Regular Session - June 17, 2002
4806
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
ALBANY, NEW YORK
June 17, 2002
3:20 p.m.
REGULAR SESSION
SENATOR PATRICIA K. McGEE, Acting President
STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary
4807
P R O C E E D I N G S
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senate will come to order.
I ask everyone present to please
rise and repeat with me the Pledge of
Allegiance.
(Whereupon, the assemblage recited
the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: In the
absence of clergy, may we bow our heads in a
moment of silence.
(Whereupon, the assemblage
respected a moment of silence.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Reading
of the Journal.
THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
Sunday, June 16, the Senate met pursuant to
adjournment. The Journal of Saturday,
June 15, was read and approved. On motion,
Senate adjourned.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Without
objection, the Journal stands approved as
read.
Presentation of petitions.
Messages from the Assembly.
4808
Messages from the Governor.
Reports of standing committees.
Reports of select committees.
Communications and reports from
state officers.
Motions and resolutions.
Senator Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Thank you, Madam
President.
Amendments are offered to the
following Third Reading Calendar bills:
On behalf of Senator Hannon, page
7, Calendar 141, Senate Print 2505A;
On behalf of Senator Leibell, page
11, Calendar 277, Senate Print Number 3251;
Also on behalf of Senator Leibell,
page 11, Calendar Number 278, Senate Print
Number 5259A;
On behalf of Senator Marcellino,
page 15, Calendar Number 370, Senate Print
Number 1969B;
Also on behalf of Senator
Marcellino, page number 20, Calendar Number
520, Senate Print Number 2383E;
On behalf of Senator LaValle, page
4809
21, Calendar Number 554, Senate Print Number
6692;
On behalf of Senator Velella,
page 25, Calendar Number 658, Senate Print
Number 3954;
On behalf of Senator Hannon,
page 27, Calendar Number 691, Senate Print
Number 3707;
On behalf of Senator Marcellino,
page number 30, Calendar Number 768, Senate
Print Number 7094A;
On behalf of Senator Leibell,
page number 38, Calendar Number 923, Senate
Print Number 7213;
On behalf of Senator Seward,
page number 40, Calendar Number 941, Senate
Print Number 5524B;
On behalf of Senator Leibell,
page number 40, Calendar Number 943, Senate
Print Number 6701.
I now move, Madam President, that
these bills retain their place on the order of
third reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted, and the
4810
bills will retain their place on Third Reading
Calendar.
Senator Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Thank you, Madam
President.
On behalf of Senator Hannon, page
number 43, Calendar Number 988, Senate Print
Number 4622A;
On behalf of Senator Leibell, page
number 51, Calendar Number 1138, Senate Print
Number 5283;
On behalf of Senator Leibell, page
number 57, Calendar Number 1326, Senate Print
Number 7253;
On behalf of Senator Marcellino,
page number 58, Calendar Number 1355, Senate
Print Number 6946;
On behalf of Senator Padavan, page
number 58, Calendar Number 1358, Senate Print
Number 7350;
On behalf of Senator Hannon, page
41, Calendar Number 965, Senate Print Number
4352;
And on behalf of Senator Balboni,
page 18, Calendar Number 466, Senate Print
4811
Number 6505.
We now move that these bills retain
their place on the order of third reading,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted, and the
bills will retain their place on Third Reading
Calendar.
Senator Velella.
SENATOR VELELLA: Madam
President, there will be an immediate meeting
of the Banks Committee in the Majority
Conference Room. Would you please announce
that.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Immediate meeting of the Banks Committee in
the Majority Conference Room.
Senator Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Thank you, Madam
President.
On behalf of Senator Morahan, I
wish to call up his bill, Print Number 6106,
recalled from the Assembly, which is now at
the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
4812
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
221, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 6106, an
act to amend the Volunteer Firefighters
Benefit Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Thank you, Madam
President.
I now wish to call up Senator
LaValle's bill, Print Number 2589, recalled
from the Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
4813
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
26, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 2589, an
act to amend Chapter 554 of the Laws of 1996.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted. Thank
you, Senator Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Thank you, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you,
Madam President. On behalf of Senator Saland,
please place a sponsor's star on Calendar
4814
Number 67.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
Senator Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you,
Madam President.
I wish to call up Senate Print
7180, recalled from the Assembly, which is now
at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1262, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7180,
an act to amend the Public Authorities Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
4815
SENATOR MAZIARZ: I now offer the
following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you,
Madam President. I wish to call up Senate
Print Number 7453, recalled from the Assembly,
which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1280, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7453, an
act to amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
4816
SENATOR MAZIARZ: I now offer the
following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you,
Madam President.
I wish to call up Senate Print
1236A, recalled from the Assembly, which is
now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
902, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 1236A, an
act to amend the Retirement and Social
Security Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Madam
President, I move to reconsider the vote by
which this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
4817
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: I now offer the
following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
Madam President.
On behalf of Senator Nozzolio, I
move to amend Senate Bill Number 2672C by
striking out the amendments made on May 15th
and restoring it to its original previous
print number, 2672B, Calendar Number 214.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, on behalf of Senator Morahan I wish
to call up Calendar Number 335, Assembly Print
Number 7733B.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
335, by Member of the Assembly Tocci, Assembly
4818
Print Number 7733B, an act to amend the Public
Health Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: I now move
to reconsider the vote by which this Assembly
bill was substituted for Senator Morahan's
bill, Senate Print Number 4023B, on 3/19.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: I now move
that the Assembly Bill Number 7733B be
committed to the Committee on Rules and
Senator Morahan's Senate bill be restored to
the order of the Third Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: I now offer
the following amendments, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
4819
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, I'd like to call up my own bill,
Print Number 5551, recalled from the Assembly,
which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
137, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 5551,
an act to amend the Environmental Conservation
Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: I now move
to reconsider the vote by which this bill was
passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: I now offer
the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
4820
amendments are received and adopted.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Marcellino.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Madam President. I wish to call up Senate
Print Number 7144A, recalled from the
Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
983, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 7144A, an
act to amend the Public Health Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which the bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
4821
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I now offer the following
amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I wish to call up Calendar Number
661, Assembly Print Number 228C.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
661, by Member of the Assembly Grannis,
Assembly Print Number 228C, an act to amend
the Public Health Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now move to
reconsider the vote by which the Assembly bill
was substituted for my bill, Senate Print
Number 4989A, on 5/31.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
4822
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now move
that Assembly Bill 228C be recommitted to the
Committee on Rules and my Senate bill be
restored to the order of Third Reading
Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I now offer the following
amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I wish to
call up Senate Print Number 2964, recalled
from the Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
4823
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
272, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 2964, an
act to amend the Banking Law and others.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now move to
reconsider the vote by which the bill was
passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now offer
the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I wish to call up Senate Print
Number 439, recalled from the Assembly, which
is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
4824
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
47, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print 439,
an act to amend Chapter 912 of the Laws of
1920.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now move to
reconsider the vote by which the bill was
passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I now offer the following
amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
are there any substitutions at the desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Yes,
there are.
4825
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: On page 6,
Senator Leibell moves to discharge, from the
Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number 10239
and substitute it for the identical Senate
Bill Number 2365, Third Reading Calendar 113.
On page 14, Senator Farley moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 4247A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 2307A,
Third Reading Calendar 347.
On page 23, Senator Hoffmann moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 746 and substitute it for
the identical Senate Bill Number 536, Third
Reading Calendar 621.
On page 41, Senator Farley moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 7907B and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 5378C,
Third Reading Calendar 969.
On page 52, Senator Stafford moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 9860 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6316,
4826
Third Reading Calendar 1151.
On page 56, Senator Brown moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 9422A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 5780A,
Third Reading Calendar 1289.
And on page 60, Senator Maziarz
moves to discharge, from the Committee on
Rules, Assembly Bill Number 10731A and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 6721A, Third Reading Calendar 829.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitutions ordered.
Senator Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Please recognize
Senator Padavan.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Padavan.
SENATOR PADAVAN: Madam
President, thank you very much.
I'd like to just take a few moments
out of our time here today to make you aware
that we are joined in the chamber by some
very, very superb people.
This house and our colleagues in
4827
the Assembly and the Governor and others over
the period of this session have done many
things to acknowledge the events of 9/11 and
its aftermath, the bravery of so many men and
women and what they did to inspire all of us.
And in response, we have done many things to
acknowledge that.
Today we're joined by one category
of brave men and women who responded to that
emergency, the emergency medical technicians
in the employ of the City of New York.
They're led here today by Patrick Bahnken, who
is the president of their union. They're also
joined by two ladies, two very brave ladies,
Mrs. Virginia Quinn and Mrs. Cecilia Lillo,
both of whom lost their husbands on that
terrible day.
And they're here in Albany to
heighten our sense of awareness. Meeting them
is an honor and a privilege, but also a
sobering time, once again, as we've had so
many of them in this chamber.
And so I'd like you all at some
point in time to say hello to them, thank
them, and in any way you see fit to express
4828
your feelings relevant to their sacrifice and
their efforts on behalf of all New Yorkers.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Padavan.
On behalf of the New York Senate,
may I say welcome to our chambers. And thank
you so much for all the heroic acts that you
have done. We share in your sorrow and we
praise you for your commitment to those you
serve. Thank you so much for being here.
(Standing ovation.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
may we please have the noncontroversial
reading of the calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
37, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 4889A, an
act to amend the Education Law and others, in
relation to the State University health care
services and facilities.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
4829
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
149, by Senator Leibell, Senate Print 5082B,
an act to amend the Highway Law, in relation
to the designation of the Sergeant Albert
Ireland Memorial Highway.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
158, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 425A, an
act to amend the Agriculture and Markets Law,
in relation to detection dogs.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
4830
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
249, by Senator Wright --
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
SENATOR RATH: Lay it aside
temporarily.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside temporarily.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
371, by Senator Velella, Senate Print --
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
445, by Member of the Assembly Morelle,
Assembly Print Number 1539, an act to amend
the Tax Law, in relation to providing.
4831
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
614, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print 6454,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
criminal impersonation.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
lay it aside temporarily, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside temporarily.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
639, by Member of the Assembly Tocci,
Assembly Print Number 1682, an act to amend
the Education Law, in relation to the
qualifications.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
4832
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
677, by Member of the Assembly Ortiz, Assembly
Print Number 6038, an act to amend the
Administrative Code of the City of New York,
in relation to the custody.
SENATOR HEVESI: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
680, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 4137B, an
act to amend the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering
and Breeding Law and the Mental Hygiene Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the 180th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
4833
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
853, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 7280A, an
act to amend the Canal Law, in relation to a
Canal Adopt-A-Trail Program.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
901, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print
6947A, an act to amend the Navigation Law, in
relation to providing an exemption.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
949, by Senator Hoffmann, Senate Print 6913A,
4834
an act to amend the Agriculture and Markets
Law, in relation to the inclusion.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
989, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 5669B, an
act to amend the General Obligations Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 60th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
4835
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1029, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 7153B,
an act to establish the Mill Brook Library
Funding District.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 13. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1043, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 5825B,
an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law,
in relation to creating.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the 180th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
4836
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1045, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 6663B,
an act to amend the Highway Law, in relation
to designating a portion of the state highway
system.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1053, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 7322A,
an act to amend the Public Authorities Law, in
relation to the use of monies.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
4837
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 52. Nays,
1. Senator Spano recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1060, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 7289A,
an act to amend the State Technology Law, in
relation to facilitating.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 10. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1112, by Senator Spano, Senate Print --
4838
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1114, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 7196A,
an act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
the imposition.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside.
SENATOR RATH: Lay it aside for
the day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1170, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 4090A, an
act to amend the Real Property Law, in
relation to the real estate agency disclosure
form.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect January 1, 2003.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
4839
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1193, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print --
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1231, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 7001B,
an act making certain findings and
determinations.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: There is
a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
4840
1245, by Member of the Assembly Magnarelli,
Assembly Print Number 9648, an act to direct
the Department of Health.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1257, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
7414B, an act relating to the establishment
and extension.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: There is
a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
4841
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1289, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 9422A, an act to amend the Highway Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1310, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
4925, an act to amend the Civil Practice Law
and Rules, in relation to increasing.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
4842
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1314, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 6508, an
act to amend the Judiciary Law and the Uniform
Justice Court Act.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect April 1, 2003.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1344, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 7515, an
act to amend the Social Services Law, in
relation to protection.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
4843
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1345, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 7519,
an act to amend Chapter 19 of the Laws of
1994.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1360, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 7480A,
an act to amend the Public Authorities Law, in
relation to contracts.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
4844
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1361, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 7524A,
an act to establish the Hewlett Harbor Library
Funding District.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 12. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Rath, that completes the
reading of the noncontroversial calendar.
SENATOR RATH: Thank you, Madam
4845
President. May we now have the controversial
reading of the calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
37, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 4889A, an
act to amend the Education Law and others,
relating to the State University health care
services and facilities.
SENATOR RATH: Lay the bill aside
temporarily.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside temporarily.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
371 --
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
there will be an immediate meeting of the
Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: There
will be an immediate meeting of the Rules
Committee in the Majority Conference Room.
Senator Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
Proceed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
4846
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
371, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 3663A,
an act to amend the General Business Law.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
can we lay that aside temporarily.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
will be laid aside temporarily.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
445, by Member of the Assembly Morelle,
Assembly Print Number 1539, an act to amend
the Tax Law.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation,
please.
SENATOR RATH: One moment delay,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
may we stand at ease for a moment.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senate will stand at ease for a moment.
4847
(Whereupon, the Senate stood at
ease at 3:50 p.m.)
(Whereupon, the Senate reconvened
at 3:51 p.m.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
if we could return to the reading of the
controversial calendar and please take up
Calendar Number 677, by Senator Nozzolio.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read Calendar Number 677.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
677, by Member of the Assembly Ortiz, Assembly
Print Number 6038, an act to amend the
Administrative Code of the City of New York.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Nozzolio, an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Madam
President, who requested the explanation?
SENATOR RATH: May I interrupt
one moment, Senator Nozzolio.
