us in the Senate
21 chamber, the 12th-grade class, graduating class,
22 of Ahavas Bas Yaakov, of Rockland County. I
23 would like to take a moment to acknowledge
24 Principal Ms. Shaindy Eisenberg and
25 Shmulie Hartstein, who are up there in the
1112
1 gallery as well.
2 They founded an organization called
3 Kol Yisroel, which means "the voice of the Jewish
4 people." Kol Yisroel is a new organization with
5 a powerful mission, to engage Jewish youth in
6 civic education and teach them how local and
7 state government functions.
8 In less than two months, this
9 organization has already taken four trips here to
10 our Capitol, today being the largest delegation
11 yet.
12 They have met with more than
13 40 elected officials in various capacities and
14 have many more advocacy trips planned in the
15 months ahead, all centered around empowering
16 young people to participate meaningfully in our
17 democratic process -- not a small accomplishment
18 at all.
19 Before us are 22 outstanding young
20 women who have completed a comprehensive civics
21 course studying how government works, from local
22 municipalities to the New York State Legislature.
23 They are not just learning about
24 government in theory, they are here putting their
25 education in action, meeting with legislators,
1113
1 engaging respectfully, and advocating for their
2 values for community safety.
3 These students from my Senate
4 district are among the thousands of students who
5 attend private schools, receive an excellent
6 education, and go on to become civic-minded,
7 productive, and engaged members of society.
8 I personally know many of their
9 families. They are constituents in the
10 38th District and are hardworking,
11 community-orientated, and deeply invested in
12 faith and public life.
13 Their presence here today
14 demonstrates that young people are paying
15 attention, they care about their communities,
16 they care about public safety, and they care
17 about their future -- and they understand that
18 democracy functions best when citizens show up
19 and participate.
20 Mr. President, we thank them for
21 being here. We thank Mr. Hartstein for his
22 leadership and vision as well. And we look
23 forward to watching these young women grow into
24 the next generation of leaders in our state and
25 our nation.
1114
1 Mr. President, I ask for this body
2 to extend to the 12th grade of Ahavas Bas Yaakov
3 of Rockland County the full courtesies and
4 privileges of the New York State Senate.
5 Please join me in welcoming them
6 warmly as well.
7 THE PRESIDENT: To our guests, I
8 welcome you on behalf of the Senate. We extend
9 to you the privileges and courtesies of the
10 house.
11 Please rise and be recognized.
12 (Standing ovation.)
13 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Gianaris.
14 SENATOR GIANARIS: Please recognize
15 Senator Webb for another introduction.
16 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Webb.
17 SENATOR WEBB: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 Today I rise and I want to lift up
20 someone who's joined us in the chamber today but
21 is someone who is not only making a very
22 remarkable impression here in our great state,
23 but is also called upon nationally.
24 Today we are joined by Dr. Angela
25 Odoms-Young, who is an outstanding scholar,
1115
1 leader and advocate for healthier communities
2 across New York.
3 She is the Nancy Schlegel Meinig
4 Associate Professor of Maternal and Child
5 Nutrition at Cornell University.
6 She also serves as the director of
7 the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities
8 Program, led by New York State's Expanded Food
9 and Nutrition Education Program through Cornell
10 Cooperative Extension.
11 Her research examines how social and
12 structural factors such as economic inequality,
13 racism and environmental injustice shape dietary
14 behaviors and contribute to disparities in
15 healthcare, along with chronic diseases. She
16 works to improve access to food and health
17 outcomes, particularly in historically
18 marginalized communities.
19 She has and continues to shape
20 national food and nutrition policy through her
21 service with the National Academies of Sciences,
22 Engineering and Medicine, and as the cochair of
23 the Scientific Review Committee for the 2020
24 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
25 I'm very proud to recognize
1116
1 Dr. Angela Odoms-Young for her commitment to
2 improving the health and well-being of families
3 across our great state and nation.
4 Mr. President, I ask that you join
5 me in welcoming her to our chamber and extend to
6 her all the privileges of the floor.
7 Thank you.
8 THE PRESIDENT: To our guest, I
9 welcome you on behalf of the Senate. We extend
10 to you the privileges and courtesies of the
11 house.
12 Please rise and be recognized.
13 (Standing ovation.)
14 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Gianaris.
15 SENATOR GIANARIS: Please take up
16 previously adopted Resolution 1680, by
17 Senator Fernandez, have that resolution's title
18 read, and recognize Senator Fernandez.
19 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
20 read.
21 THE SECRETARY: Resolution 1680, by
22 Senator Fernandez, commemorating the
23 Inaugural Celebration of Bronx Day on March 10,
24 2026.
25 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Fernandez.
1117
1 SENATOR FERNANDEZ: Mr. President,
2 it is my great honor to rise today before you and
3 my colleagues from across this great state to
4 declare that once again, at long last, Bronx Day
5 is happening in Albany.
6 After nearly a decade, myself, my
7 colleagues, and a group of the most dedicated,
8 talented individuals have resurrected this great
9 tradition.
10 This day, like every day, Bronxites
11 are called upon to remind us of one fundamental
12 truth: That since 1898, the Bronx is the single
13 greatest borough in New York City.
14 (Laughter.)
15 SENATOR FERNANDEZ: Yes, it is.
16 The best, if you will.
17 It is the spirit of the Bronx that
18 makes it so, a spirit that was constructed over
19 generations, scarred by tragedy, but resilient
20 above all else. That, despite great hardship,
21 would change the world for the better.
22 Now I'm putting on my historian hat
23 because we're going to tell a story. Long before
24 the boroughs or city lines, the land was home to
25 the Lenape, those who lived along the river for
1118
1 generations. Fun fact, the river, the Bronx
2 River, is the only freshwater river in New York
3 City.
4 In 1639, a Swedish settler named
5 Jonas Bronck built a farm along that river and
6 maintained relations with the Native leaders.
7 But he didn't stay too long, and unfortunately
8 colonization, as it does, spread with impunity
9 and the people of that land were forced from the
10 land.
11 But as the story goes, the borough
12 rose from this land, the Bronx land, and it would
13 be known today as the Bronx.
14 Another fun fact: There are only
15 three places in the world that have "the" in
16 front of its name: The Hague, in the
17 Netherlands; the Vatican, in Italy; and the
18 Bronx, in New York City.
19 And while the Bronx may carry a long
20 history in the family of New York City boroughs,
21 we are still the youngest. In 1912 the Bronx was
22 the last borough to join New York City. And I
23 call it the "baby borough," my baby.
24 Anyone who grew up in a big family
25 knows that the youngest sibling is sometimes
1119
1 underestimated, sometimes overlooked, sometimes
2 talked about before even being heard. But that
3 position teaches you, it teaches you something.
4 It teaches you to fight for your place. It
5 teaches you to prove yourself. And the Bronx has
6 spent more than a century doing exactly that.
7 But the spirit of the Bronx does not
8 just live in its geography, it lives in the
9 people. Generations after generations of
10 families have come to the Bronx to build a
11 life -- immigrants like my parents, Doña Sonia
12 and Don William, from Cuba and Colombia --
13 working families, communities from across Europe,
14 the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, South America
15 and beyond.
