State Senator Gustavo Rivera on the End of the 2022 Legislative Session

“The Senate Majority continued to build on last year’s historic legislative successes. Despite a challenging budget process, we secured significant victories throughout the entire legislative session, including expanding Medicaid coverage for new mothers and senior undocumented immigrant New Yorkers, making childcare more accessible for New York families, strengthening fire safety regulations, critical gun safety reforms, making prescription drugs more affordable, and more. These measures are necessary investments into our communities that will enable and empower New Yorkers to thrive.”

“I am proud to have fought for critical legislation and successfully passed 51 bills through the Senate, 35 of which passed through both houses of the legislature. Our work is far from over and we must continue addressing the most pressing issues affecting New Yorkers, like staggering rent and cost increases and challenging public safety concerns. Whether we are talking about overhauling our broken healthcare system with the New York Health Act or opening overdose prevention centers in places that need them, or more local measures, such as ensuring small business owners in New York City have commercial leases, we must continue elevating our community’s voices to ensure we are building a more equitable and fairer New York,” said State Senator Gustavo Rivera. 

Highlights of Senator Rivera’s Legislative Accomplishments that Passed both Houses: 

• Enacting Dakota's Law, a prevention system to address childhood lead exposure and poisoning. (S.5024D)
• Providing access to rescue inhalers to treat severe asthmatic attacks in every setting where children are cared for. (S.4935)
• Regulating the billing of facilities fees by healthcare providers, part of my End Medical Debt package. (S.2521C)
• Protecting New Yorkers from having liens placed on their homes or their wages garnished to collect medical debt, part of my End Medical Debt package. (S.6522A)
• Enacted the New York State Living Donor Support Act to financially support New Yorkers willing to become a living donor. (S.1594)
• More than half a million dollars for organizations serving Senate District 33 to provide legal assistance, educational and family programs, and public safety services.
• Reappropriated $100.5 million dollars for development of the Kingsbridge Armory 
• Extending Medicaid coverage eligibility to new mothers for a full year after giving birth, including undocumented immigrants as part of the budget. (S.1411B) 
• Ensuring home health aides are trained in working with patients of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities or expressions (S.2534A)
• Requires insurance companies to apply price reduction instruments, like discounts, towards a New Yorkers out-of-pocket expenses when calculating an insured individual's contribution requirements to lower the cost of prescription drugs. (S5299A)
• Expanding Medicaid to undocumented seniors 65 years old and older as part of the budget.
• $800 million to replenish the ERAP program to prevent evictions. 
• $30 million for gun violence prevention and intervention programs.
• $350 million for the New York City Housing Authority.
• $35 million for the Homeowner Protection Program (HOPP), which provides legal services to homeowners facing foreclosure.

Highlights of Senator Rivera’s Legislative Accomplishments that Passed the Senate: 

• Capping insulin copays from $100 to $30 per month. (S.1413 Passed the Senate)
• Increasing fines for building and fire code violations in New York City while requiring penalties to be imposed through the state within 14 days of failing to address such violations. This bill was part of the Senate Majorities Fire Safety package in an effort to prevent tragedies like the one at Twin Parks North West. (S.8795A Passed the Senate)
• Expanding eligibility for the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program to allow more senior New Yorkers to access affordable coverage for their medications. (S.2535A Passed the Senate)

Highlights of this session’s most critical legislative measures championed by the Senate Majority

• Our Gun Safety Reform Package is leading the nation with the most strict laws preventing gun violence, including several bills to make it a hassle to purchase an assault rifle.
  • Permit to Purchase a Semi-Automatic Rifle (S.9458)
  • Establishing New Crimes of Mass Harm (S.89B)
  • Act to Microstamp Ammunition (S.4116A)
  • Strengthening Background Checks (S.4970A)
  • Bolstering Extreme Risk Protection Orders (S.9113A)
  • Penalizing Large Capacity Ammo and Feeding Devices (S.9229A)
  • Act to Regulate Body Armor (S.9407B)
  • Improving the Definition of Firearm (S.9456)
  • Reporting Hateful Social Media (S.4511A)
  • Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism (S.9465)
• The Build Public Renewables Act (S.6453C) passed the Senate and will empower our state to develop and own renewable energy projects, phase out its fossil fuel power plants, and provide renewable energy and energy efficiency services to state and municipal buildings and residential customers to ensure we meet the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
• The state’s Gas Tax Holiday is in effect to address staggering prices at the pump.
• The Clean Slate Act (S.1553D) ends perpetual punishment for New Yorkers who have served their time that ensures individuals who have completed their sentence for certain convictions can return to their community and participate in society without being permanently branded as an offender.
• The NYCHA Preservation Trust (S.9409) creates a public entity that depends on tenant representation and choice to select the best path forward for their development and more efficiently utilize funding to address capital repairs.Without federal investment in our public housing stock, the state is taking charge. 
• Provide public housing tenants equitable access to Emergency Rental Assistance Funding (S8850) .
• A suite of legislation protecting the right to reproductive health and gender-affirming care enshrined a women’s right to choose in New York while it is under attack in other states and by the Supreme Court. 
  • Freedom from Interference with Reproductive Health Advocacy and Travel Exercise (S.9039A)
  • Extradition and Discovery Non-Cooperation (S.9077)
  • Prohibiting Medical Misconduct Charges for Performing Reproductive Health Care: (S.9079A)
  • Protection of Malpractice Coverage (S.9080B)
  • Address Confidentiality Program (S.9384A)
  • Study of the Impact of Limited Service Pregnancy Centers (S.470)
• The Voter Rights Package features a bill to ensure that New Yorkers who speak other languages or who are part of a protected class are free to participate in our democracy without facing racial discrimination and honors the late Representative John Lewis, who said that to preserve democracy, 'each generation must do its part.' The package included: 
  • The Rep. John Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York (S.1046E)
  • Act to Penalize Voter Deception and Suppression (S.1032)
  • Establishing the New York Voting and Elections Database (S.8202)
  • Preventing Electronic Interference (S.118)