Senator Hevesi had requested a
4848
discussion on the floor, and he has left the
floor temporarily. So we're going to lay this
aside temporarily.
But you have another bill on the
agenda, and if the clerk could go to that next
Nozzolio bill, which is number --
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: 1114,
ma'am?
SENATOR RATH: I'm sorry, Madam
President, that's laid aside for the day. If
we could stand at ease temporarily.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Before we
stand at ease, with your able guidance as the
chair, and with the acting Majority and
Minority leaders both being of the same
gender, I thought that on Women's Health and
Wellness Day that we would have the Senate
entirely run by women, and hopefully we'll get
out of here on time this week because of that
fact. Thank you.
(Laughter.)
4849
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: What a
wise observation. Thank you, Senator
Paterson.
(Whereupon, the Senate stood at
ease at 3:54 p.m.)
(Whereupon, the Senate reconvened
at 3:55 p.m.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
if we could take up Calendar Number 853, by
Senator Trunzo.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read Calendar Number 853.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
853, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 7280A, an
act to amend the Canal Law, in relation to a
Canal Adopt-A-Trail Program.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER:
Explanation, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, an explanation has been requested.
Excuse me. Could we just move that
gentleman in front of you off to the side a
little bit. There we go. Thank you.
4850
SENATOR TRUNZO: Madam President,
this bill establishes the Canal Adopt-A-Trail
Program, a program modeled successfully --
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Excuse
me, Senator Trunzo. It's very difficult for
the Secretary to transcribe or hear you.
Could we have some quiet, please.
Thank you.
Thank you, Senator Trunzo.
SENATOR TRUNZO: Madam President,
this bill establishes a Canal Adopt-A-Trail
Program to reduce and remove litter and debris
and to enhance the appearance and maintenance
of the canalway trails and related facilities.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
Senator Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, if Senator Trunzo would yield for a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
4851
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, in these types of situations where
we perhaps would want to indemnify volunteers
for their actual work, I'm wondering why you
wouldn't use that course of action rather than
to completely expunge the liability that would
accrue to the municipality. Because by doing
that, there's no standard of care for the
municipality.
In other words, it would almost
encourage the use of volunteerism rather than
paid employment, because then the municipality
actually can shield itself from lawsuits.
SENATOR TRUNZO: Madam President,
what this bill does is it really mirrors the
same legislation we have so far for the
Transportation Law, Section 14-29, which
adopts a highway program. For the same
reason, the General Municipal Law, Section
277, adopts a municipal park, shoreline and
roadway program. And for the Parks and
Recreation Shoreline Preservation Law, Section
325, which adopts a beachfront program. And
EnCon Law Number 9-113, which adopts a natural
resource stewardship program.
4852
And this is exactly the same as
those bills, which are now law, but doing it
for the canal trail system. So really, you
know, it's something that's already been done.
I realize that the trial lawyers
are opposed to the bill, but it's been
approved by the New York State Council of
Mayors as an important factor.
But since it is mirrored against --
as to all the other legislation that's already
on the books, there doesn't seem to be any
reason to have to change this one.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Liz Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
If the sponsor would yield to an additional
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator,
will you yield for a question?
SENATOR TRUNZO: I will yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Madam President.
Senator, I'm new to the Senate, as
4853
you know, so I was not here when those other
laws were passed. I'm curious, has there been
any experiences to date that in fact there's a
problem with having an immunization clause as
opposed to the indemnity model?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Not to our
knowledge, Senator. Everything has been
working very well.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: It has been
working very well. Thank you.
Madam President, if the sponsor
would yield to an additional question.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you yield for an additional
question?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Madam President.
SENATOR TRUNZO: It's hard to
hear when they open this door.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: I know.
Yes, you can tell the noise pattern here.
Senator, why -- because you
4854
apparently are familiar with the past
precedents, why did we go down the road of
immunization completely instead of
indemnifying people? Why did we choose that
course?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Evidently it was
done at individual different times. And this
has been requested by the Thruway Authority
now that oversees the canal system in itself,
who realized that this was on the books. And
there are volunteers working there, that they
wouldn't be liable for any of that stuff.
So the others didn't happen all at
one time. So evidently it's a piecemeal deal.
And fortunately, all the other agencies that
are involved in this trail type of program
have accepted it, and there's been no real --
any reaction that there has been any real
problem.
And as a result, the canal system,
which is now covered by the Thruway Authority,
also wanted the same coverage.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Madam
President, if the Senator would continue to
yield to one more question.
4855
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you continue to yield for one
more question?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes, one more
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Senator Trunzo. I'm just wondering whether
there's something different about this bill
because we're involved with canals.
So just for my understanding, if I
was a volunteer under this program and I were
to drown because of some negligence by someone
who was involved with the government
overseeing this program, there would be no
mechanism for me to -- or not me, of course,
if I drown, but for anyone in my family to get
resolution through the courts under this
situation?
SENATOR TRUNZO: If there's
negligence on the part of the Thruway
Authority or the Canal Authority, then yes,
they would still be liable, you know, for
whatever lawsuit you might want to put
4856
together on that.
But for the general cleanup and
some of that stuff that is not the
responsibility of the Authority, they're just
doing their work, you know, that's the way
they're protected all the way along the line,
and no problems.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Senator.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll call.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 52. Nays,
2. Senators Duane and Paterson recorded in
the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Madam President,
4857
if we could take up Calendar 677, by Senator
Nozzolio.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read Calendar Number 677.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
677, by Member of the Assembly Ortiz, Assembly
Print Number 6038, an act to amend the
Administrative Code of the City of New York.
SENATOR HEVESI: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Nozzolio, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Hevesi.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you,
Madam President. I'd be glad to try to answer
Senator Hevesi's questions.
This measure preserves the very
important security function of our state
prisons, ensures its integrity by ensuring
that we are not able to privatize that
security function. It will be
nontransferable. It's a total government
responsibility. Its purpose is to ensure the
security of prison facilities in New York
City.
4858
We've established similar
legislation at the state level and very much
believe that this is imperative for the city
correctional officers and all correctional
policy, that in effect the security function
is never to be given way to the profit motive.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President. Would the sponsor please yield?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Nozzolio, will you yield for some questions?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Yes, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President. Through you.
I agree with Senator Nozzolio and
what I believe is the premise of this bill as
stated in the memo and as stated by Senator
Nozzolio. And I agree, I don't want to see
any nongovernmental entity in charge of the
operations of prisons within the City of New
York. I think we can agree on that.
4859
But I do have a few questions
regarding the specifics of the bill. So let
me begin by asking if Senator Nozzolio is
aware that the City of New York is opposed to
this legislation and whether he has read the
city's memo in opposition.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Madam
President, I am aware of the city's
opposition. And, yes, I have the city's memo
opposing a portion of the measure.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President. Would the sponsor continue to
yield?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Nozzolio, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: I'll be happy
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
Essentially, if I can summarize,
the city presents two arguments in opposition
to this bill. The first is that they wish to
retain the flexibility to actually go ahead
4860
and privatize the services that we're talking
about, to take correction officers and the
functions that they perform and put them in
the hands of privately hired, presumably
for-profit entities. I disagree with the
city's opposition on that count.
However, they oppose this bill for
another reason that I do have some real
concerns about, and that is their contention
that the legislation doesn't simply say that
correctional services must be maintained by a
governmental entity, but that specifically
that anybody who supervises or manages inmates
has to be a member of the uniformed service.
And that this presents a problem for a variety
of reasons.
Could you tell us, please, why you
don't believe that that presents a problem?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Madam
President, I welcome the chance to go into
this in further detail, if nothing more than
to provide history during this deliberation as
to what our intentions are in passage of this
measure.
The measure does not intend in any
4861
way to prevent drug treatment and other types
of services provided to inmates that may be
provided by non-security-oriented personnel,
by those with a broader background or
schooling or training in potential service --
in services that would inure to the treatment
and rehabilitation of inmates.
I may add that those -- Madam
President, could I have some order, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Will you
kindly take your conversations outside the
chamber so that the debating members can hear
each other.
Thank you.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you,
Madam President.
That there are many instances today
in the state system and in the city
correctional system where inmates are provided
services, and those services are provided by
non-security-oriented personnel. Some may be
out on parole, or in a lesser-oriented
confinement and receive services, particularly
in the area of drug rehabilitative services.
It should be underscored that those
4862
inmates are still within the purview of the
security function of the correctional
facilities. That function is by no means
diminished by the provision of those services.
And for the record, that it is important to
understand that there are security personnel
responsible for the administration of those
inmates until their final discharge date.
That what I'm hoping to bring light
on is the fact that Senator Hevesi's concerns,
as I'm hearing them, are that the provision of
non-security-oriented services may be somehow
impeded by this legislation. I believe that
concern, Madam President, is certainly an
important one. And that I believe this
legislation gets over that hurdle because, in
practice, security personnel are assigned to
individual inmates until their discharge date.
We're saying that those security
personnel are to forever be the responsibility
of the state government -- in this bill's
case, the city government -- and that that
security function should never be farmed out,
privatized, subcontracted for.
But the other services, the
4863
services that are normally provided and that
we hope in large case will be expanded, in
terms of drug rehabilitative services in
particular, that we're not suggesting in any
way that those services are falling under the
purview of this legislation.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President. Would the sponsor continue to
yield?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Nozzolio, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Yes, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
The sponsor has hit on my exact
concerns. And I'm gratified that he and I
share now two of the three concerns I have of
this bill. One is that nobody other than the
municipal entity should be running the
operations at a correctional facility. Number
two, that the officers in that correctional
facility should be uniformed officers. And,
4864
number three, that we don't intend to preclude
non-security-related individuals who are
performing ancillary services to inmates, we
don't want to preclude those individuals from
performing those services.
My problem, Madam President, is
that I'm not -- though Senator Nozzolio and I
agree on all these positions, I'm not sure the
legislation actually accomplishes that.
And so let me just draw your
attention to the actual language of the bill,
Senator Nozzolio, and if you could then expand
for me on how it is that we don't specifically
preclude these nonsecurity personnel.
The legislation simply says "The
duty of maintaining the custody and
supervision of persons detained or confined by
the Department of Corrections shall be
performed solely by members of the uniformed
force and shall not be delegated, transferred
or assigned in whole or in part to private
persons or entities." That's all it says,
Madam President. There's no exception for
anybody else.
And let me just -- before I give
4865
the Senator a chance to respond, here's what
my concern is. It's not that I don't take
Senator Nozzolio's word for it. The City of
New York, in their memo of opposition, has
said the following, that there are a number of
individuals who are directly responsible for
the supervision of inmates that are not
uniformed members, including the commissioner,
the deputy commissioner, fleet maintenance
personnel, food service and building
maintenance workers, who the city says
directly supervise inmates and provide job
training skills, and additionally the
department employs a number of civilian
counselors and legal coordinators who
supervise inmates during their participation
in various programs and services.
That being the case, if they do
supervise, they would be precluded, under this
very simple bill, from performing their
services unless they are uniformed members.
And that is my concern.
Could you address that, please,
Senator Nozzolio?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Madam
4866
President, through you, I hope I can address
Senator Hevesi's concerns.
That there have been other examples
in law where we have stated that the policy of
this state shall be that even local jails,
like New York City's -- but certainly we
passed legislation, in the instance of
Westchester County, that Westchester County,
under the laws, in terms of civilian personnel
are certainly that today, and they were that
before the prohibition of privatization was
put forward.
But I think that we need to focus
on the words "supervision" and "custody." And
frankly, the security portion of supervision
and custody is something that is sacrosanct,
we agree on, and that that is the intention of
this legislation, to focus on those with
direct supervision and custody.
That the scenarios presented
relative to the commissioner -- by the memo.
Not by Senator Hevesi, but by Senator Hevesi's
reference to the memo provided by the city --
are actually extreme, at best, and absurd,
frankly, in my view, in that they go to the
4867
nth extreme. And that the overall
supervision, certainly you could draw the
intention that this must be, if you took it to
the extreme, the governor of the state or the
mayor of the city, in effect, would also be
under the supervision -- or the inmate would
be under the supervision of those employees.
Frankly, we're not even close to
going there through this legislation.
SENATOR HEVESI: Madam President,
would the sponsor continue to yield?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Nozzolio, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Yes, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
I might agree in the case of the
governor or the mayor being ultimately
responsible for supervision of prisoners,
because they are the entity or individual who
appoints the Corrections Commissioner. But
the commissioner certainly, undeniably, is in
4868
charge of the supervision of inmates, as are
his civilian appointees, the deputy
commissioners.
And when the City of New York says
in its opposition memo that a slew of workers,
while providing ancillary services to inmates,
directly supervise the inmates, and the
legislation does not carve out any exception
for individuals whose primary responsibility
are other than direct supervision of inmates,
I can certainly conceive of a scenario where
somebody brings a lawsuit suggesting that
those substance-abuse workers, being
nonuniformed personnel, are not in compliance
with this section of the law.
And I'm trying to preclude that
from happening, and I think you are too.
So let me ask my final question
here, Madam President. There is a simple way
to resolve this. It would be just to simply
amend this language here to provide an
exception for individuals whose primary
purpose is not to provide direct supervision
of inmates but who have some other primary
purpose, be that social services or what have
4869
you.
And in that case, I think we will
ensure that we don't have the problem that I'm
envisioning here. Would you consider that?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Madam
President, I am concerned that Senator
Hevesi's suggestion may weaken the force of
this legislation, in the sense that if we
begin tampering with the security issue, then
I believe there may be additional loopholes
which could allow, unintended by this
Legislature, but could allow opportunity for
the thing we're trying to prevent here, and
that is the privatizing of the security
function of our correctional facilities.
I would rather suggest that, as
Westchester County had given us an example,
that the statutes of Westchester County
prohibit -- excuse me, require that the
commissioner of corrections is a civilian, in
a sense. That that local-law approach, to me,
makes much more sense.
That we're providing the
opportunity here for a policy judgment that
the state is saying no privatization of the
4870
security function of our prisons. That there
certainly could be laws locally that the -- a
civilian, if necessary, be in certain
leadership roles. That I think in terms of
the administration of programs, that those
civilian counselors, who may end up being in
some way privatized through outpatient
services, halfway houses, other antidrug
programs that are allowed. The monitoring of
those inmates still must be, under this
statute, under our policy, the monitoring of
those inmates in terms of their supervision
and security, must be done so by those
government employees.