16 They brought their language, their
17 culture, their food, their music, and their
18 pride. And together they built neighborhoods
19 that did more than just house people. They
20 created identity.
21 You have Little Italy in Belmont, on
22 Arthur Avenue. You have Little Yemen in Morris
23 Park. You have Little Puerto Rico in Clason
24 Point. You have Bangla Bazaar in Parkchester.
25 And you have Little Jamaica in Baychester, and so
1120
1 much more. Shout out to my Albanians, my
2 West Africans, and the Garifuna community -- and
3 everybody in between.
4 Time and time again the Bronx has
5 created culture that reached far beyond the
6 streets. Movements born here have shaped music,
7 art, identity across the globe. We created
8 doo-wop. We cultivated salsa. Rest in peace to
9 Willie Colón. Yesterday he was laid to rest in
10 peace. Shout out to Héctor Lavoe, who came to
11 the Bronx, cultivated this music, and created
12 community.
13 And Mr. President, do you know that
14 La Reina de Salsa herself, Celia Cruz, rests in
15 power for eternity in the great Woodlawn Cemetery
16 in the Bronx.
17 And of course hip-hop. I know we
18 love that. Hip-hop did start in the Bronx.
19 Don't let anybody ever tell you that it started
20 anywhere else besides 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.
21 Because if it wasn't for the Bronx, this rap
22 stuff wouldn't be going on.
23 (Dancing) "Uptown baby, uptown baby,
24 we gets down baby, up the crown baby." We had to
25 have a dance break, because we are the
1121
1 boogie-down Bronx.
2 The Bronx has always been bigger
3 than its borough lines. And yet for the world it
4 has been given sometimes a bad name: The
5 Forgotten Borough, the Stepchild Borough.
6 But history tells a different story.
7 Even when the recognition didn't always follow,
8 many of our most notable leaders, voices and
9 visionaries came to the Bronx, from Edgar Allan
10 Poe -- you can visit his house today in Poe Park.
11 From James Baldwin, who graduated from DeWitt
12 Clinton High School. Also from Stanley Lee, the
13 father of our Marvel Comics and many superheroes
14 that we love. And of course our current
15 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
16 We have raised pioneers who
17 challenged and changed the world for the better.
18 Even Cardi B.
19 (Laughter.)
20 SENATOR FERNANDEZ: And
21 Chazz Palminteri, Sonny from A Bronx Tale, will
22 tell you, the worst thing in the world is wasted
23 talent. And so many of us heard him, because
24 we're not wasting our talent.
25 On our borough flag -- we have a
1122
1 borough flag, as every borough does. It has a
2 saying, Ne Cede Malis, "yield not to evil."
3 There were times when people looked
4 at the borough and only saw struggle. The era
5 where the nation watched images of fires and
6 declared that the Bronx was burning. But the
7 spirit of the Bronx did not stay down. It
8 rebuilded, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by
9 block, family by family.
10 It even built this country,
11 Mr. President. Another fun fact, a Fernandez fun
12 fact: Did you know that at our nation's capital
13 the Lincoln Memorial, that statue was made in the
14 Bronx? It was carved in a studio in the
15 South Bronx and brought in pieces to our nation's
16 capital. So when you go visit Washington, D.C.,
17 you know the Bronx is looking at you.
18 The spirit of the Bronx, when the
19 world handed us a tough deck, the Bronx played it
20 handily, returning the favor with music --
21 hip-hop, salsa, doo-wop. The New York Yankees,
22 27 rings, okay. The New York Botanical Garden,
23 the first botanical garden in this state. We
24 have Brooklyn, we have Queens, but the New York
25 Botanical Garden is in the Bronx because that is
1123
1 where it started, as did so many other things.
2 We have the best zoo -- the Bronx
3 Zoo, where you can see Happy the Elephant -- and
4 fashion icons, from Calvin Klein -- I know a lot
5 of us love to wear his suits -- to original still
6 Edwin Reyes. And if you were watching the
7 Olympics, the Winter Olympics, those very nice
8 outfits were designed by Bronx native
9 Ralph Lauren.
10 And may I say that the Bronx is
11 beautiful. It is so beautiful. We are the
12 greenest borough, with the most parkland space.
13 From Pelham Bay Park to Orchard Beach,
14 Van Cortlandt, St. Mary's and Crotona, we are so
15 beautiful, and every day we continue to bloom.
16 I say before you, Mr. President, if
17 you didn't know, again, the Bronx is the only
18 borough on the mainland USA. The Bronx is the
19 gateway to the United States. You have to come
20 through us if you want to see anything else.
21 And that is fitting, because the
22 story of the Bronx is the story of America. We
23 are the city. We are God's country. And we are
24 the hopes and dreams of generations past,
25 fighting for our place in the world -- and we are
1124
1 winning.
2 As a State Senator, I know that to
3 represent the Bronx is to carry that spirit with
4 you. It means speaking for communities who have
5 fought to be heard. It means honoring
6 resilience, creativity, and the pride that
7 defines our borough. And it means making sure
8 that the Bronx is never overlooked in places
9 where decisions are made, like right here in our
10 State Capitol.
11 That is why today matters. Today's
12 leaders, artists, entrepreneurs, community
13 members from the Bronx have come today to see you
14 so you can see them. Today we recognize the
15 borough that has given so much to the world.
16 To my baby borough, the Bronx, I'm
17 so proud of you. And we are reminded that the
18 Bronx is not just a part of New York City, it is
19 not just where we live, it is who we are. We are
20 the vibe. We are the Bronx. And we are the
21 best.
22 Thank you.
23 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
24 (Applause.)
25 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Bailey.
1125
1 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
2 Mr. President.
3 Thank you to Senator Fernandez for
4 revitalizing Bronx Day, to the Chamber of
5 Commerce and all of our esteemed guests.
6 Mr. President, today I get to be a
7 lawyer again. I'm going to submit to you a
8 motion for summary judgment about the Bronx, the
9 greatest place on God's green earth.
10 Now, a philosopher once said: "New
11 York to the heart, but we got love for all. Lie
12 and die in the fire where I learned to ball.
13 Uptown is the place where I lay my dome. On the
14 streets of the Bronx where my family roam.
15 Now, we heard that Brooklyn's in the
16 house.
17 (Laughter.)
18 SENATOR BAILEY: We heard that
19 Queens gets the money. We know about all the
20 world: Money-making Manhattan, money-earning
21 Mount Vernon. But I submit to you in this motion
22 for summary judgment, as Senator Fernandez, if it
23 wasn't for the Bronx, this rap thing probably
24 never would be going on.
25 So tell me where you from. Uptown,
1126
1 the greatest place where life tastes sweeter.
2 People talk about food.
3 Mr. President, there are Starbucks in Manhattan.
4 We go to the White Plains Road for jerked chicken
5 spots. Little Jamaica, the most Jamaicans
6 outside of the country of Jamaica reside uptown.
7 Wah gwaan, with my brethren. They
8 know what's going on because they made a life,
9 they've come to the Bronx. My grandparents came
10 to the Bronx from North Carolina. Migration.