We're ensuring that those inmates
do not escape. We're ensuring that any
possible damage from their escape which the
city could be liable for is entrusted upon
people with the security function foremost in
their mind, as dedicated public servants. As
opposed to private-sector employees, who are
generally motivated by companies with obvious
private-sector motives, and that's the profit
motive.
So to summarize, Senator Hevesi, I
4871
think your suggestion certainly is one that I
appreciate the opportunity to lay out a
history for anyone who wishes to interpret
this law. But frankly, I believe that any
further refinement may do just the opposite of
what you and I would like to see happen, and
that is the prohibition about privatizing any
security function of our city and state
correctional facilities.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: On the bill,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hevesi, on the bill.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
I thank the sponsor for his
deliberative comments about the legislation.
I agree with almost everything that Senator
Nozzolio said, with the one exception that I
don't believe that some of the things that he
said actually manifest themselves in the
legislation.
4872
It's one of these situations where
I'm a little bit disappointed in the
legislative process. I mean, it's pretty
clear that we would be able to -- I could
write one sentence that would carve out the
exception to make sure that what Senator
Nozzolio is trying to preclude and what I'm
trying to preclude doesn't happen,
irrespective of any situation in Westchester.
But we don't do it.
It's just -- I don't know why we
don't do it. It doesn't -- it can't hurt.
And I guarantee I can write a sentence that
carves out the exclusion that doesn't weaken
the intent -- which I support, I fully
support. I don't want to see privatization of
correction officers whose primary function is
supervisory in our facilities. I don't want
to see that. Senator Nozzolio doesn't want to
see it.
But this one is pretty clear, Madam
President. This legislation says that anybody
who has custody -- maintains, as one of their
duties, the custody and supervision of
inmates, that those individuals have to be
4873
uniformed personnel.
And at the same time, we have the
City of New York directly contending that
there are a slew of individuals within the
system who have as their responsibility the
duties of supervising and maintaining inmates,
even though their primary focus is not that,
and those individuals are nonuniformed
personnel.
So you could have this situation.
I don't want to see a lawsuit, I don't want to
see a situation where somebody winds up saying
that the City of New York is not doing what it
should be doing, we cannot have drug
counselors, we cannot have people providing
vocational skills unless they're in uniform.
So regardless of what happened with
respect to Westchester County -- and I don't
know, I don't remember voting on a bill to
enable Westchester to do that or how it works
in Westchester. And even if all that is true,
the fact that nobody has challenged the
Westchester law on the particular points that
I'm making doesn't mean that this legislation
wouldn't be challenged on similar grounds.
4874
And since I represent constituents
in New York City in whose interest it is to
ensure that individuals who are nonuniformed
personnel sometimes afford services to inmates
though they are not in a uniform, and I don't
want that to stop on behalf of my constituents
and those inmates -- because 98 percent of all
inmates get out, and we want to provide them
with services -- I'm going to oppose this
bill, Madam President.
Even though I do applaud Senator
Nozzolio for his stated intention and rebuke
the City of New York for half of their stated
intention. Because I do believe that New York
City, certainly as espoused under Rudy
Giuliani, wanted to go ahead and privatize
direct correctional services: guards,
officers. I disagree with that. That's a bad
idea. And in fact, Senator Nozzolio has an
excellent example in his memo in support of
why you don't want to do that.
You should look to privatize
services in government to turn a savings
wherever possible, except where it can cost
people their lives -- police, fire, maybe even
4875
services that are directly related to the
economy of a city, such as sanitation.
Certainly corrections, where correction
officers perform heroic duty, they are unsung
heroes, and they are in the line of fire
directly all the time, we want these people to
be as well-trained as possible.
And so I don't want to have
privatization of these guards, even though the
City of New York may actually want to do that.
So I'm going to vote against this bill, though
I support its central premise, because I'm
voting against it on a technical measure that
I hope could be corrected. I don't know why
it wouldn't be.
But I commend Senator Nozzolio for
bringing this legislation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
4876
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
1. Senator Hevesi recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
37, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 4889A, an
act to amend the Education Law and others,
relating to the State University health care
services and facilities.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
LaValle, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Paterson.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Thank you very
much.
Madam President, in 1998 this body
passed legislation that was signed into law by
the Governor that became Chapter 363. That
legislation dealt with the three SUNY
hospitals in the state of New York: State
University at Stony Brook, Downstate Medical
Center, and Upstate Medical Center in
Syracuse.
That legislation gave greater
4877
flexibility to the university hospitals to
allow them to enter into different contracts
in providing health care insurance to the HMO
insurance policies. And so this legislation
takes that a step further.
One of the major provisions of this
legislation would allow and defines some of
those contracts, talking about networks and
other kinds of arrangements that the
university hospitals can enter into.
As everyone knows, unless a
hospital can enter into a broad panoply of
contracts, it cannot bring into its hospital
the kinds of patients that it needs to sustain
that particular hospital. University
hospitals heretofore have been placed at a
disadvantage.
This legislation also removes some
of the disadvantages that our university
hospitals have in purchasing agreements and
the way it pays its employees or can increase
their employee salaries, whether it be nurses
or other technicians that work at a hospital.
And also how we deal with certain titles
within the civil service system.
4878
And so this really is what we call
SUNY Hospital Flex II. Because we did SUNY
Hospital Flex I in 1998, and that was signed
into law, as I had indicated.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, with the distinct advantage of
being aware of the plight that has constricted
many of the hospitals financially, would the
learned Senator from Suffolk County yield for
a few questions?
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
LaValle yields.
SENATOR PATERSON: Senator, I
understand that the limitations on contracts
for legal services, program -- strategic
planning and operations has been raised from
$75,000 to $500,000 and that the limit for
products would be at approximately
$2.5 million.
SENATOR LAVALLE: That's correct.
SENATOR PATERSON: Then I guess
my question is with that dramatic an increase,
4879
why was it the thinking at this particular
time to go to those limitations rather than,
in a sense, incrementally, to make sure that
there would be compliance all the way through?
SENATOR LAVALLE: Senator, that's
really a very easy question, because it goes
right to the issue of equipment, an MRI or
other kinds of technical equipment, and having
the ability to purchase that equipment very,
very quickly.
And so that's why that -- while
that number sounds like a very high number, it
really goes to the issue of technology and the
kinds of equipment that are being used in
hospitals today and being able to acquire that
equipment very, very quickly.
If you were to talk to any of the
administrators of the three SUNY hospitals and
have them take you through the length of time
and the process and the procedures that they
have to go through, it's like walking on hot
coals. And more importantly, it denies our
constituents of receiving the most
state-of-the-art, up-to-date services and
equipment that they can have in a quick way.
4880
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, I pretty much agree with everything
Senator LaValle said, although I would have
said it was like walking in water.
But if the Senator would yield for
another question.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes, sir.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR PATERSON: Senator, the
contracts require approval by the State
Comptroller's office anyway. So with that
being the case, does it really make a
significant difference what the limitations
are in these particular situations? Do we
really have to expand the limit to the amounts
that you have crafted in the legislation?
SENATOR LAVALLE: Senator, it's
my understanding -- and we had, as you would
understand, discussions with the agencies, we
had -- with the university hospitals and so
forth. What happens, it is at least our hope,
that cookie-cutter procedures would be set up
and there would be almost a preapproved
situation. So that if I come in and I say I
4881
want to buy a Paterson MRI, that would
jump-start and move through very, very
quickly. Why that doesn't take place today, I
can't answer that -- which I'm trying to read
your mind -- as a follow-up question.
But that's my understanding. The
comptroller would still be involved, but we
would have procedures established and it would
be almost preapproved and move through the
system in an expedited manner.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, thanking Senator LaValle for the
answers to both questions, the stated one and
the metaphysical one, I wanted to know if he
would yield for another question.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
LaValle yields.
SENATOR PATERSON: Senator,
there's a concern, as there always is in these
types of situations, that this sort of action
is really a prelude to vast privatization of
the actual industry. Clearly, from your
4882
previous answers, I don't think you have that
concern. I was just wondering if you would
elaborate on that for me.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Senator, I'm
sorry, could you -- you had your back to me,
and I could not hear that.
SENATOR PATERSON: Well, Madam
President, I was instructed to look at you,
and I --
SENATOR LAVALLE: If you could
just speak up a little.
SENATOR PATERSON: Okay. My
question was just simply whether or not
there's a concern about the privatization of
the whole industry as a result of raising
these limits. Privatization.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yeah, I
understand.
We have gone through -- if you read
the legislation, we have gone through it very,
very carefully with the unions who are
involved to make sure that the issue of
privatization, both insourcing and outsourcing
were dealt with, that there were proper
protections for them. So I really do not have
4883
those kinds of concerns.
And I think if we look at, on page
4, lines 10 to 16, that is language that we
put in there very precisely for that kind of
protection in terms of the privatization
issue.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Madam
President, will the sponsor yield to a
question?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
LaValle --
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, do I
understand that this bill says that a contract
for services, for legal, operation review,
program review, and engineering up to $500,000
in a calendar year would not be subject to
public bidding?
SENATOR LAVALLE: That is
correct, Senator.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: And through
4884
you, Madam President, if the sponsor will
continue to yield.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: The execution
of a joint purchasing agreement for up to
$2.5 million for goods would also not be
subject to public bidding.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes. I just
went through that with Senator Paterson, and
the answer to that is also yes. And the
answer, the yes answer for that was the
dialogue that he and I had because of
equipment and the cost of this expensive
equipment, the technological equipment that
are needed in hospitals.
So that's why that amount, while it
seems very, very high, really is not.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor will continue
to yield.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
LaValle continues to yield.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: But as the
bill is drafted, Senator LaValle, it doesn't
4885
distinguish between buying an MRI or other
piece of sophisticated equipment; it would
also apply to toiletry supplies or paper goods
or any other types of goods that were being
purchased by the hospital. Is that correct?
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes, that is
true also.
Senator, if you recall, if I might,
my introductory remarks talked about allowing
our university hospitals to be competitive, to
be competitive both in the contracts that they
enter into with HMOs but also with peer
institutions in and around them that are not
State University hospitals.
And so if they need to be
competitive, this is -- the provisions in this
bill, in SUNY Hospital Flex II, really puts
them on a par with their peer institutions and
their competitors.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I think I've
got it, Madam President. Again, I thank
Senator LaValle both for his candor and for
his description of what this bill tries to do
with the SUNY hospitals.
However, Senator, I think I'm going
4886
vote against this bill, and let me tell you
why.
First of all, I agree with you that
the question of the future of the SUNY
hospitals is a critical one for New York. But
I'm not convinced about how that question
should be answered. Because, when we
unshackled our hospital industry six years ago
and we said it's time to go out and compete,
one of the critical questions was to what
extent is the government going to compete with
other not-for-profit agencies and for-profit
hospitals in the marketplace for health care.
And the question that was in the
back of my mind was, to what extent is the
State of New York going to use tax dollars to
influence that competition?
If the State of New York is going
to be sponsoring hospitals like the SUNY
hospitals, and if those hospitals are going to
go out and service the general public in
competition with other not-for-profit
hospitals or even for-profit hospitals, it
seems to me that one of the things that that
introduction of government money to help one
4887
of the competitors can have the effect of
skewering the competition between hospitals as
they seek to expand their markets, as they
seek to provide try to provide quality health
care at the most reasonable cost, which was
the goal, I think we all agreed, when we
opened the hospital system to competition in
1996.
When we did that, it seems to me
that we did it with the knowledge that the
public hospitals would get tax dollars and
they would use those tax dollars in a way that
we could circumscribe. And the important
circumscription of the process was that we
would use the old-fashioned, conservative
public bidding laws to require that the
hospitals go out in the marketplace on a
continuous basis and look for the best
possible supplier at the lowest possible cost.
Last week when we did this on
Senator Rath's bill about bus transportation,
you may recall I argued at the time that when
we eliminated the public bidding laws for bus
transportation what we did is we locked
ourselves into long-term agreements and what
4888
we would do is discourage entrepreneurs from
coming up with new ideas to service bus
transportation.
I would suggest, Senator LaValle,
that what this bill does by, in essence,
removing public bidding from the hospitals is
it encourages them to enter into long-term
agreements which will have the effect of
generally increasing the cost over time and,
two, it will discourage -- in this highly
competitive, new business of healthcare, it
will discourage new suppliers, new
entrepreneurs from coming to the hospitals
with better ways to do the same old thing.
Which, in my opinion, is what efficiency in
healthcare in the future is going to be all
about.
I would suggest that those new
entrepreneurs are going to be discouraged from
engaging in that kind of entrepreneurial
activity if they don't get a chance to
publicly bid for goods contracts that could be
as high as $2.5 million.
I think you're correct, Senator
LaValle, when you talk about those major
4889
pieces of equipment like MRIs. And there may
be some justification at the high end for
doing that. But this bill is so broad it says
that for provision of all goods. That could
include paper goods, it could include
syringes, it could include latex gloves, it
could include a whole gamut of potential
services.
I am not willing to let the
taxpayers of this state continue to put money
in the SUNY hospitals with the understanding
that their provision of services are not going
to be subject to the public bidding laws. It
seems to me that that's a fundamental mistake.
And it also seems to me that while
it may give them flexibility in how they want
to deal with new services, when we decided to
put the public hospitals in play and put them
into competition with their not-for-profit
peers, we said that there will be -- we're
giving them public dollars to compete. We're
altering the field of competition.
But when we did that, we did it
with the understanding that one of the
conditions of taking public money is you had
4890
to comply with the public rules, and the
foremost of which is public bidding that will
require the best possible service at the best
possible cost.
Senator LaValle, I agree that our
hospitals should get more flexibility. And I
think that the issue of where the future of
the state hospitals are vis-a-vis their
not-for-profit cousins in this rampant
competition, the healthcare business, is a
fascinating and, in my opinion, almost
philosophical question about the future of
healthcare and where it goes. But my personal
opinion is so long as they take tax dollars,
we ought to be assured they're getting the
best service for the best possible price.
This bill steps away from that
idea. And for that reason, I'll vote no.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
4891
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 37 are
Senators Dollinger, Hassell-Thompson, Hevesi,
L. Krueger, Oppenheimer, and Stavisky. Ayes,
52. Nays, 6.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
445, by Member of the Assembly Morelle,
Assembly Print Number 1539, an act to amend
the Tax Law, in relation to providing.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane, why do you rise?
SENATOR DUANE: Could you repeat
what bill this is? I'm sorry.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: This is
Calendar Number 445.
4892
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57. Nays,
1. Senator Paterson recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
if we could return to reports of standing
committees, I believe there's a report of the
Rules Committee at the desk. I ask that it be
read.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Bruno, from the
Committee on Rules, reports the following
bills:
Senate Print 98B, by Senator
Marcellino, an act to amend the Tax Law;
1797, by Senator Kuhl, an act to
amend the Workers' Compensation Law;
2078, by Senator LaValle, an act to
amend the Environmental Conservation Law;
2136A, by Senator Spano, an act to
authorize;
2578A, by Senator Stachowski, an
act to amend the General Municipal Law;
4893
2613A, by Senator Stafford, an act
in relation;
2893C, by Senator Volker, an act to
amend the General Municipal Law;
3392, by Senator Padavan, an act to
amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law;
3719B, by Senator Morahan, an act
to amend the General Business Law;
3798B, by Senator Marchi, an act to
amend the Business Corporation Law;
4360A, by Senator Hannon, an act to
amend the Public Health Law;
6176B, by Senator Nozzolio, an act
to amend the Judiciary Law;
6348, by Senator McGee, an act to
amend the Town Law;
6621A, by Senator Larkin, an act to
authorize;
6795, by Senator Maziarz, an act
authorizing;
7192, by Senator Leibell, an act to
amend the Eminent Domain Procedure Law;
7205, by Senator Fuschillo, an act
to amend the Penal Law;
7226B, by Senator Velella, an act
4894
to amend the Workers' Compensation Law;
7357, by Senator Trunzo, an act to
amend the General Business Law;
7489A, by Senator Skelos, an act to
establish;
7630, by Senator Hoffmann, an act
to amend the Penal Law;
7631, by Senator Spano, an act to
amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
7645, by Senator Balboni, an act to
amend the Penal Law;
7657, by Senator Bruno, an act to
amend the Insurance Law;
And Senate Print 6725B, by Senator
Rath, an act to amend the Executive Law.
All bills ordered direct to third
reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Move to accept
the report of the Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: All in
favor of accepting the report of Rules
Committee signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
4895
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
report is accepted.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
would you please call up Calendar Number 249,
by Senator Wright.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
249, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 6077, an
act to amend the Public Officers Law, in
relation to access.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Wright, an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR WRIGHT: Thank you, Madam
President.
The bill before us this afternoon
amend the Public Officers Law in providing
access to information with certain state
agencies. The bill exempts certain agency
information relating to electric, natural gas,
4896
steam, or telecommunications systems or
infrastructure from the public access.
This would add a Section K to a
list of exemptions that are already there, and
reflects an awareness and understanding of
what we're now dealing with since
September 11th, the sensitivity of information
that is routinely supplied to state agencies
overseeing the respective industries of energy
and telecommunications.
The bill is supported by not only
the industry but also the Business Council,
the Utility Labor Council, and I guess, to
quote the New York State AFL-CIO: "It would
seem, therefore, the bill in question is a
no-brainer."
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 58.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
4897
is passed.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
would you please call up Calendar Number 614.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
614, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print 6454,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
criminal impersonation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 58.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
would you please call up Calendar 1112,
please, by Senator Spano.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
4898
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1112, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 6806, an
act to amend the Public Officers Law, in
relation to records obtained.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR SPANO: Yes, Madam
President.
This is a bill that would expand
the list of protected records that are
available under the Freedom of Information Act
and that would expand the prohibition for
records that would allow potential lawbreakers
to avoid detection or endanger the lives of
law enforcement personnel.
That would be the existing
language. What it would do is add the list of
sensitive records under the Freedom of
Information Law to that exemption.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. Would the sponsor yield, please.
4899
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you yield for a question from
Senator Duane?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: Under current
law, aren't exceptions to FOIL already
provided for criminal investigations, law
enforcement, and threats to public safety?
SENATOR SPANO: Under current
law, yes, Senator Duane.
There are exceptions for if a
person's life is in danger or if it's part of
an ongoing investigation. But there's nothing
under current law that would cover suspected
terrorism. That's what this bill would do.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
4900
SENATOR DUANE: Would
investigating terrorism fall under the
definition of criminal investigations?
SENATOR SPANO: What this would
add would be suspected terrorism. So if
there's an ongoing investigation on terrorism,
that would cover under the current statute.
But suspected terrorism does not.
So what we're talking about,
Senator Duane, is making sure that we do not
hand over a blueprint to potential terrorists
for collection of materials on nuclear
facilities or bridges or telecommunications
systems or the like.
SENATOR DUANE: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DUANE: Aren't criminal
investigations launched against suspected
criminals?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes, criminal
investigations are launched against suspected
4901
criminals. But the information that would be
easily attainable would no longer be
attainable once we pass this bill.
So that information that I
discussed relative to our railways and bridges
and tunnels, important information like that
would no longer be subject to the Freedom of
Information Law.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the Senator would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DUANE: Is not a
terrorist considered to be a criminal?
SENATOR SPANO: I would certainly
consider a terrorist to be a criminal,
absolutely.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor --
SENATOR SPANO: A coward, many
things.
4902
SENATOR DUANE: Would the sponsor
continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Sure.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: He does.
SENATOR DUANE: Is there a
definition of "terrorist" or "terrorism" in
the legislation?
SENATOR SPANO: We don't define
terrorism in the law. What we want to do here
is leave it up to the state agencies to use
their discretion. So that ongoing information
that's collected on any type of facility that
could potentially be a problem in our
community, like Indian Point, we want to make
sure that information is not given through the
websites on the makeup or the information on
Indian Point.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: And -- I'm sorry,
Senator Duane, the information that we did
pass after the September 11th attack does
4903
define terrorism in the law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, would you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DUANE: In your
legislation, is that definition of
terrorism -- or that bill, for that matter --
referenced?
SENATOR SPANO: We don't
specifically reference it in this legislation.
But it is now a term of art, as it was in
Senator Balboni's legislation that was passed
in October.
SENATOR DUANE: Then through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you continue to yield?
4904
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DUANE: Then if terrorism
is defined as a matter of art, I believe you
said -- or a term of art, I'm sorry.
SENATOR SPANO: Not a matter of
art. I'll leave the art up to you, Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Then I'm not
sure, would each agency, would each FOIL
officer be required to reference the previous
legislation? Or would it be left up to their
own idea?
SENATOR SPANO: What we would be
going by would be Senator Balboni's bill
that -- and I'll just read one sentence out of
it. It's "with the intent to intimidate or
coerce a civilian population."
That would be the term of art that
we discussed that is the law in New York State
as it's defined in Senate Bill 7645 that was
passed back in October.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
4905
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: And will each
agency have a person responsible for applying
the definition of terrorism for each request?
SENATOR SPANO: Each agency will
continue, as they have today, to have a FOIL
officer who will make the determination.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: He does.
SENATOR DUANE: The legislation
that you referred to is legislation which
previously had passed the Senate?
SENATOR SPANO: The legislation
that I discussed, Senator, was Senator
Balboni's bill that he had introduced.
4906
Language from that bill was included in the
October statute.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you.
Madam President, on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane, on the bill.
SENATOR DUANE: I do not
understand why we need to have this kind of
sweeping change and concentration of power in
the Executive.
I think, though this is a very
short bill, that the wording is very, very
vague, extremely vague. And potentially
government agencies would be able to restrict
the release of information as it or the
Executive sees fit. It doesn't matter whether
it's this Governor, who I know is concerned,
very concerned about terrorism, or any
governor in the future. The loophole is so
broad that virtually any request could be
denied.
I can only imagine that we will be
tying up the state with lots and lots of
litigation because I don't think that under
this legislation the courts would be able to
4907
interpret the bill satisfactorily. And I
think on that basis we stand a good chance of
having this legislation called
unconstitutional.
You know, I know that earlier today
Senator Wright had a piece of legislation on
the floor, but it seems that maybe the parts
of Senator Wright's bill -- parts of Senator
Wright's bill are actually included in this
bill. However -- so I don't see why we need
the section dealing with power plants,
et cetera, that Senator Wright talked about in
this bill unless we're sort of doing a
crapshoot to see which one the Assembly might
pass.
I think, though, that during these
difficult times we have to be extremely
careful about how we craft legislation,
because many of the actions that we take as a
result of what happened on September 11th,
particularly when they, as I say, seem very
vague and open to broad interpretation and
perhaps are unconstitutional, don't do us a
good service. I think that we really need to
reach out to civil libertarians and those that
4908
use research materials, people in academia,
librarians, members of the press to find
outside out what their concerns are on this
bill. There may be a need to tighten up our
FOIL requirements, but this bill is just way,
way overblown.
You know, the one thing that makes
our system of government so special and
important and such an example to the rest of
the world is that in our country, citizens are
guaranteed access to information on how it is
that our government is functioning. And I
understand that we want to fight the war on
terror. But I think that we're going down a
slippery slope and we're starting to enact
policies which will have the unintended policy
of taking away the very thing that we have to
hold most dear, and that is our civil
liberties.
So I think that the way our FOIL
laws are presently crafted are quite
sufficient. Any way you look at it, a
terrorist is a criminal. Already, agencies
have the power to deny information that could
lead to a criminal act, including the act of
4909
terrorism. And I'm very, very concerned that
people that just want to review documents and
journals or maps very, very innocently could
be denied the ability to do so. And I think
ultimately that hurts our government far more
than practically anything else that can
happen. We have to make sure that we have a
free and open society, and this bill takes too
much away from that.
So on that basis, I'm going to urge
my colleagues to vote no, because we cannot
pay such a high price in the war against
terrorism.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Duane.
Any other Senator wishing to speak
on the bill?
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you,
Madam President. Will the sponsor yield to a
question?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
4910
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, I
understand -- this is a point that Senator
Duane raised, but I want to make sure I
understand it.
What is the difference between
suspected terrorism and potential terrorism?
Why would we have a statute that says
suspected or potential? There obviously is
something different. Could you tell me what
the difference is?
SENATOR SPANO: What we have --
the reason that both definitions were put into
the law, into the proposal, is so that we
could expand the amount of information that
would in fact be exempt. Where -- it would be
in addition to suspected, it would be
potential.
As Senator Duane mentioned, this --
he claims this threatens our free and open
society. I happen to disagree, respectfully.
We've already paid a price on September 11th,
and legislation like this will make sure that
we do maintain a free and open society.
4911
So if you want to narrow the bill,
you could take "suspected" out or "potential"
out, but that's not our motivation here today.
Our motivation is to do exactly
what, with all due respect to you, Senator
Dollinger, you probably don't want us to do,
which is to create the exceptions in the law
to make sure that this information is not made
public.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor will continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Let me give
you an example, Senator Spano, and you tell me
if it would be immune from disclosure under
this bill. What if the issue was the
evacuation for the Indian Point nuclear power
plant in Westchester County? Should that plan
for evacuation be exempt from disclosure, the
public would never know what the evacuation
4912
plan is?
Because that might be -- certainly
there's been lots of discussion about
suspected or potential terrorism against
nuclear power plants. I would assume that the
evacuation plan, knowing what the evacuation
plan is, might be important to someone who
wants to damage the plant or threaten people
around the plant.
Wouldn't that be immune from
disclosure under this bill?
SENATOR SPANO: It's certainly
not the intent of the passage of this bill to
inhibit the public's ability to know what the
evacuation plan is for Indian Point.
It's safe to say -- I mean, that's
part of the procedures that are in place to
protect the health and safety of the people of
that region. So when a Freedom of Information
request comes in requesting that type of
information, certainly it's not going to be
viewed as suspected or potential terrorist
activity.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if Senator Spano will
4913
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you,
Madam President.
But, Senator, you've obviously read
the public press accounts about the potential
for terrorism against nuclear power plants.
You, I've no doubt, are well aware of the
issue that's been raised with respect to
Indian Point. Certainly the evacuation plan,
if a terrorist knew that, it might be
considered suspected terrorism if someone
wanted to know what the evacuation plan was.
There's nothing in this bill that
says public health or public safety should
guide an exception to this broad and sweeping
exemption, is there?
SENATOR SPANO: There's an appeal
process in the statute, Senator Dollinger,
that we do not change, an appeal process that
sets forth the number of days after a written
4914
request is in and ends up with an Article 78
proceeding that if someone feels that they've
been denied information that should be made
public to them.
On your hypothetical in terms of
the nuclear plant, I don't think that's a
relevant concern. That's certainly not
something that we're talking about denying
that type of information, denying access to.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Again through
you, Madam President, if Senator Spano will
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: But, Senator
Spano, I mean there has been lots of public
discussion about the potential for harm to
nuclear power plants, including Indian Point.
And it seems to me that the evacuation plan
would be part of what a potential or suspected
terrorist might want to know.
If it's classified as such, if the
4915
evacuation plan is classified as being either
part of a suspected or potential terrorism,
there's nothing in this bill that says the
public need for safety and health information
outweighs the terrorist exemption. You have
no balancing test in this bill.
You say if it's terrorist-involved,
it's exempt from disclosure; isn't that
correct?
SENATOR SPANO: I think it's a --
the commonsense approach here is no one in
their right mind would ever say that we're not
going to disclose the provision of an
evacuation plan to the residents of adjoining
areas of a nuclear plant.
I think the issue here is that we
need to enhance and protect public safety.
We're creating new criminal offenses,
increasing penalties on this statute, as well
as the rest of the package we'll be passing
today. And I think we need just to give the
power of law enforcement -- the power to law
enforcement and also take away some of the
information that we arbitrarily give to
potential terrorists.