11 All great roads lead through the boogie-down
12 Bronx.
13 And all great leaders happen to go
14 to high school in the Bronx. Leader
15 Stewart-Cousins, Evander Childs High School,
16 boogie-down Bronx. Speaker Carl Heastie,
17 Truman High School, boogie-down Bronx. I don't
18 think it's a coincidence. I think it's something
19 that happens. There's something in the air.
20 There's something rich about the tapestry, the
21 fabric.
22 We talk about the fashion designers,
23 we talk about Ralph and Calvin. I know all of
24 you have Polo. That's from the Bronx. You may
25 not know about up-and-coming fashion designers
1127
1 like Mugzy McFly out of Baychester, an uptown
2 representative doing great things.
3 We talk about Stan Lee, Marvel.
4 When they think that this is (crossed arms on
5 chest) Wakanda -- no, this is the Bronx. Stan
6 Lee, also a Bronxite.
7 So when you think Wakanda, you think
8 the Bronx. It's the only borough with the sign.
9 I know some of you all try to make other signs.
10 There's only one borough with the sign (crossed
11 arms on chest).
12 (Laughter.)
13 SENATOR BAILEY: As much as I may
14 not like the team that resides on 161st Street
15 and River Avenue, they do have a lot of
16 championships.
17 But we are the home of great
18 basketball players like Jamal Mashburn and Rod
19 Strickland, Mr. President, the greatest NBA
20 player, in my opinion, to ever make an All-Star
21 game. Just let NYU to an NCAA tournament for the
22 first time in a long time.
23 But it's not just about the
24 braggadocio, Mr. President. You heard the facts
25 about the borough. There's a sense of resilience
1128
1 that the Bronx has taken on. Sports announcer --
2 clown, in my book -- Howard Cosell said that the
3 Bronx was burning. The Bronx was never burning,
4 Mr. President. Those fires were a result of
5 disinvestment. Not just financially, but a
6 disinvestment in the people of the Bronx.
7 Now that we have stewards -- and
8 Stewart-Cousinses and Heasties -- that really
9 invested in the borough, look at how far we have
10 come. Those fires were set by people that wanted
11 us to burn. But now, Mr. President, we're on
12 fire.
13 What we have done -- the undisputed
14 birthplace of hip-hop, for those in the back --
15 (Laughter.)
16 SENATOR BAILEY: -- for those in
17 the front, it all comes from, all comes from
18 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Senator Jose Marcos
19 Serrano's district. August 11, 1973, a date that
20 will live forever in history, when hip-hop
21 started out in the park.
22 Mr. President, we are the home of
23 the world's largest cooperative development in
24 Co-Op City. New York City's largest indoor
25 shopping mall at Bay Plaza. And those of us who
1129
1 are from uptown, we know about going through
2 Burger King to get to the movie theater.
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR BAILEY: Those of us from
5 uptown, we know about buy-one-get-one-free
6 Wednesdays at Carvel on 233rd.
7 But everybody from the Bronx has
8 their own Bronx story, their own little slice of
9 heaven, Mr. President.
10 And as I close, I'm just glad that
11 God made me be from the Bronx. We are the only
12 borough that was born in the same century that we
13 were born in. All the other boroughs got 16s and
14 17s and 18s. The Bronx, 1912. Youngest and
15 freshest. The last etching on the stairs, but
16 the first in your heart.
17 So as I close, I invite you all to
18 come, come down the hill. Enjoy the Bronx.
19 Savor the Bronx. Just don't root for the team
20 there, professional team there.
21 But I am really excited that
22 Bronx Day in Albany is back. And to all my
23 colleagues, let us continue to live out -- oh,
24 one more thing, Mr. President.
25 Ogden Nash, famous poet. He
1130
1 infamously wrote: "The Bronx? No thonx!" But
2 much like the resurgence that everybody knows
3 about the Bronx, Ogden Nash made amends:
4 "I can't seem to escape the sins of
5 my smart-Alec youth. Here are my amends.
6 "I wrote those lines, 'The Bronx?
7 No thonx!' I shudder to confess them.
8 "Now I'm an older, wiser man, I cry:
9 'The Bronx? God bless them!'"
10 And God bless the Borough of the
11 Bronx.
12 Thank you, Mr. President.
13 (Applause.)
14 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
15 Senator Myrie.
16 SENATOR MYRIE: Thank you,
17 Mr. President.
18 Let me thank Senator Fernandez for
19 bringing this resolution.
20 I also want to -- hold on, hold on,
21 hold on, I'ma get to it. I'ma get to it.
22 (Laughter.)
23 SENATOR MYRIE: Let me also
24 recognize that we are joined by history-making
25 women in a month where we are recognizing that.
1131
1 We have the first woman ever, first
2 Black woman ever, first Black person ever to
3 assume the Bronx borough presidency, the
4 Honorable Vanessa Gibson.
5 (Applause.)
6 SENATOR MYRIE: A former member of
7 this august State Legislature.
8 And then we have the Bronx district
9 attorney, the first Black woman in the State of
10 New York history to assume the office of district
11 attorney.
12 So the Bronx -- yeah, we can give it
13 up for her.
14 (Applause.)
15 SENATOR MYRIE: So in addition to
16 all the great things you are going to hear about
17 the Bronx today, I want to ensure that we
18 recognize that it isn't just within the confines
19 of the borough's boundaries, but that they are
20 setting an example for many women that look just
21 like them, who will set an example for future
22 generations.
23 Now, you're probably wondering why
24 this Brooklyn kid is standing up on the Bronx Day
25 resolution, Senator Rivera. But I would argue
1132
1 that I have the strongest dual citizenship
2 between the two boroughs --
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR MYRIE: -- out of anybody
5 in this chamber because my dad moved to the Bronx
6 when I was very, very, very young.
7 So I got street cred in the Bronx.
8 I know about Baychester Avenue. I know about the
9 Carvel special. I played handball at Van
10 Cortlandt. I played hoops at Sousa. I bought
11 bootleg CDs off Fordham Road.
12 (Laughter.)
13 SENATOR MYRIE: When I was young.
14 When I was young.
15 (Laughter.)
16 SENATOR MYRIE: I was educated at
17 Fordham University.
18 I would not be who I am today if not
19 for the great borough of the Bronx. So I wanted
20 to ensure that I gave my just due, that I gave
21 praise to this borough for all that you continue
22 to do, not just for the City of New York but the
23 entire State of New York.
24 Thank you, and Happy Bronx Day!
25 (Applause.)
1133
1 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
2 Senator Serrano.
3 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you very
4 much, Mr. President.
5 And many thanks to all my colleagues
6 and Senator Fernandez and all who have spoken
7 about the importance of the Bronx, and all who
8 are here to celebrate all that is great about
9 this wonderful borough.
10 And we heard our colleagues talk
11 about all the different ways that the Bronx is
12 special. And it is all of that, and very
13 personal for me. As a kid growing up in the
14 1970s in the Bronx, I was really made to feel
15 that this was not a good place. I would tell
16 people I was from the Bronx, and they would go,
17 "Ooh, how did you survive? And, you know, all
18 this, you know, nonsense.
19 There was this belief, this
20 mythology that the Bronx was not magic. But I
21 knew that it was. I was watching Reggie Jackson
22 hit three home runs in the World Series. I was
23 witnessing all of the magic that was there all
24 around -- all of the great music and the
25 architecture and the largest collection of
1134
1 art-deco apartments anywhere outside of
2 Miami Beach.
3 And when I had children, my wife and
4 I, and I would talk to my son about the Bronx,
5 you know, he had heard the rumors that the Bronx
6 was not great. And I said, Let's talk about that
7 for a minute. Let's talk about all the great
8 things that came from this borough that we love.
9 Now, my son is a big fan of Batman.
10 There would be no Batman if it wasn't for the
11 Bronx. The Dark Knight got his start in the
12 borough, as did many other of our superheroes, as
13 Senator Fernandez mentioned, through the
14 Marvel Universe and otherwise.
15 And from Stanley Kubrick, who
16 revolutionized the way we watch movies, from
17 Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, who revolutionized
18 the way we look at fashion. I could go on and
19 on. I could talk about Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I
20 could talk about Sonia Sotomayor. I could talk
21 about all the amazing musicians and thinkers and
22 poets and writers.
23 And really, what it boils down to is
24 pride. It's pride that we were denied through
25 redlining and through benign neglect.
1135
1 There was nothing benign about the
2 neglect that happened in the 1960s and '70s in
3 the Bronx. This was purposeful. This was
4 something that was done that was a tremendous
5 tragedy. And it had repercussions for
6 generations.
7 Indeed, I grew up thinking that this
8 was not the place to be. I grew up thinking that
9 what I saw on TV in The Brady Bunch was the
10 epitome of the American dream, not realizing that
11 the diversity and the beauty that was in the
12 Bronx was the dream.
13 So as I stand here as the father of
14 two teenage kids, and my son in his second year
15 at the University of Pennsylvania -- and I'm so
16 proud of him, and my daughter and all that the
17 Bronx gave to us. We would not be anything if it
18 was not for the Bronx.
19 And I congratulate everyone here to
20 celebrate it. Thank you.
21 (Applause.)
22 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
23 Senator Sepúlveda.
24 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Thank you,
25 Mr. President.
1136
1 Before I speak, I just have to make
2 it clear to Senator Myrie that you don't get
3 street-cred citizenship just because you set foot
4 in the Bronx. To get credibility in the Bronx,
5 you've got to live there, you've got to work
6 there, you've got to be with us every single day.
7 And I want to deny Senator Bailey
8 his motion for summary judgment because even
9 though what he said was accurate about the Bronx,
10 the reality is that he's still a New York Mets
11 fan.
12 (Laughter.)
13 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: The Bronx --
14 I've lived in most counties in the City of
15 New York and several places throughout the state,
16 but there's no greater place than the Bronx.
17 You know, I moved into the Bronx
18 after graduating from law school in 1991, and
19 stayed there. And I've been there for the last
20 30-something years. And I tell you that it's
21 been one of the best experiences of my life.
22 I've raised one son there and another one I
23 raised for most of his life there. And I could
24 not think of a greater place to raise a family.
25 Now, of course I want to thank
1137
1 Nathalia for the great work for this day today,
2 and I saw a lot of the presentation. You should
3 be very proud of the work that you've done.
4 I want to thank the Bronx Chamber of
5 Commerce for the great work that they do in
6 economic development for the county.
7 Now, it's important that we
8 celebrate, as we celebrate almost 400 years of
9 New York City and 250 years of this country, that
10 we celebrate the Bronx.
11 You know, people don't know this,
12 but the Bronx played a critical role in the
13 Revolutionary War of this country. And there are
14 many sites that you can go visit and you can see
15 where actual battles took place.
16 The Bronx is one of the most diverse
17 places in the world. I lived in Queens, I lived
18 in Jackson Heights, so I know how diverse
19 Jackson Heights is. But the Bronx is almost as
20 diverse and has a great community.
21 In the 1940s to the 1970s there was
22 a big migration from Puerto Rico. Subsequently
23 you've had people from West Africa, from Africa,
24 you've had people from South Asia, the
25 Bangladeshi community is a thriving community
1138
1 there now. You have a large Dominican community
2 which is the largest ethnic group now in the
3 County of the Bronx.
4 And I know we've mentioned some of
5 the great and famous people that were born or
6 lived or were raised in the Bronx. I know
7 someone mentioned Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who as you
8 all know has changed the way we live and we think
9 about the universe. I know DeGrasse's father was
10 African-American and his mother was Puerto Rican,
11 we had other great people like Roscoe Brown,
12 W.E.B. Du Bois. They were all born in the Bronx
13 and lived there most of their lives. We have
14 other famous musicians. I know we spoke about
15 Cardi B. But we also have Jennifer Lopez. We
16 have Grandmaster Flash, and we have KRS-One, two
17 pioneers of hip-hop music. Fat Joe is another
18 Bronx-born-and-bred musician. And one that
19 probably many of you don't know, especially if
20 you're from Long Island, is that Billy Joel was
21 actually born in the Bronx.
22 You know, we have a lot of pride
23 that hip-hop is the birthplace -- the Bronx is
24 the birthplace of hip-hop. It transformed music,
25 and it also changes social expressions around the
1139
1 world and fashion and other ways.
2 You know, our borough has the best
3 zoo in the entire country, it has the best
4 botanical gardens in the entire world. It has
5 Orchard Beach, it has Van Cortlandt Park, which
6 are wonderful places to go. And of course it is
7 a location where you have -- a county where you
8 have many educational centers like Fordham, you
9 have Lehman College and many, many other
10 institutions of higher learning in the county.
11 I invite all of my colleagues to
12 come and visit the Bronx. We can take you to
13 Little Italy to eat foods from not only the
14 Italian community, but also the Mexican-American
15 community, which has grown in that sector.
16 We can take you to areas where you
17 could eat Jamaican food, you could eat Arabic
18 food. I mean, so many different kinds of flavors
19 and food and flavors from different countries
20 that we invite you to come in.
21 Of course if you come, we'll take
22 you to a Yankee game, we'll take you to the
23 greatest zoo, the Bronx Zoo, and then after
24 you're done there we'll walk you over to the
25 botanical gardens and you'll have the greatest
1140
1 experience you have in your life.
2 So we urge you, come to the Bronx.
3 I'm so honored to be recognizing the Bronx. As I
4 said, I can't think of a greater place to live.
5 God bless the Bronx {in Spanish;
6 crossed arms on chest}.
7 (Applause.)
8 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Krueger.
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you very
10 much.
11 I never lived in the Bronx.
12 (Laughter.)
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: But my first job
14 in New York City when I moved to New York in 1983
15 was to actually work in the Hunts Point area of
16 the Bronx, which was a tough place at that time.
17 And so I'm delighted to hear all
18 these wonderful things that are the Bronx today,
19 and all the great people who come from the Bronx
20 and came from the city today to visit with us.
21 But I needed to stand up to point
22 out that when my very close friend
23 Senator Serrano got up to talk about his life in
24 the Bronx, he forgot to mention this little
25 detail.