4916
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if Senator Spano will
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano --
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: He
continues to yield.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, are
you familiar with the dispute over KI,
potassium iodide pills that are used to combat
the effects of radiation sickness around
nuclear power plants? Are you familiar with
that?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes, I am.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Will the
sponsor continue to yield, Madam President?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Would the
amount of KI pills, the potassium iodide pills
available for distribution to the general
public -- that would clearly be something that
a terrorist who was attacking the plant would
4917
want to know, because if there weren't a lot
of pills available, the terrorist of course
has the ability to foment more terror through
the threat of an attack on the plant.
Is it your opinion, under this
bill, that the public could find out how many
potassium iodide pills are available for
Indian Point or for Ginna or for any other
nuclear power plant in the vicinity of those
plants, under this bill as it's drafted?
SENATOR SPANO: Senator
Dollinger, I think you are raising issues that
are near bizarre. No one in their right mind
would look to deny information that is going
to protect the health and safety of the people
of this state. What we're looking to do is
protect the citizens of New York State against
potential harm in the future.
There's no state agency that would
be covered under this statute that would
inhibit the people's ability to protect
themselves, and what we want to do is enhance
that ability with the passage of this bill.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Final
question, Madam President.
4918
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you yield for the final question?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Certainly any
suspected terrorist or potential terrorist
would want to know the cost of the
consequences of their act of terrorism.
That's one of the effects of terrorism. It
creates costs, it intimidates taxpayers, it
frightens people because it's expensive.
In your opinion, would the cleanup
costs for the World Trade Center be immune
from disclosure in this since they were part
of an investigation relating to terrorism? So
the public wouldn't know how much it ended up
actually costing and couldn't find out from
their government what it cost?
SENATOR SPANO: I would -- I
would say that that type of information on the
face of it would not be the type of
information that would be subject to this
bill, as long as it's not determined to be
sensitive or deliberative in nature.
4919
I think if -- on that specific
question, I don't see any reason why that
would be information that would be exempt.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you,
Madam President. Briefly on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger, on the bill.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator Spano
has a very optimistic view of this broadly
drawn statute. In response to questions, he's
suggested that there's a public health and
safety exception to this broad disclosure.
I would just ask everybody to read
the bill. There's no public health and safety
exception. There's no public health and
safety balancing of the public's need for
health and safety information versus this
suspected or potential terrorism threat.
Two, with all due respect to
Senator Spano, the Indian Point nuclear power
plant's evacuation plan will not be disclosed
under this bill, because anyone who would be a
suspected or suspicious or potential terrorist
would want to know what the evacuation plan
is. Someone would classify that as
4920
unavailable under what I believe is this new
version of an Official Secrets Act.
Lastly, the cost of overtime to
clean up the World Trade Center. It seems to
me that that's exactly what the public should
find out, how costly was this horrible act of
terrorism? Under this bill, I have no doubt
someone will say that's part of the monitoring
or investigating of suspected or potential
terrorism. And the public would be told:
Guess what, it's none of your business. We in
government know what it cost, but you in the
public aren't entitled to know.
I would suggest look at the
Governor's schedule, look at the schedule of
public officials here. We could be a target
of potential terrorism. Would our schedules
be immune from disclosure? Could the Governor
not produce his schedule so the public knows
what he does on a given day?
It seems to me that this bill is so
broadly written as to suggest anytime someone
in government says guess what, we're
monitoring, we're investigating or we're
preparing for terrorists, you, the public
4921
can't find out what that information is all
about. Even though the taxpayers pay the
salary of the people making the decision, they
pay the money to cover the expenses, they pay
for the investigation, they pay for the
monitoring, they pay for the preparing. It's
all their money we're spending. But when they
ask what are we getting for it, the answer is
none of your business, it's an official secret
of the State of New York.
We now have a list of official
secrets. Anytime we in government suggest
that someone is suspected or there's a
potential for terrorism, we're not going to
tell the public how we're spending their
money. I would suggest, ladies and gentlemen,
that this is Big Brother in its finest form.
This is someone suggesting that we the
government are much smarter than our people
and we don't have to tell them what we're
spending their money to do. I would suggest
that that is Orwellian in its conception.
We have a real problem with
terrorism. The best solution in a democracy
is to tell people as much as we can about how
4922
we spend their money so that they can make a
judgment about us, they can make a judgment
about our enemies, they can make a judgment
about the costs associated with their life and
what it takes to protect them.
Madam President, I think this is a
foolhardy endeavor to create a New York State
Official Secrets Act. It shouldn't go any
further.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni.
SENATOR BALBONI: Madam
President, I rise in support of the
legislation and point out to the body that the
key to understanding this particular provision
is to read the current section of law of
Section 87 of the Public Officers Law. This
is not that new or not that big an expansion.
Taken out of context, as Senator Dollinger has
done, this seems to be a Big Brother
provision. It is in fact not the case at all.
Right now there are subjective
decisions made on whether or not police
officer records should be revealed,
investigations of a criminal act should be
4923
revealed. And any time there is the chance of
a safety issue arising, then a public record
can be denied open access. That's current
law.
What this says now in the
investigation -- which is why you have
"suspected" and "potential" in the bill -- of
the act of terrorism, that will also now fall
into that category of information, as with a
criminal investigation.
This is not Big Brother. You know
what this is? This is Jim Kallstrom, the
director of public security in this state,
standing on the floor of this Senate, through
Senator Spano, saying this is the bill we need
the most. Because that's exactly what he said
when he left his post a month ago. He said
the best thing that we can do as a Legislature
is to pass this bill.
This is not about Big Brother.
This is about letting our law enforcement and
military personnel do their job. And if you
think it's the first time anybody makes a
subjective decision about what information
will be released and what will not, you're
4924
wrong. Read Section 87.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger, to explain his vote.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just briefly
to explain my vote and respond to Senator
Balboni.
I couldn't disagree more. This is
all about government deciding what information
it has that it has acquired with the
taxpayers' money and that it is not going to
disclose to the people who are paying its
bills.
I would suggest the solution to the
problem of terrorism is not less documentation
and less openness and less public
participation, but more of all three. I vote
no.
4925
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Breslin, to explain his vote.
SENATOR BRESLIN: Not to be
repetitive, Madam President, this bill makes
us less of a democracy. This bill has already
been covered properly in law and defined
properly in law. This bill makes it so
general that agencies will be allowed to cover
up their mistakes, cover up their wrongdoing.
And accordingly, I vote in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Announce
the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1112 are
Senators Breslin, Brown, Connor, Dollinger,
Duane, Hassell-Thompson, L. Krueger, Onorato,
Santiago, Schneiderman, A. Smith, and
Stavisky. Ayes, 47. Nays, 12.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Yes, Madam
President. Will you pull up Calendar Number
1383, by Senator Fuschillo.
4926
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read Calendar 1383.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1383, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print 7205,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
false personation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Madam
President, would you now address Calendar
1385, by Senator Trunzo.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read Calendar 1385.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1385, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 7357, an
4927
act to amend the General Business Law, in
relation to restrictions on employment at
airports.
SENATOR DUANE: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Duane.
SENATOR TRUNZO: Madam President,
this bill complements federal law by requiring
criminal histories, background checks on
certain airport employees that are not subject
to sufficient review under the current federal
regulations.
By closing this loophole, this
added protection will help to ensure that New
York commercial-passenger airports will be the
safest in the nation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. I didn't catch what the -- through
you, Madam President, if the sponsor would
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
4928
Trunzo, will you yield for some questions?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes, I will.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: What is the
loophole in federal legislation?
SENATOR TRUNZO: I didn't quite
hear your question, Senator.
SENATOR DUANE: If I may repeat,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: You may.
SENATOR DUANE: The sponsor
referred to a loophole in federal law on
airport security. And I'm wondering if he
would just describe what that loophole is. I
didn't catch it.
SENATOR TRUNZO: Well, the
federal law does not address persons employed
in the sensitive areas of the airport. That's
the areas between the screening of the
check-in and from there to the actual boarding
of the plane itself.
In other words, other employees
like concession-stand employees, restaurant
employees, and other employees that they're
4929
not covered under the federal regulation, this
bill will cover those. That they will have to
have a history background on them as well.
SENATOR DUANE: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor will continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: If I understand
what the sponsor has said, he says that
employees at concession stands from the
check-in area to the boarding gate are not
covered by federal law now, with background
checks and fingerprinting?
SENATOR TRUNZO: That's right.
Currently they're not covered in the federal
law.
And this would just close that
loophole by protecting anybody between the
screening gates and the boarding pass that
works there at the airports so that they would
have a criminal background check on them.
4930
That's the whole basis of this legislation.
And it affects all the airports in
the state of New York. And similar
legislation is presently being proposed in the
New Jersey Legislature so that they can also
pass the same type of a bill to cover JFK,
LaGuardia and Newark airports that come under
the Port Authority jurisdiction.
SENATOR DUANE: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yeah.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DUANE: Under this
legislation, does that mean that the federal
government has basically erred on its laws
regarding fingerprinting and background checks
of employees in airports?
SENATOR TRUNZO: I don't believe
so. No, it doesn't cover them under the
federal law.
And that's what we're trying to do,
4931
is to close that loophole. Because those
employees that have access to the airport,
within the sensitive area of the airport, will
have to go through fingerprinting and a
history of their -- you know, especially if
they have a felony and other types of crimes
that may be falling under the jurisdiction of
the -- that are also covered under the federal
law.
So it's the same thing as the
federal law except, as I say, it covers those
employees that are in that sensitive area, as
it's known.
SENATOR DUANE: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: I just want to
ask the question again, and I think it's
basically a yes or no. Did the federal
government err when it did not require these
4932
employees to have background checks and
fingerprinting?
SENATOR TRUNZO: I would say yes,
they did err in not having the background
check on these people as well. For whatever
reasons; I don't know why Washington didn't do
it.
But we in the state of New York
want to make sure that all passengers are
covered and are protected before they enter a
plane.
SENATOR DUANE: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, would you continue to yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR DUANE: If an employee at
Starbucks, for instance, had committed a crime
in their early twenties and had served their
probation or had served time and then they're
paroled, would that mean -- under this
legislation, wouldn't that mean they couldn't
4933
work at a Starbucks, they'd have to be let go
from their job?
SENATOR TRUNZO: In the
legislation, anyone who has been convicted of
a felony within the past ten years would be
subject to the full exclusion of not being an
employee of the airport.
SENATOR DUANE: And through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor would continue
to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: Actually, Madam
President, I think I'll speak on the bill.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane, on the bill.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President.
You know, I think that what happens
in our airports is a federal issue. I don't
think we should create a system whereby
4934
New York State airports have a different
policy than, you know, Connecticut airports or
Colorado airports. I think that what we need
to have are uniform standards on background
checks and fingerprinting of employees in
airports.
There are, you know, tens of
thousands of employees of fast-food
restaurants and gift shops and all kinds of
little stores in airports who never go
anywhere near restricted areas. You know, my
experience in airports is even the maintenance
people who clean up near the boarding gates
are subject to the federal regulations.
Now, if we do need to take this
kind of draconian background check,
fingerprinting rules and regulations, and
potentially render lots and lots of American
citizens, or New Yorkers, in this case, unable
to be employed in airports, well, I think we
have to take a closer look at that,
particularly since these folks don't go
anywhere near restricted areas, as I've said.
Also, who is going to incur the
cost of the fingerprinting? Will all
4935
employees have to pay their own fingerprinting
costs? And who is going to pay for the
background checks? And is the State of New
York willing to incur the cost of doing the
background checks and the fingerprinting
checks on all of these employees? I don't
really see any of these areas covered in the
legislation.
I understand why, you know, we may
here in New York particularly be concerned
about terrorism. After all, we were the
subject of an attack. But this is a federal
issue. And if we are going to take this on as
the state, then at the very least we need to
have a hearing and call in the heads of the
franchises that do business and bring in the
representatives of the unions who may have
workers there, bring in the management of the
airports to find out how they're going to
handle this. I think we need to talk to the
associations that represent the passengers.
You know, I think that, you know,
for this bill to pop out of the Rules
Committee on such an important issue -- and,
as I say, which is really a federal issue -- I
4936
don't think is the right thing to do.
So I'm very, you know, concerned
about it. And in a way, I guess I could vote
for it to send a signal that maybe not enough
is being done on the federal level. But I'm
not convinced that not enough is being done at
the federal level on terrorism and what
happens in airports.
So I'd be interested to know, for
instance, what they do in Israel or what they
do in some of the European airports. Are
those employees subjected to fingerprinting
and background checks? I don't know the
answer to that.
So I think until we have the
answers -- this is an important issue, and
maybe it's something that we should do. But I
don't think we should do this without having a
lot more information and also hearing from the
federal government about how their present
regulations are working.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
SENATOR HEVESI: Madam President.
4937
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you.
Would the sponsor yield for one question,
please?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo, will you yield for one question,
please?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
If the sponsor could tell us which
nonviolent felony offenses which are
referenced in the bill on page 3, Section 6,
subsection B, which nonviolent felony offenses
would serve as a preclusion to employment if
the background check determined that an
individual had a history that included an
conviction for one of these offenses.
SENATOR TRUNZO: Well, some of
these items are not in the legislation itself.
And subsection six of the bill -- the memo
that comes from the Governor's office says
4938
that a person is disqualified if he or she had
been convicted within the previous ten years
of a felony --
SENATOR HEVESI: I'm sorry,
Senator, I can't hear the answer.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Trunzo.
SENATOR TRUNZO: "Subsection six
sets forth a list of state and federal crimes
that disqualify a current prospective employee
from working in the sterile area of an
airport. Generally, the person is
disqualified if he or she has been convicted
within the previous ten years of a violent
felony offense; any felony involving assault,
homicide, sex crimes, kidnapping, criminal
mischief, arson, larceny, burglary, robbery,
forgeries, false statements, criminal
impersonation of a police officer, narcotics,
marijuana, weapons use and possession,
organized crime, money laundering, terrorism;
an offense in another jurisdiction which
includes all of the essential elements of the
foregoing offenses; any federal offense that
disqualifies employees assigned to work in the
4939
aeronautical area of an airport under current
federal law; or an attempt or conspiracy to
commit any of the foregoing offenses."