1141
1 I knew his father, the Congressman,
2 long before I knew him, because he was part of
3 the great renewal of the Bronx and was so
4 committed to the community where I started to
5 work in 1983. And he was so helpful to me in my
6 efforts when I started the New York City Food
7 Bank back then. And his commitment to social
8 justice and his own people.
9 And I have no question where this
10 amazing man {indicating} came from, because he
11 came from Congressman Serrano, who I just wanted
12 to make sure we talked about today.
13 Thank you very much.
14 (Applause.)
15 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Borrello on
16 the resolution.
17 SENATOR BORRELLO: I just want to
18 rise to run a little cover for Senator Serrano.
19 You talked about Batman, but you
20 launched into Stan Lee and Marvel. So I don't
21 want a bunch of Batman fan boys calling your
22 office saying you misinterpreted this.
23 Indeed, Bob Kane and Bill Finger are
24 both from the Bronx, the co-creators of Batman.
25 I wanted to clarify that so you don't get a bunch
1142
1 of emails and phone calls.
2 (Laughter.)
3 THE PRESIDENT: Good?
4 To Bronx Borough President Vanessa
5 Gibson and District Attorney Clark, to all of our
6 guests here today representing the boogie-down
7 Bronx, I welcome you on behalf of the Senate. We
8 extend to you the privileges and courtesies of
9 the house.
10 Please, all of you, rise and be
11 recognized.
12 (Standing ovation.)
13 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution was
14 adopted on March 5th.
15 Senator Gianaris.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
17 before we move on, I want to state clearly for
18 the record that the best superhero is Spider-Man,
19 who is in fact from Queens. He is from Queens.
20 (Laughter.)
21 SENATOR GIANARIS: You develop it
22 wherever you want -- he lived in Queens,
23 Senator Serrano.
24 (Laughter.)
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: All right, let's
1143
1 move on to more serious matters:
2 Resolution 1718, by Senator May. Please read
3 that resolution's title and recognize
4 Senator May.
5 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
6 read.
7 THE SECRETARY: Resolution 1718, by
8 Senator May, recognizing Tuesday, March 10, 2026,
9 as Harriet Tubman Day.
10 THE PRESIDENT: Senator May on the
11 resolution.
12 SENATOR MAY: Thank you,
13 Mr. President.
14 After taking in all that Bronx
15 pride, let me transport you 250 miles northwest
16 of the Bronx to the beautiful if diminutive city
17 of Auburn, New York, which proudly calls itself
18 History's Hometown, in part because it was the
19 chosen home of one of America's most courageous
20 heroes, Harriet Tubman.
21 Today is the anniversary of her
22 death. She died in 1913, after a long and
23 remarkable life. And it is fitting now, during
24 Women's History Month, and just after Black
25 History Month, that we pause to remember the life
1144
1 of Harriet Tubman.
2 Born into slavery in Maryland, she
3 occupies a key place in Black history for her
4 incredible bravery and dedication to helping
5 many, many men, women and children escape
6 slavery.
7 As a conductor on the
8 Underground Railroad, she risked her own life and
9 freedom countless times, bringing others
10 northward. She once said, in all those years she
11 never ran her train off the track and never lost
12 a passenger.
13 Harriet Tubman also made women's
14 history when she joined the Union cause in the
15 Civil War as a nurse, cook, scout and spy. And
16 in 1863, she became the first American woman to
17 lead an armed military raid at the
18 Combahee River. The raid resulted in the
19 liberation of over 700 enslaved people, and dealt
20 a serious blow to the Confederate cause.
21 Ms. Tubman was posthumously awarded
22 the rank of brigadier general in the Army for her
23 achievements in that war.
24 Here in New York, Harriet Tubman
25 made a quieter kind of history after she settled
1145
1 in Auburn. She chose that city because of her
2 close friendship with several abolitionists and
3 fighters for women's suffrage, notably
4 Frances Seward and her husband, William Seward.
5 William Seward served in this body
6 as the State Senator from Auburn, then as
7 Governor of New York State and United States
8 Senator from New York State, and eventually as
9 Lincoln's Secretary of State.
10 The Sewards provided Ms. Tubman a
11 home in Auburn, where she lived for the last five
12 decades of her life, continuing her humanitarian
13 activities.
14 She was a pillar of the AME Zion
15 Church in Auburn and worked with the church to
16 found the Harriet Tubman Home for Elderly and
17 Indigent African-Americans, which became
18 essentially a nursing home that she ended up
19 living in at the end of her life.
20 Harriet Tubman was well into her
21 nineties when she died in 1913, and she's buried
22 in Fort Hill Cemetery, a stone's throw from the
23 AME Zion Church and not far from the Seward
24 family plot.
25 Auburn is still home to many of her
1146
1 descendants. And last year the United States
2 Park Service opened the Harriet Tubman National
3 Historic Park in Auburn.
4 On this Harriet Tubman Day in this
5 Women's History Month, I am grateful to the
6 Senate for recognizing the life and legacy of
7 this extraordinary New Yorker.
8 Thank you.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
10 Senator May.
11 Senator Webb on the resolution.
12 SENATOR WEBB: Thank you,
13 Mr. President.
14 I want to thank Senator May and also
15 Assemblymember Meeks in the Assembly for bringing
16 in resolution forward today, and of course our
17 Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins,
18 for honoring the life, courage and enduring
19 legacy of Harriet Tubman.
20 Harriet Tubman had so many, many
21 esteemed titles and names. Most certainly a few
22 I'll just lift up: Araminta, Moses, conductor,
23 feminist icon, and so many more. And as
24 Senator May very eloquently described, she not
25 only escaped bondage, but her story did not end
1147
1 with her own freedom. Instead, she made the
2 brave and selfless decision to return to the
3 South time and time again, guiding enslaved men,
4 women and children along the Underground Railroad
5 towards safety and liberty.
6 Now, she was a woman of small
7 stature but she was filled with mighty courage,
8 vision and commitment. She not only answered the
9 call to lead, she was driven by an indomitable
10 and divine spirit to make a difference.
11 Harriet Tubman's courage and her
12 commitment to change has made an impact on many
13 lives and strengthened the movement for freedom
14 in this country.
15 At a time when helping someone
16 escape slavery could literally cost a person
17 their life, and when you think about laws at that
18 time, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which
19 allowed -- which was a law that literally allowed
20 people to not only be captured but put back into
21 slavery -- she risked all of these things because
22 of this assignment that she was given.
23 Her leadership, resilience, and
24 faith inspired countless people to resist
25 injustice and believe in the possibility of a
1148
1 better future. She not only led enslaved Black
2 people towards freedom, she defied the odds and
3 enshrined the fight for human dignity and rights
4 into our collective story.
5 Mr. President, the
6 Underground Railroad was made possible by a
7 network of communities that believed in that same
8 principle. One of those communities is in my
9 district, in the City of Binghamton, which I am
10 very proud to represent and very proud to have
11 been born and raised there. Binghamton served as
12 a stop along the Underground Railroad where local
13 residents quietly provided shelter and support to
14 individuals seeking freedom. And today that
15 history is remembered through initiatives like
16 the Binghamton Freedom Trail, which highlights
17 important sites throughout the city connected to
18 the Underground Railroad, and the broader
19 struggle for abolition and civil rights.
20 One such site is Trinity AME
21 Zion Church, a historic institution that played a
22 role in that legacy of courage and community
23 leadership.
24 And for the people of Binghamton and
25 the Southern Tier, these sites stand as powerful
1149
1 reminders and calls to action for courage,
2 compassion, and moral conviction that cannot only
3 help to move our community forward but also move
4 our nation closer towards the promise of liberty
5 for all.
6 I urge my colleagues to join me in
7 supporting this resolution. As we reflect on
8 Harriet Tubman's legacy, may we continue to honor
9 her example by remembering this history of
10 liberation, of human dignity and more, and carry
11 it forward through our efforts here in this
12 chamber to lift up those values of freedom,
13 justice, and human dignity.
14 Thank you, Mr. President.
15 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
16 Senator Webb.
17 The question is on the resolution.
18 All those in favor please signify by saying aye.
19 (Response of "Aye.")
20 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
21 (No response.)
22 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution is
23 adopted.
24 Senator Gianaris.
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: And now let's
1150
1 move on to Resolution 1723, by Majority Leader
2 Stewart-Cousins, read that resolution's title,
3 and recognize Senator Gonzalez to speak on that
4 resolution.
5 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
6 read.
7 THE SECRETARY: Resolution 1723, by
8 Senator Stewart-Cousins, commemorating the
9 61st Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the
10 Selma-to-Montgomery march across the
11 Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, which
12 served as a catalyst for the passage of the
13 1965 Voting Rights Act.
14 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Gonzalez on
15 the resolution.
16 SENATOR GONZALEZ: Thank you,
17 Mr. President.
18 And thank you to the leader for
19 bringing forward this resolution honoring the
20 61st Anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
21 This anniversary is bittersweet as
22 we mourn the loss of civil rights activist
23 Jesse Jackson and celebrate the incredible work
24 he and so many other activists did to defend our
25 most fundamental rights.
1151
1 On March 7, 1965, 600 peaceful
2 activists marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge
3 in Selma. This was part of a series of civil
4 rights protests against the systemic denial of
5 Black voter registration.
6 Even though the Civil Rights Act of
7 1964 forbade discrimination in voting on the
8 basis of race, efforts by civil rights
9 organizations such as the Southern Christian
10 Leadership Council and the Student Nonviolent
11 Coordinating Committee to register Black voters
12 were met with resistance, violence and
13 intimidation in southern states.
14 The brutality these marchers faced
15 on that bridge at the hands of 150 Alabama state
16 troopers, sheriffs deputies and white vigilante
17 groups shocked the nation. Known later as Bloody
18 Sunday, this action led to the
19 Selma-to-Montgomery march and later to the
20 passage of the Voting Rights Act.
21 This anniversary serves as a
22 sobering reminder that, as Janai Nelson,
23 president of the Legal Defense Fund, put it:
24 "There has not been a moment in this democracy
25 where we have not had to fight for our right to
1152
1 vote, where we have not faced hurdles in casting
2 a vote."
3 Mr. President, there hasn't been a
4 single moment since the passage of the Voting
5 Rights Act that there hasn't been a concerted
6 effort to undermine it. The Voting Rights Act of
7 1965 banned racist literacy tests as a
8 requirement for voting, but today we see states
9 passing onerous voter I.D. requirements when
10 studies show that nearly 29 million voting-age
11 U.S. citizens lacked a valid driver's license and
12 over 7 million had no other form of non-expired
13 government-issue photo identification.
14 The Voting Rights Act reduced the
15 disparity between Black and white voters and
16 allowed greater numbers of Black voters to
17 participate in local politics. But today we're
18 seeing polling places shut down in Black and
19 brown neighborhoods. In the past year alone, the
20 federal government has taken actions to weaken
21 voting rights for all Americans, from threats to
22 eliminate mail-in voting to nationalizing the
23 electoral process.
24 The Supreme Court, after striking
25 down huge portions of the Voting Rights Act in
1153
1 2013, is once again hearing a case that could
2 absolutely gut it.
3 The fight for our right to vote and,
4 by extension, the fight for our democracy did not
5 start at Selma, and it certainly has not ended
6 since. Voting rights are the anchor for all of
7 the other rights we fought for and won over the
8 last 60 years. The marchers in Selma understood
9 that. The generations of activists who followed
10 them knew that. And here in New York we
11 understand we have a responsibility to defend
12 each of the rights that we've won.
13 Under the leadership of our
14 Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, we've
15 passed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act and
16 some of the most robust elections protections,
17 including adding more early voting places and
18 ballot drop-off boxes.
19 We've passed same-day registration
20 on the first day of early voting. We've moved to
21 protect elections officers and have encouraged
22 voter education and transparency.
23 These wins do not mean that we can
24 stop fighting. They remind us that now more than
25 ever, we must keep marching, we must keep
1154
1 organizing, we must keep resisting efforts to
2 undermine the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They
3 are proof that when we do, we have the ability to
4 win.
5 And as we commemorate Bloody Sunday,
6 we are not only remembering the 600 people who
7 marched in Selma, we are honoring a broader
8 tradition of everyday people coming together to
9 defend our most fundamental rights and stand up
10 for the democracy that we all deserve the right
11 to be a part of.
12 So I want to thank again the leader
13 and this chamber for this resolution, and of
14 course I proudly support it.
15 Thank you.
16 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
17 The question is on the resolution.
18 All those in favor please signify by saying aye.
19 (Response of "Aye.")
20 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
21 (No response.)
22 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution is
23 adopted.
24 Senator Gianaris.
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
1155
1 the sponsors of today's resolutions would like to
2 open them for cosponsorship.
3 THE PRESIDENT: The resolutions are
4 open for cosponsorship. Should you choose not to
5 be a cosponsor, please notify the desk.
6 Senator Gianaris.
7 SENATOR GIANARIS: Please take up
8 the calendar.
9 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
10 read.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
12 176, Senate Print 2598A, by Senator Mayer, an act
13 to amend the General Municipal Law.
14 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
15 section.
16 THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
17 act shall take effect one year after it shall
18 have become a law.
19 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
20 (The Secretary called the roll.)
21 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
22 Calendar 176, voting in the negative:
23 Senator Walczyk.
24 Ayes, 60. Nays, 1.
25 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
1156
1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
2 206, Senate Print 4692, by Senator Cleare, an act
3 to amend the Public Health Law.
4 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
5 section.
6 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
7 act shall take effect immediately.
8 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
9 (The Secretary called the roll.)
10 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Cleare to
11 explain her vote.
12 SENATOR CLEARE: Thank you,
13 Mr. President.
14 Period poverty is a real condition.
15 The cost of menstrual products can be
16 astronomical, especially to those who have lower
17 incomes, such as college students. In reality
18 the purpose of these products is simple: To
19 provide essential health options to deal with a
20 naturally occurring bodily process.
21 No one should have to budget for
22 this or go without just to afford period
23 products. Would we make people bear the burden
24 and cost of toilet paper, hand soap, and paper
25 towels?