That's in the Governor's memo.
This is a Governor's bill.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you very
much.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1385 are
Senators Hassell-Thompson, Paterson, and
Santiago. Ayes, 56. Nays, 3.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, may I have unanimous consent to be
4940
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
1112.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
I'd like to take a pause in today's
deliberation, if we might, and everyone in the
chamber, if they would like to join me in
wishing Senator Mary Lou Rath happy birthday.
Happy birthday, Senator Rath.
(Applause.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: And
while we celebrated Friday as Flag Day, I
might also say that a gentleman standing in
front of us who's served us so well, Tom
Testo's birthday was on Friday.
Happy birthday, Tom.
(Applause.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Madam
President, could we please take up Calendar
1387, by Senator Hoffmann.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
4941
1387, by Senator Hoffmann, Senate Print 7630,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
creating the crime of agri-bioterrorism.
SENATOR DUANE: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann, an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you,
Madam President.
In those dark days following
September 11th, all the members of the Senate
who chaired individual committees I'm sure
reflected, as I did, on what our
responsibility would be within our own unique
areas of activity to address the changes that
this nation was going through.
I'm proud to tell you that there
were many people in other parts of the United
States who also wanted to join us in
addressing the issue of terrorism as it
affects or could potentially affect
agriculture.
I'm a proud participant in two
national organizations, one through the
National Conference of State Legislators, the
4942
other one through the Council of State
Governments, that both have task forces on
this area. And several of our colleagues in
this house, notably Senator Volker and
Senator Balboni, have also worked extensively
in the area of terrorism and in bioterrorism
and agri-bioterrorism in particular.
So what you see before you today
reflects the work of many people and the hope
of many more people that we would never face
criminal acts such as the ones we describe,
but that we are prepared with penalties to
prosecute swiftly and to the maximum extent of
the law anyone who would ever dare to commit
one of these acts.
New York State, as most of you
realize, proudly boasts agriculture as its
number-one industry. We are made up not of
large corporate farms but of small family
farms, many of which do not have extensive
security systems on them, all of which have at
one time or another chemicals or poisons or
activities that could be altered, tampered
with, or modified in some way so as to cause
harm to the animals or the crops on that farm.
4943
Rarely has this ever been a problem
in our country or in our state, but we want to
be sure that anyone or any foreign entity that
wishes to destroy some facet of our
agriculture understands that it will not
happen without significant peril in New York
State.
This is the first law of its kind
to be passed in the United States. And I can
assure you that there are people watching
today in other states and in Washington that
will be anxious to see the reaction to this
Senate measure, and there will be others that
will be following suit swiftly.
New York City is very close to the
heartland or the large population centers of
many other communities in the United States.
In fact, from the city of Syracuse, located
centrally in New York State, we are often fond
of saying our agricultural activities help to
feed the people in virtually half of the
United States and in Canada. Indeed, in only
a day's drive you can reach one-half of the
population of the United States and Canada
from Syracuse, New York.
4944
Therefore, our agricultural
products have an increasing importance in our
nation's national security. New York is
number three in milk production. We are
number two in apples. We are in the top five
in many market vegetables, including cabbage,
sweet corn and cucumbers. And we are growing
in other areas.
Interestingly enough, Long Island
many of you think of as a suburban area
attached to New York City. Long Island is the
largest per-capita-production area in the
state in terms of gross receipts, the largest
per-capita receipts in Long Island for
agriculture in Long Island.
So it is a statewide industry, and
it must be protected. This bill before us
today seeks to address squarely several
distinct possibilities which could occur under
a terrorist act.
It deals, number one, with the
deliberate, genetic alteration of a plant life
used for human consumption that would make it
toxic or unsuitable for human or livestock
consumption.
4945
It deals also with any intentional
modification or introduction of an animal
pathogen which would be capable of causing
death in livestock or rendering their
by-products unsuitable for human consumption.
Third, it deals with intentionally
defiling, corrupting or altering any farm or
food product with the intent to cause injury
or death in humans or animals.
And, finally, it deals with the
intentional manufacture, design, or alteration
of a genetic material which would cause the
production of a pathogen, virus or bacteria
capable of disrupting or destroying a food or
farm product.
Clearly, what we are attempting to
do with this bill is to address, at each step
of the food production process, the
possibility of somebody or some people
deliberately causing harm to that food or any
process involved in the production of that
food which could cause severe damage or fear
to people in this state or any other state.
It would change the law in such a
way that all of the areas that I've just
4946
described would be subject to a Class B felony
punishable by 8 1/3 to 25 years.
There are some people who might
wonder why we would need to codify the law in
this way and think that perhaps other statutes
already exist that would deal with some of
these crimes. The answer is no, they would
not. And it would take creative prosecution
in order to assign different facets of the law
to these types of crimes. And in most cases,
if one wanted to prosecute under existing
statutes some of these activities, they would
be limited to only criminal mischief, is the
likely catch-all, with punishment as a Class D
felony of only 2 1/3 to 7 years.
So by going to a Class B felony for
each one of these actions, we believe that we
have created the appropriate framework given
the distinction in law that is deserved by any
crime of agri-terrorism or agri-bioterrorism.
I'm very proud of what this Senate
has done in this area. This is one part of a
larger piece of antiterrorism measures. And
again, Madam President, I assure you that the
eyes of the nation are watching us as we move
4947
in this bold direction. And I commend all of
my colleagues who have worked in this area for
their generous support and hard work.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. If the sponsor would yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DUANE: Is there an
Assembly sponsor for the bill?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Madam
President, at the present time we're in the
negotiations with the Assembly on this bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Madam President,
on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane, on the bill.
SENATOR DUANE: I'm very opposed
4948
to agri-bioterrorism, I just want to make that
clear. And I probably will vote for this
bill.
However, I can't imagine that this
is not a federal issue. Particularly if, as
the sponsor has said, food from the Central
New York area is exported all throughout the
United States and into Canada.
It seems to me that
agri-bioterrorism is the purview of the
federal government. If that is not the case,
if right now under federal law and state law
people could go and commit acts of
agri-bioterrorism, well, that is a terrible
thing. I just -- I'm very skeptical that a
person could get off under federal law
statutes by committing an act of
agri-bioterrorism.
I know that this is an important
issue. One would think that as important an
issue as this, which I guess has been an
important issue from before September 11th,
with the various livestock diseases that we
saw go through Europe last year, I would think
that if this is such an important issue that
4949
we might have had a committee hearing on it
and not just rush it out on Rules.
But as with so many bills here in
the Legislature, everyone seems to forget in
January that the legislative session actually
ends in June. So -- which leaves us six
months to actually call in people to discuss
this kind of legislation, find out what the
federal statute is which might be covering it;
indeed, to even see whether anyone in the
Assembly is interested in introducing a
companion bill. But what do I know, I've only
been here for four years.
So I'll vote for this because I
don't want to be responsible for casting a
vote, you know, like I'm for
agri-bioterrorism. But I really think that
this is a federal issue. And if it's not,
then we certainly need to have a hearing on
what's happening with it in this state.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
If the sponsor would yield for a question.
4950
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Senator, I
have a question about Section 4 of this bill,
which criminalizes the manufacture, design or
alteration of genetic material to result in a
virus or bacteria capable of disrupting or
destroying food or a farm product.
Is it true that that would not
require that anyone actually disrupt or
destroy a food product but just manufacture a
bacteria that is theoretically capable of it?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: I'm sorry,
Madam President. Could Senator Schneiderman
rephrase that question for clarity? I want to
make sure I understood it.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Through
you, Madam President. The way I read
Section 4, it criminalizes designing a
bacteria or virus that is capable of
disrupting or destroying food or a farm
4951
product. There is no requirement that section
that it actually destroy or disrupt food or a
farm product; isn't that true?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Madam
President, that is the way the legislation
reads, that is correct.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: And
through you, Madam President, has anyone
spoken to people in the biotech industry --
which in my district we're making a big effort
to promote biotechnology -- about what effect
this section would have on their business?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Madam
President, it's fairly clear to those in the
biotech industry that intent is a very
important aspect in research.
If the intent is to create a
genetically modified or engineered gene for
hybrid corn production that will withstand
certain pests, that, according to the industry
and academic standards, is considered to be a
reasonable and a laudable goal and appropriate
scientific research.
4952
There are many, however, who would
dispute that because they are fearful of any
kind of genetic engineering. However, when
there is research done that is purely
negative, with no positive benefit, it is
clear, then, that the intent is to cause some
major harm. And indeed, it could be
cataclysmical harm within the agricultural
field.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Through
you, Madam President, if the sponsor will
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
I appreciate the concern for the
harm that might be done. But when a statute
criminalizes the intentional manufacture of
something that is capable of harm, where it
might also be capable of a lot of good, that
criminalizes a whole area of research, does it
4953
not, for products that may be capable of
either harmful or beneficial effects?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Madam
President, Senator Schneiderman is making an
assumption here that does not fit within the
statute as we have it before us, within the
bill before us.
The bill is very clear that the
intent of the research would be purely
negative. It is not an equivocal question. I
see no reason why Senator Schneiderman would
be contemplating something that could be
harmful but also could be very good. We are
dealing strictly with something that has been
designed within a laboratory that would purely
harm agriculture. There is no comparable
example of something that could be considered
very good but would have a negative aspect.
Moreover, I would like to say,
Senator Schneiderman, that at Cornell, which
is to many people the foremost land grant
college in the nation and one intensely
involved in this field, there is a widespread
degree of support for this legislation and a
willingness to accept the responsibility that
4954
scientists have to do only that type of
research which would benefit the people to
whom they answer.
They are very concerned that
anybody would think of them as some kind of
mad scientists creating the ultimate destroyer
gene. In fact, they want to be very clear in
stating how very positive their research is,
and any kind of rogue laboratories out there
that might be operating differently are
subject to their scorn.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Madam President. On the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Schneiderman, on the bill.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: I do have
a concern, because one of the largest
developing biotech facilities in the state and
indeed in the country is in Upper Manhattan,
being developed in association with Columbia
Presbyterian Hospital.
And when I see something that
suggests that a product that is capable of
harm would be criminalized, it does raise a
concern. We know from the history of science
4955
that products such as rocket technology, which
have tremendous benefits for the space
program, are also capable of tremendous
destruction. All the experiments with nuclear
power and nuclear energy; again, something
that is capable of great good and great harm.
So I would urge that as we move
forward on this -- and I know this is
legislation that has been worked on for quite
some time. I've heard Senator Balboni
speaking about it at length for what seems to
be an inordinate period of time. And the
intention behind this is clearly very
positive. But I think we have very careful,
and I think with some minor alterations in
language we could resolve this problem.
I just don't want anyone to feel
that as soon as they get involved with
research that could potentially be used for a
harmful purpose that they feel that they're
all of a sudden in danger of indictment. And
that is my concern, Madam President, with this
provision of the bill.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
4956
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President, to explain my vote.
Like with -- or I should say as
with so many of these bills that we've seen
today and bills that we saw earlier this year
and last year, I just don't see the
circumstance where there would be a case of
bioterrorism or, for that matter, any kind of
bioterrorism or terrorism at all where the
U.S. Attorney would say: You know what, we're
kind of busy. New York, why don't you just
take this one. You know, we're so busy with
other things and, really, agri-bioterrorism --
you know what, New York, why don't you do this
one?
I just don't see that happening,
4957
that the federal government is going to step
aside and say: Gee, you know what, New York,
why don't you take a shot at this one.
So, I mean, I'm voting for this
bill with -- you know, I just -- I almost
feel -- well, I don't know why I should feel
any less ridiculous than anybody else here.
But I'll vote for it.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane, do you vote in the affirmative?
SENATOR DUANE: With the
ridiculousness of it, yes.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Could you
please take up Calendar 1388.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1388, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 7631, an
act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law and
others, in relation to creating the crimes of
4958
criminal possession of a chemical.
SENATOR HEVESI: Explanation.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Is there a
message of necessity at the desk, Madam
President?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Yes,
there is a message of necessity at the desk,
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Move for its
adoption.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: All in
favor of adopting the message of necessity
will signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
message is adopted.
Senator Spano, there's been a
request for an explanation.
SENATOR SPANO: Madam President,
this is a Governor's omnibus antiterrorism
bill. It's a bill that is modeled on federal
law. It does a number of things, and I'll
4959
highlight a few of them.
It creates the new crimes of
criminal possession and the use of a chemical
or biological weapon. It creates a new crime
of money laundering for terrorism. It creates
a new crime of conspiracy to commit terrorism
and eliminates the statute of limitations for
prosecution for all terrorist offenses.
It also allows -- authorizes law
enforcement officials to obtain eavesdropping
warrants that would be permitted under roving
interceptions of communications.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President. Would the sponsor please yield?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
I, as my colleagues do, probably
agree with every provision in here. And it
4960
appropriately criminalizes and deters and is
punitive for the behaviors that are outlined
in the bill.
But I do have a real concern that
echoes what Senator Duane was talking about.
Which is, what is the circumstance whereby the
state or state prosecutors would be
prosecuting these cases, as opposed to the
federal government? It's not splitting hairs.
We'd really like to understand the situation
that would result in the utilization of these
statutes.
SENATOR SPANO: There have been a
number of times when we have in fact passed
bills here, whether it be on stalking or hate
crimes or assault weapons -- I mean, we do it
all the time -- and if the federal government
as well as the state government are going to
prosecute, let it happen.
That would be my opinion, Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Madam President,
will the sponsor continue to yield?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Spano, do you continue to yield?
4961
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
To my knowledge, there is no
federal hate crimes legislation. And when we
passed the gun control package two years ago,
one of the five things that the legislation
did was criminalize assault weapons that were
currently illegal under federal law so that
the state law would mirror the federal law.
And the explanation at the time
that was afforded to us was that this was
necessary because -- and I believe this --
that federal prosecutors had been overburdened
to the extent that they were not prosecuting
some of the cases for weapons possession. So
there was a real need for it.