1157
1 The bill before us continues a
2 movement that was started almost 10 years ago,
3 and that is to make sure that menstrual
4 products are provided free of charge in the
5 restrooms of all educational institutions. This
6 bill is needed because in a recent survey,
7 48 percent of students said they have struggled
8 to access menstrual products due to cost or other
9 barriers.
10 The study also found that nearly one
11 in five, 19 percent of female college students
12 reported that they felt forced to decide between
13 buying period products and paying for other
14 expenses such as food and other bills.
15 We can do better than that, and we
16 will. In my office we are holding a trio of
17 events this March concerning period poverty,
18 including outreach to schools, a product
19 collection drive, and a day of action.
20 I thank my colleagues for voting for
21 this bill and for all that we have done,
22 individually and collectively, to alleviate
23 period poverty, period.
24 Thank you.
25 (Laughter.)
1158
1 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Cleare will
2 be recorded in the affirmative.
3 Announce the results.
4 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
5 Calendar 206, voting in the negative are
6 Senators Borrello, Gallivan, Martins, Walczyk and
7 Weik.
8 Ayes, 56. Nays, 5.
9 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
11 275, Senate Print 4470A, by Senator Mayer, an act
12 to amend the Executive Law.
13 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
14 section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
16 act shall take effect on the 180th day after it
17 shall have become a law.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
19 (The Secretary called the roll.)
20 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
21 results.
22 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
23 Calendar 275, voting in the negative are
24 Senators Brisport, Griffo, Oberacker and Weik.
25 Ayes, 57. Nays, 4.
1159
1 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
3 310, Senate Print 627, by Senator Stavisky, an
4 act to amend the Education Law.
5 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
6 section.
7 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
8 act shall take effect immediately.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
10 (The Secretary called the roll.)
11 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
12 results.
13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
14 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
16 357, Senate Print 516A, by Senator Persaud, an
17 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
18 SENATOR GIANARIS: Lay it aside for
19 the day, please.
20 THE PRESIDENT: Lay it aside for
21 the day.
22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
23 360, Senate Print 3249, by Senator Cooney, an act
24 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
25 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
1160
1 section.
2 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3 act shall take effect immediately.
4 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
5 (The Secretary called the roll.)
6 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
7 results.
8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
9 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
11 368, Senate Print 2491, by Senator Gounardes, an
12 act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law.
13 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
14 section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
16 act shall take effect on the 180th day after it
17 shall have become a law.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
19 (The Secretary called the roll.)
20 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
21 results.
22 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
23 Calendar 368, voting in the negative are
24 Senators Borrello, Chan, Gallivan, Griffo,
25 Helming, Lanza, Mattera, Murray, Oberacker,
1161
1 O'Mara, Ortt, Rhoads, Stec, Walczyk and Weik.
2 Ayes, 46. Nays, 15.
3 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
5 371, Senate Print 2236A, by Senator Gounardes, an
6 act to amend the Labor Law.
7 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
8 section.
9 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
10 act shall take effect immediately.
11 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
12 (The Secretary called the roll.)
13 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
14 results.
15 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
16 Calendar 371, voting in the negative:
17 Senator Walczyk.
18 Ayes, 60. Nays, 1.
19 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
21 390, Senate Print 2278A, by Senator Webb, an act
22 to amend the Public Health Law.
23 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
24 section.
25 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
1162
1 act shall take effect on the 180th day after it
2 shall have become a law.
3 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
4 (The Secretary called the roll.)
5 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Webb to
6 explain her vote.
7 SENATOR WEBB: Thank you,
8 Mr. President.
9 I want to lift up this legislation
10 because it does several things.
11 One, it affirms something we all
12 know to be very true, and that is nurses are the
13 backbone of our healthcare system and quite
14 frankly, their voices deserve to be heard at
15 every table where critical decisions are made,
16 especially at the highest levels.
17 What this bill does is that it
18 requires the governing bodies of hospitals to
19 include at least one registered professional
20 nurse from the community as a sitting and voting
21 member.
22 This is a commonsense step. And
23 nurses, as we know, bring such essential
24 expertise, whether it's to the boardroom, they
25 help shape policies, strengthen hospital
1163
1 reputation, and guide care in ways that directly
2 benefit us, their patients.
3 The nursing profession is incredibly
4 diverse. It encompasses individuals committed to
5 serving patients, families, and our communities.
6 Nurses work on the frontlines of care and bring a
7 wide range of skills and strategic thinking,
8 problem-solving, communication and leadership
9 that go far beyond the bedside.
10 These competencies not only improve
11 patient outcomes but also enhance the overall
12 effectiveness and resilience of our hospitals.
13 Mr. President, our state thrives
14 when decisions are informed by those with the
15 firsthand experience on the frontlines of care.
16 Including nurses on hospital boards is not just
17 simply sound policy, it is essential for stronger
18 hospitals and better healthcare for everyone.
19 I proudly vote aye, and I encourage
20 my colleagues to do the same.
21 Thank you.
22 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Webb will
23 be recorded in the affirmative.
24 Announce the results.
25 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
1164
1 Calendar 390, voting in the negative are
2 Senators Ashby, Borrello, Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick,
3 Gallivan, Griffo, Martins, Mattera, Murray,
4 Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt, Rhoads, Stec, Walczyk
5 and Weber.
6 Ayes, 46. Nays, 15.
7 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
9 391, Senate Print 2400, by Senator Persaud, an
10 act to amend the Public Health Law.
11 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
12 section.
13 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
14 act shall take effect on the 90th day after it
15 shall have become a law.
16 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
17 (The Secretary called the roll.)
18 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Murray to
19 explain his vote.
20 SENATOR MURRAY: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 First let me start by sincerely
23 thanking my colleague Senator Persaud for working
24 on this together, and also to a member of her
25 staff who really played a big role in putting
1165
1 this together. We sat and talked for quite some
2 time, sharing our stories. And that is Michelle
3 Edwin Alvarez, who really was instrumental in
4 doing this.
5 I've told this story, so I'll give
6 kind of the Reader's Digest version of this. The
7 importance of this cannot be understated. And I
8 say that because 15 years ago I was much more
9 active than I am now. I was playing softball on
10 Sunday mornings. And rounding third base, blew
11 out my knee one morning. And I had just gotten
12 elected to the Assembly at the time.
13 Blew out the knee. I mean, bad.
14 Surgery was required. So I come up here and I
15 actually used a doctor up here in Albany that was
16 also working for the New York Giants. So I
17 thought okay, this guy knows what he's doing.
18 Had the surgery, and after the
19 surgery -- it was right around Memorial Day. We
20 went home. I wasn't marching in parades, but was
21 going to different parades, and I remember we
22 pulled right up to the stage after one parade, I
23 get out of the car, literally just walked up the
24 steps and over to the microphone to say a few
25 words, and I was completely out of breath. I was
1166
1 having chest pains, wasn't sure what was going
2 on. How could that have anything to do with the
3 knee surgery, right? So I didn't know what was
4 happening.
5 Felt a little bit better. On the
6 drive back to Albany after that weekend, talking
7 to my chief of staff, and he said, "You know, we
8 really need to get that checked out." Okay. So
9 we get up to Albany, and I call the doctor who
10 did the surgery, and he says, "Yeah, we can see
11 you either right now or next Thursday." Right
12 now won, so we jumped in the car, we go see him.