But I cannot conceive of a
situation, not just in this bill -- and I'll
support this, I'm not going to vote against
it -- in this bill or, frankly, in Senator
Hoffmann's bill with agri-bioterrorism where
the federal government wouldn't be prosecuting
4962
the cases.
And I guess my one concern here is
we do get held up to a certain level of
scrutiny, our actions here. And if it's
viewed that everything we're doing is
essentially perfunctory or political or
without real value, it's just a gesture, it
doesn't reflect well on this body. So I'll
support this.
But my question to the sponsor,
since he has kindly agreed to yield, again, is
there any circumstance where a federal
prosecutor would defer to a state prosecutor
who would then use the statute we're passing
today to prosecute one of these crimes?
SENATOR SPANO: I think what we
have to do is view these crimes as being so
heinous type of crimes that we should have as
many laws on the books in New York State that
would work in concert with the federal law
enforcement authorities so that we can both
tackle this problem.
SENATOR HEVESI: Mr. President,
on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO:
4963
Senator Hevesi, on the bill.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you. I
don't want my comments to be misconstrued,
that I don't believe we need to crack down as
hard as humanly possible. And I commend
Senator Spano for bringing this legislation.
Maybe the one real value that we
have to this discussion, this discourse, is
that we raise public consciousness and perhaps
compel the federal government, in cases where
federal statutes may be deficient, to plug
some holes.
Short of that, it's difficult to
see how we're going actually to utilize these
statutes. But I don't see a reason to vote
against it. Not the ideal policy-making
process, but nonetheless, if there ever could
be, conceivably, a situation where somebody
could be prosecuted under one of the sections
here, then I guess it's better that we pass
this than we don't.
So I commend Senator Spano for
bringing the legislation, and I'll be voting
yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO:
4964
Senator Lack.
SENATOR LACK: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I rise because of some of the
comments I've just heard. The last time I
checked, we call this country the United
States of America. And the reason we do is
that we're a federated democracy from the
bottom up. And that is the states, by coming
together, created the federal government. And
that, in and by itself, is the first reason
that we have a bill such as Senator Spano is
promulgating on this floor this afternoon.
Examples of the opposite, for
example, is the country of Brazil, which is a
federated democracy from the top down. That
is, the central government in Brazil contains
in its federal constitution every provision
that would pertain to state government as
well. We don't do that. The states, quite
frankly, get together and have granted the
federal government certain powers.
And, Senator Hevesi, you should
know that the federal government in fact does
have a hate crimes legislation, civil rights
4965
legislation. And you've seen time and time
again when states fail, in their own penal
statutes, to move forward, there are criminal
sanctions brought by the federal government.
That's a violation of civil rights, and that
has worked time and time again.
These two types of sections that
Senator Spano is proposing this afternoon
would work totally with federal legislation.
And I think it's a great step forward, and I
congratulate Senator Spano for doing it. And
I think, in terms of combinations with
existing federal statutes, it's exactly what
we should be doing at this time, particularly
as a result of September 11th.
ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO:
Senator Farley.
SENATOR FARLEY: I just want to
rise in support of Senator Spano's bill.
The Banking Committee held hearings
on money laundering a few years ago, and it
was --
ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO:
Excuse me, Senator.
Can we have a little quiet in the
4966
house, please.
SENATOR FARLEY: The Banks
Committee held hearings on money laundering a
few years ago, and it was very interesting to
note that particularly in New York, much money
laundering is only a misdemeanor, which they
don't even bother to prosecute because they're
so busy with felonies.
And the federal government is
somewhat overwhelmed in the amount of work
that is involved with money laundering, and it
goes on particularly in some of the states
that have got quite a drug culture.
And I think that if we could bring
into effect our law enforcement and our courts
to assist in this area, you're going to put a
real crimp into terrorism and into -- because
they are very much into money laundering.
Thank you.
SENATOR HEVESI: Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
One would have thought I had spoken
4967
out against this bill, or that I was not
familiar with the form of government that we
have in this country which establishes
concepts of federalism. Both of those things
are not true.
And if Senator Lack was in the
chamber, I would inform him that while we do
have a federal hate crimes law, the federal
hate crimes law does not include sexual
orientation and it does not include
disability. In a case like that, it is more
than appropriate for a state to enact its own
more expansive, more inclusive legislation to
protect its citizenry.
But this case, where I simply asked
Senator Spano to conceive of the notion, to
articulate the situation whereby the federal
government would not prosecute for a terrorist
case, was a legitimate question. And to be
honest with you, there was no example that was
offered.
So I don't know why anybody would
believe that it was an inappropriate question
or that I was not familiar with government or
what have you. That's just silly.
4968
I'm voting for this bill. But if
somebody can give me a reason why the state
would prosecute in this case or in an
agri-bioterrorism case, as opposed to the
federal government, I'd like to know. It's a
legitimate question.
If there's an issue, as Senator
Farley points out, with money laundering,
perhaps that would be a legitimate reason.
That's why I'm supporting this bill. I'm not
sure.
So I'll be voting yes. But, you
know, to have this righteous attitude with me
on the floor I believe really is
inappropriate.
I'll be voting yes for this bill,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 35. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
4969
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Yes, Madam
President. Will you now call up Calendar
1389, by Senator Balboni.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read Calendar Number 1389.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1389, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7645,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
creating the crime of cyberterrorism.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR BALBONI: Madam
President, by way of explanation, permit me to
make a comment for the background of this
legislation.
As we finish consideration of
several bills dealing with terrorism, I rise
to add my voice of concern, concern that the
4970
issue before us today is not being taken
seriously in this Capitol.
Now, without question, the war on
terrorism is going to be directed from
Washington, D.C., not from Albany, New York.
And maybe that is why so many people believe
that the State of New York does not play a
role in this issue.
More pointedly, the State Assembly
and, more directly, members of that house have
said to me that "Terrorism is simply not a
front-burner issue for us." I would like to
remind the Speaker that though the war on
terrorism might be directed from Washington,
when one of our constituents dials 911 the
phone is picked up here in this state.
Take, for example, the weapons of
mass destruction bill that Senator Spano just
debated. For six months I had been involved
with this house and the Governor and the
Attorney General and the state agencies in
negotiating that bill. Nothing from the
Assembly. They refuse to engage. Perhaps the
Assembly leadership believes that outlawing
weapons of mass destruction, cyberterrorism,
4971
and agri-terrorism won't make us safer. So
the question becomes, will they hurt us?
That question was asked of Senator
Spano: Why do a state law? I'll give you a
reason. There are 7,000 reasons why we should
do state laws on these crimes. Because that's
the number of local and state law enforcement
personnel. Know what the number is for the
federal government officers? 700. That's why
we adopted the assault weapons bill in this
state, because there weren't enough federal
marshals to enforce the federal law.
It's about prevention, ladies and
gentlemen. Prevention. Before
September 11th, people looked up the chain of
government when it came to prevention and
response. What we have learned now is that's
not -- the federal government is not going to
be the first responders. The September 11th
attack began with the New York City Police
Department and the Fire Department and the EMS
and ended with them.
The bills that were articulated in
the Senate's Task Force on Local Emergency and
Preparedness, prepared by Senator Jim Seward
4972
as the chair, outlined just one slice of the
issues attendant to the issue of terrorism.
This is a huge, broad spectrum of ideas.
And ladies and gentlemen, you know
what we shouldn't be doing here today? We
shouldn't be taking an issue, looking at it,
coming up with a solution and then moving on.
We are at war. Do we need reminders? Look in
the press. Look in the press about the guy in
Chicago who wants to do the radiological bomb.
There are terror threats that come across our
airwaves every day that many of us do not
know. And it's only been nine months. Have
we moved on that fast? Are we so myopic in
our own view of our lives and what we're
doing, so self-absorbed not to recognize the
threats that are there in front of us?
I've had the opportunity to travel
to Washington and to travel around this nation
and to talk to other legislators on this
issue. Washington, D.C., is completely
focused on this issue. Almost every single
agency has some part of its day spent dealing
with terrorism. What are we doing? Contrast
what Washington is doing versus what we're
4973
doing. The silence, my colleagues, is
deafening.
Perhaps the real reason why we're
not dealing with this issue is because we
simply want to move on. But frankly, the
gloom and the darkness associated with this
issue is not something we want to deal with.
And perhaps we believe that if we dismiss it,
it will go away and things will be safer.
I am of the opposite view. If we
don't make this a priority this year, next
year and the years after that, then something
bad will happen and we won't be as prepared as
we can be. Generations of Americans came
before us and made incredible sacrifices. And
here we sit, perhaps in the afternoon before
something horrible. The residents of this
state pay us to lead, not to stick our heads
in the sand and pretend that an issue is not
going to occur.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know in my
heart that if anybody in this chamber could
have done anything to stop the events of
September 11th, they would have. We would
have moved heaven and earth. But here we sit,
4974
and we are doing nothing. Thank God for the
debate today. At least we got a chance to
talk about the issues. But unfortunately --
and God forbid it takes another event to get
us refocused on this issue.
Now to the bill. The bill, to my
knowledge, is one of the first of its kind in
the nation. It creates the crime of
cyberterrorism. It takes an existing section
of law in the Penal Law that talks about
computer crimes and says that when those
computer crimes are done in the furtherance of
a terrorist activity, using the same language
that was discussed with the Spano bill,
coercing a public -- a governmental entity,
then it becomes terrorism.
The second section of the bill is
new. It talks about a new form of attack
which just happened, by the way, last
Thursday. It's called a denial-of-service
attack. The way this is done is remote
computers around the world or in your
neighborhood focus on one site and bombard it,
inundate it with bits of information and
requests. And they send millions of pieces of
4975
information, and the system is overwhelmed and
inundated and cannot work.
What happened Thursday, Fox News,
ABC News, their sites were attacked and almost
brought down from a cyberattack that they
believe originated in China.
The last piece on this is if you
read the literature on asymmetrical warfare,
unconventional warfare -- and that's what
we're talking about, nonconventional warfare,
warfare conducted by terrorism -- they say
that what will happen is there will be a
physical attack -- the placement of a bomb,
the use of a weapon of mass destruction -- but
right before that, there will be a
cyberattack.
The last thing I just want to point
out is there are a whole host of different
articles on this issue which point out the
possible targets, including the Centers for
Disease Control, the nation's financial
network, computer networks that run electrical
grids and dams and water treatment plants, and
the nation's communication networks.
In 2001, cyberattacks caused
4976
$12 billion in damage and economic losses.
And such attacks were successful in
penetrating security systems at an airport in
Massachusetts and at a dam in Arizona, causing
shutdowns of both facilities but no loss of
lives and no long-term damage.
This bill recognizes a real threat.
And it's the first time that we actually put
into statute a denial-of-service attack.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Onorato.
SENATOR ONORATO: Madam
President, will the Senator yield for a
question?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, I do,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR ONORATO: Senator
Balboni, I wholeheartedly support the concept
of this piece of legislation about creating
the crime.
4977
But you've raised a very, very
serious concern for me, is we're going punish
them after the crime is done, and we're
dealing now with terrorism. What in your bill
will prevent it from actually happening when
you're starting to deal now with computers?
I'm not talking about putting up a
barricade with tanks to prevent it. Now
you're talking about the electronic age. What
in the bill addresses the prevention of such a
thing happening?
SENATOR BALBONI: Madam
President, I thank the gentleman for his
question. This is the concern of many people
in the media and otherwise, as to why are we
focused on penalty-related provisions.
In reality, if you talk to law
enforcement personnel, the allocation of
resources are predicated upon the
establishment of a crime. In other words, if
there's a cyberterrorism crime, then law
enforcement in this state, particularly if
it's identified as a real threat, will
allocate more resources to try to detect and
prevent that attack.
4978
That's the whole purpose behind
this. It's not simply about putting somebody
in jail. It is about signalling to the law
enforcement community that this is a priority,
that this is a threat and this is something
that should be investigated and stopped before
it occurs.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Will the
sponsor yield to a question, Madam President?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, Madam
President, I do.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: The answer to
Senator Onorato's question was there's nothing
in this bill that will prevent an attack.
Isn't that the right answer? That's the
direct answer to his question.
This is penalties for things after
the attack, the denial of service attack
occurs. Isn't that correct?
4979
SENATOR BALBONI: Who are you
asking?
SENATOR DOLLINGER: You. Senator
Balboni, if he would yield.
There's nothing in this bill that
contains any mechanism for prevention. This
is -- like so much else we write, this says if
you do it, we're really going to punish you.
Isn't that what this bill says?
SENATOR BALBONI: Madam
President, in order to answer the gentleman's
question, there is nothing in any law that is
written in any form of government that would
prevent anything. We don't know who is going
to do what crime. So therefore, do we not
have statutes on murder because we can't
prevent it?
How do we construct our entire
legal and law enforcement system? We identify
priorities and threats. Then we assign the
dollars and programs necessary to law
enforcement to go out and investigate, detect,
and prevent, hopefully, those crimes from
occurring. That's no more or less than what
we're doing here.
4980
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor will continue
to yield.
SENATOR BALBONI: I continue to
yield, Madam President.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator
Balboni, do you have any evidence that anybody
anywhere on this planet who is going to engage
in a denial-of-service attack who is doing it
as a terrorist would sit down and say "I'm not
going to do that because it's a felony in
New York"? Have you ever heard anybody say
that anywhere in this planet?
This is a terrorist we're dealing
with, someone who doesn't like to abide by
rules, who's willing to put their life at
risk. They're going to not do it because
we've passed a bill?
SENATOR BALBONI: Madam
President, by way of answer to you, Senator
Dollinger, your question goes to the very role
of what the Legislature can do in this regard.
And if it is your belief that we have no role
4981
to play in the war on terrorism, you're
welcome to that perspective.
I disagree. We are not -- as I
said before, we are not going to be able to
direct the war on terrorism. But listen to
what the President said. Every single citizen
in this nation has been called to arms.
Whether it's being more vigilant in your
neighborhood as to what's going on -- and, by
the way, for the people listening, that's not
that far-reaching a concept, because in
reality many, many crimes are stopped by
people who see something happening in their
neighborhoods. The best way to stop crime is
to know what's going on in your communities.