13 He examines me a little bit and then says, "Hmm,
14 I think I need to send you over to get something
15 else done, maybe an ultrasound."
16 So we go over there and do that.
17 And each time I was noticing the doctors and
18 everyone was growing in urgency. But I didn't
19 know why. I didn't understand it. Well, they
20 finally end up sending me to the emergency room.
21 They said, "You have to go there now."
22 So we're driving over, and I called
23 over and said, "Are we going into session? I
24 don't want to miss any votes. Maybe I could come
25 back, do the votes and then go to the hospital."
1167
1 He said, "What are you, crazy? We're going to
2 the hospital."
3 Well, luckily they were smarter than
4 I was. We went straight to the hospital, and at
5 that point everyone scrambling and running, and
6 I'm starting to get really nervous now. What's
7 going on? Well, they were scrambling and running
8 because I had blood clots. I then had a
9 pulmonary embolism. I didn't know what that was.
10 I had no idea. And I didn't realize that about
11 40 percent of the people that have that end up
12 dying. So that's why everyone was scrambling.
13 So today I said, I wonder just how
14 bad -- I mean, even today, after going through
15 all this, I wonder how bad that is. I looked it
16 up, and I said, How many people in the United
17 States die of a pulmonary embolism each year?
18 Well, come to find out, it says that it's a
19 leading cause of cardiovascular mortality, often
20 behind only heart attacks and strokes. Anywhere
21 from 100,000 to 200,000 people a year die from a
22 pulmonary embolism.
23 For those who don't know what that
24 is, that's throwing a blood clot, basically. You
25 get a clot in one area, and it goes up and it can
1168
1 go to your heart and kill you.
2 Mine, luckily, got caught in my
3 lung, so it never made it. The doc said the next
4 stop was mortality. The next stop, you would not
5 have lived. So luckily, it got caught in my
6 lung. So I ended up in the hospital for a few
7 days.
8 But the point of this long extended
9 story -- sorry, I promised it would be short.
10 But the point of this long extended story is I
11 didn't know any of this. They say ignorance is
12 bliss. I guess I was a little happy because I
13 didn't know how serious this was. It is very,
14 very serious.
15 It says many of these deaths occur
16 rapidly or before a formal diagnosis can be made,
17 as it is a common, often-preventable complication
18 in hospitalized patients. I didn't know after
19 surgery you're supposed to get up and move
20 around. Circulate the blood. Do that. I didn't
21 know this. That's why I formed a clot.
22 To this day I still have and am
23 forming blood clots. We never figured out why.
24 I went through dozens and dozens of tests all
25 over the place; we couldn't figure out why. Many
1169
1 people, it's hereditary or genetic. Others, it
2 can be after surgery or a complication or
3 something. We never figured out why with me.
4 So I kept forming them and we had to
5 do emergency surgery and put a filter in just in
6 case another one gets thrown. So to this day,
7 I'm still learning more and more about it.
8 So putting this working group
9 together, the information that can be gathered
10 from that, is imperative. This is a bill that
11 I'm proud to say could literally save lives.
12 So again, Senator Persaud, I say
13 thank you. To your staffer, Michelle, I say
14 thank you, God bless you.
15 And I'm thrilled to vote yes,
16 Mr. President.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
18 Senator Murray.
19 Senator Murray will be recorded in
20 the affirmative.
21 Senator Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick.
22 SENATOR CANZONERI-FITZPATRICK:
23 Thank you, Mr. President.
24 I too want to rise and thank
25 Senator Persaud and Senator Murray for your
1170
1 advocacy on this issue.
2 Just recently my 21-year-old
3 daughter Elizabeth -- who gave me permission to
4 speak about her today, by the way -- is a senior
5 down at the University of Virginia. Had to have
6 emergency surgery, and about five days after
7 surgery her arm turned blue. She couldn't
8 breathe.
9 Thank God for her roommates. They
10 brought her to the hospital. And she has blood
11 clots, one that's cutting off the circulation to
12 her arm, and it's close to her heart. Multiple
13 blood clots in both of her lungs.
14 And it's something I knew nothing
15 about. A kid that could run an 8-minute mile
16 just the week before could now walk from here to
17 there and was out of breath. She couldn't travel
18 home for her grandfather's funeral because she's
19 not permitted to travel.
20 And I daresay this is something that
21 will likely affect her for the rest of her life.
22 The doctors have said if she wants to have
23 children, she will likely have to be on blood
24 thinners during her whole pregnancy. And the
25 surgery that she had was for an ovarian torsion,
1171
1 so her motherhood is clearly in jeopardy now,
2 which is really scary.
3 But I just want to thank you for
4 bringing this to the floor. I look forward to
5 hearing what this working group has to say.
6 Because the doctors don't understand why this
7 happens, how to treat it, how to detect it. And
8 it's a very scary thing for a young woman to go
9 through this. And certainly as her mom, it's
10 very scary.
11 So thank you both for bringing this
12 to the floor. I proudly vote aye.
13 Thank you, Mr. President.
14 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
15 Senator Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick will
16 be recorded in the affirmative.
17 Announce the results.
18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
19 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
21 413, Senate Print 3078, by Senator Comrie, an act
22 to amend the General Business Law.
23 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
24 section.
25 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
1172
1 act shall take effect immediately.
2 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
3 (The Secretary called the roll.)
4 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
5 results.
6 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
7 Calendar 413, voting in the negative:
8 Senators Chan and Walczyk.
9 Ayes, 59. Nays, 2.
10 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
12 437, Assembly Bill Number 4382A, by
13 Assemblymember Paulin, an act to amend the
14 Education Law.
15 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
16 section.
17 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
18 act shall take effect immediately.
19 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
20 (The Secretary called the roll.)
21 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
22 results.
23 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
24 Calendar 437, voting in the negative are
25 Senators Borrello, Chan, Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt
1173
1 and Weik.
2 Ayes, 55. Nays, 6.
3 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
5 449, Senate Print 374, by Senator Gianaris, an
6 act to amend the Legislative Law.
7 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
8 section.
9 THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
10 act shall take effect immediately.
11 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
12 (The Secretary called the roll.)
13 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
14 results.
15 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
16 Calendar 449, voting in the negative are
17 Senators Ashby, Borrello, Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick,
18 Chan, Gallivan, Griffo, Helming, Mattera, Murray,
19 Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt, Palumbo, Rhoads, Stec,
20 Tedisco, Walczyk, Weber and Weik.
21 Ayes, 42. Nays, 19.
22 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
23 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
24 reading of today's calendar.
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: Is there any
1174
1 further business at the desk?
2 THE PRESIDENT: There is no further
3 business at the desk.
4 SENATOR GIANARIS: In that case, I
5 move to adjourn until tomorrow, Wednesday,
6 March 11th, at 3:00 p.m.
7 THE PRESIDENT: On motion, the
8 Senate stands adjourned until Wednesday,
9 March 11th, at 3:00 p.m.
10 (Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the Senate
11 adjourned.)
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25