The same thing goes with terrorism.
The terrorists of 9/11 lived in our
communities for years prior to their criminal
acts. Some of them had been caught speeding.
Some of them were on foreign student visas.
And yet they were never picked up.
What this does is it signals a
priority for this government and for our law
enforcement community, which is over 7,000
police officers. That is a massive amount of
4982
resources that can be directed towards any
particular threat.
Now, in the federal government they
have set up a task force on cyberterrorism.
There is a cyberterrorism security agency.
They have identified it as a major priority.
We should also.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if Senator Balboni would
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR DOLLINGER: We'll get
back to that issue to what we can do to
address the issues that you raised at the
start of your speech.
SENATOR BALBONI: Excuse me,
Madam President. Can I just correct the
record?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Just one
moment, Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR BALBONI: I misread the
memo and my information. It is not 7,000 law
4983
enforcement community officers, it's 70,000.
Sorry, 70,000.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator
Balboni, just a question. You raised a couple
of issues about New York's role in this
process. Since September 11th, have the
police in the state of New York arrested
single terrorist or anyone under suspicion of
terrorism? Do you know whether -- New York
State Police. This is the New York --
SENATOR BALBONI: I don't know
the answer to that. And neither do you.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Isn't it
true, Madam President -- let me ask another
question, if Senator Balboni would continue to
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni, will you suffer another question from
Senator Dollinger?
SENATOR BALBONI: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Isn't it
actually true, Senator Balboni, that everybody
that's been detained and everybody that's been
4984
arrested has been arrested by the federal
government, that you know of? Isn't that
correct?
SENATOR BALBONI: I don't have --
well, first of all, Madam President, I will
forgive my colleague for adopting the
cross-examination style, because I know he
doesn't intend it. He's merely a trial lawyer
who kind of folds back into that colloquy
style. So we'll ignore the "answer this, yes
or no, otherwise the judge is going to rule
you out of order."
So in response to your question, I
don't know who has been arrested in relation
to terrorism and who has not. Because as you
know, an arrest in and of itself is not public
knowledge, necessarily. A conviction --
SENATOR DOLLINGER: And certainly
that's true with detainees as well. There are
thousands of people who have been detained and
we don't even know where they're --
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Gentlemen. Gentlemen.
SENATOR BALBONI: Senator
Dollinger, if you wish to object to the
4985
federal government's policy of detainees, I
suggest you run for Congress.
But right here we don't have a
detainee policy. What we have is a crime
detection and prevention policy that will be
furthered and better aided through the
adoption of measures like this one.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Madam President, if the sponsor will continue
to yield just to one clarifying question. I
want to make sure I didn't miss something.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Balboni, will you take one clarifying
question?
SENATOR BALBONI: Yes, Madam
President, I do.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senator will take one clarifying question.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator
Balboni, you said we were at war. Did I miss
something? Did the United States Congress
declare war on someone that I missed? I mean,
you know the definition, as a lawyer. Did I
miss something? Did the United States
Congress declare war on some nation or some
4986
group of people that I missed by a vote, a
Congressional resolution? Which is, of
course, the only way that the United States of
America, a democracy, can declare war on
anybody. Did I miss something?
SENATOR BALBONI: Madam
President, by way of answer -- I realize that
the gentleman's question to me is rhetorical
and he doesn't really expect an answer. By
way of answer, let me just point this out.
This is symptomatic of the inaction here in
this Capitol, where we would rather nitpick,
point to technicalities as opposed to seeing
the bigger picture.
Here in the chamber this afternoon
we saw the face of the war on terrorism. You
want to go ask those fire officers sitting
over there whether or not they're engaged in a
war? You want to ask the men and women who
are fighting in Afghanistan whether they're
engaged in a war? You want to talk to the
victims' families and ask them whether their
loved ones were taken in a war? Or do you
want to stop and say no, no, no, war doesn't
apply because it wasn't declared in a legal
4987
manner? An attack is not an attack, a war is
not a war.
You know who I take my direction
from, Senator Dollinger? I take it from
President George Bush, as the
commander-in-chief of this nation's armies.
And you know what I'm here to do? I'm here to
support him and his efforts as we go forward.
And I believe that the actions we
take today, if we could get the Assembly to
focus at all on this issue, would add to that
effort. Not solve it, not prevent it, not
make it go away in a quick fix, but rather be
a part of a building effort that hopefully
will last for years.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: On the bill,
Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Dollinger, on the bill.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I'll just
offer a couple of comments on the particulars
of the bill and then just respond to something
that Senator Balboni said.
I find it interesting that this
bill focuses only on units of government.
4988
Senator Balboni, I would suggest you include
businesses that are related to government.
Because one of the things that will happen
under this bill as it's drafted is it doesn't
affect the subcontracting of work in computer
networks.
My personal opinion is if you want
to accomplish that, you've got to add, you've
got to expand the definition to not only
include governments but affiliated businesses,
private businesses that perform public
services.
You've got a phrase in here called
delayed-time critical computer operations. I
would suspect there are only a handful of
people on the planet who know what that really
means. You ought to include a definition in
that so that it makes it clear.
The other thing is, Senator
Balboni, your definition about when you
increase the penalty based on the dollar value
of the damages, you say -- it says
"intentionally alters or destroys computer
data or computer programs so as to cause
damages to the computer tampered with or any
4989
other computer."
Frankly, Senator Balboni, forget
the computers. The computers only cost a
couple of thousand dollars. What you're
really talking about is the consequence to the
financial system when they have to shut down
the business for a couple of days to clear up
their computer network. The cost of the loss
to the computers is minuscule to compared to
the loss of business opportunities and others.
Factor those in.
But through you, Madam President,
the reason why I asked the questions about
Senator Balboni is that I think one of the
dangers in a situation like we have today is
that war is going to be exploited. When you
nitpick on a bill or when you raise questions
about federal versus state jurisdiction, some
people said: "Get with the program,
Dollinger, we're at war with a group of
terrorists."
I would suggest that the proper
response is we have a public-safety crisis in
this nation. It is brought by our enemies who
are clearly out to destroy our way of life.
4990
That is the given. The question is, how do we
prevent them from doing what they want to do?
I would suggest, Senator Balboni,
there is no terrorist on this planet who wants
to accomplish computer destruction, who wants
to tamper with our style of life who will ever
sit down and say: Oh, my God, it's a felony
in New York, I'd better not do it.
What I would suggest, Senator
Balboni, rather than focusing on picture-book
criminal penalties that we can all write about
in our newsletters, let's put our money to
work and let's come up with a grant to prevent
computer tampering. Let's sponsor an
institute that will come up with ways to
prevent this kind of denial-of-service attack.
Let's put our money to work so we accelerate
the R&D to prevent this from happening.
The best thing we can do, in my
opinion, in the war against terror is to be
prepared, to work on prevention. And most
importantly, while we're doing that, let's not
sacrifice the vigorous debate about public
issues and things like federal versus state
jurisdiction and the concept of war and
4991
whether it's war or whether it's a fight
against terrorism. Technical things that
sometimes the public mixes together, but we,
you and I, as good lawyers know are critical
distinctions for our democracy.
I'm going to vote, actually, in
favor of this bill. I don't mind the concept.
But to suggest that this is the issue that
will somehow stop computer terrorist attack, I
don't think it's going to do that.
And I'll add one other comment,
Madam President. I think it's unfair to
suggest that the Speaker of the Assembly is
not concerned about terrorism. Certainly a
man who had terrorism occur in his backyard is
as concerned about it as any of the 211
members in this Legislature.
I will say one thing about the
Speaker. He does believe that a minimum wage
for every New Yorker, fair rights for
farmworkers, unemployment insurance and
benefits, a women's health and wellness bill,
that those bills are as important to the
future of the quality of life in New York, so
that we have a high quality of life in
4992
New York that's worth defending.
I would suggest the Speaker's
heart, driven by that concern, is in the right
place. He and the Assembly voted on a series
of terrorism measures in October to deal with
this problem. To suggest that because he
doesn't buy on this bill or the agri-terrorism
bill or other steps that have been advanced
solely in this house that he is somehow soft
on terrorism, as it seems to have been
suggested, is grossly unfair.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. On the bill.
It was said no earlier that no
legislation would ever prevent crime, but
actually that's not true. My inclusive
Dignity for All Students Act actually would go
a long way towards preventing crime. And I
would ask my colleagues to look at it because
it is a crime-prevention piece of legislation
that will make our schools safer for all
students regardless of race, religion, sexual
orientation, gender identity, gender,
4993
religion, disability, et cetera. So there is
such a thing as preventative legislation, and
that's just one example.
Under the Senator's reasoning, a
person need not bother to go to China to plan
Internet terrorism, one need only go to
New Jersey and plan it or Delaware to plan it.
Because from the way he describes it, it's
only in New York State where these laws would
be taking effect.
I also -- it is a state authority
to pick up somebody for speeding. But I don't
think that it would be particularly helpful,
nor would it have been helpful to run someone,
perhaps of Arab descent, who had been stopped
for speeding through some kind of computer
database to predict whether or not they're
going to be a terrorist. Although that is a
state function. And perhaps that is what we
should be sticking to, are state functions.
You know, most of us have voted for
most of these bills, with varying degrees of
questioning about it. But most of us voted
for the bills. But, you know, let's be
honest. Already, under the law now, under
4994
present law, I can't imagine but that these
acts are already illegal. Not to mention
under federal law. And so if you go back to
the China-New Jersey-New York-Delaware
discussion that I raised earlier, that's why
we need federal standards. That's really the
only way that we're going to be able to
effectively fight terrorism.
And, you know, if this -- if these
pieces of legislation are so very important --
and I believe that the war on terrorism is
extremely important -- why are these bills
coming out of Rules? Are these new concepts
in the past couple of weeks? Or did we know
about these concepts as of January? Why
didn't we have hearings? Why couldn't these
questions have been raised publicly instead of
here when people were stammering because they
don't know the answer to some of the questions
that were raised?
The reason that we have hearings on
things is so that people can raise questions.
I mean, it was said that there was a task
force. Well, if this issue is so very
important, then why did we use a task force
4995
and not our committee process? Aren't our
committees capable of addressing these issues?
Or is it really just the reason for having
task forces is to exclude certain members of
this body from the discussion?
You know, I'm looking at these
bills for the first time today. And, you
know, I -- like the Speaker, it's my district
that was the one that was so horribly
devastated by the September 11th attack.
Although I don't think it was particularly
about my district, I think it was an attack on
the people of the United States. And I think
all of us together share the same concern to
try to make it so nothing like that ever, ever
happens again in this nation.
You know, the question was asked:
Well, what can the state do? Well, you want
to know what the state can do? The state
could provide benefits, line-of-duty death
benefits to domestic partners of those who
were killed in the line of duty on that day.
That's something that we don't do in this
house.
We could keep the simpler Medicaid
4996
application. That helped an awful lot of
people. That would continue to help people.
There's a lot of work that needs to
be done on unemployment benefits. My
district, the small businesses in my district
need assistance.
You know, when you talk about the
task forces that we've been having, the task
forces excluded a large number of members of
this body, many of whom were most directly
affected. I'm not saying that other parts of
New York State weren't affected by
September 11th. Of course, they were. But I
think an argument could be made that there
were some particular problems that happened in
New York City as a result, and yet most of the
New York City members of this body were
excluded from that task force.
But you want to know what other
things the state could do? We could expand
benefits for Chinatown and the Lower East
Side. They've been excluded from equal
benefits to those in other parts of Lower
Manhattan.
There are lots and lots and lots
4997
and lots and lots and lots of things that the
State of New York could do to help remedy the
terrible problems which occurred as a result
of September 11th.
Maybe there is a place to create
laws that punish terrorism as a result of
that, and I'll be voting for this one, as I
voted for most of the others of these bills.
Maybe there is a place. But I would like to
have had a forum to discuss with the feds and
with civil libertarians, with DAs, with
defense attorneys, with constitutional
experts, with people from academia about what
it was that we needed in terms of terrorism
laws. But sadly, we were denied that
opportunity.
So I'm going to vote for this bill,
but I think we have lots of work to do for the
people of the State of New York. And I'm
sorry, but these terrorism bills just don't do
the trick.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
4998
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo, to explain his vote.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Yes, Madam
President. Madam President, thank you very
much.
And just briefly let me just stand
up and say, to Senator Balboni, thank you.
Because you heard in the explanations on the
bills, the focus is still not there. Somebody
talked about oh, this is just good for your
newsletter. Well, I just heard a political
speech talking about unemployment benefits and
domestic partnership benefits.
It's not about that. It's not
about you. It's not about anybody here. It's
about what Senator Balboni's vision has for
New York State, and that's prevention. And
nobody else is talking about it. Everybody
else is making excuses about it. But I see
the federal government doing something every
4999
single day after 9/11.
Three years ago, I attended a
meeting with Senator Balboni and he talked
about bioterrorism. And you know what? They
laugh. They said, "What are you, crazy? It's
never going to happen." He never foresaw what
was going to happen on 9/11. And you're not
going to foresee what happens in the future.
But we're giving New York State law
enforcement authorities the measures to go
after people. And it's about protecting the
18 million New Yorkers in New York State.
Senator Balboni, you heard a lot of
rhetoric on the floor here today. But on
behalf of my family and the residents of New
York State, thank you for what you're doing
with bioterrorism in this state.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Saland.
SENATOR SALAND: To explain my
vote, Madam President.
Madam President, I heard a
significant portion of debate on this bill as
well as on the last bill. And to be perfectly
candid, I am somewhat astounded by those who
5000
would say that the state has no role in
dealing with issues of terrorism, that the
state has no role in attempting to combat
terrorism, that the state has no role in
trying to bring justice to those who have
engaged in acts of terrorism.
I have had the opportunity to meet
on several occasions with Governor Ridge, who
is, as everybody here knows, the director of
the Office of Homeland Security. And I can
tell you very unequivocally that, unlike any
other federal entity that any of us have ever
dealt with, Governor Ridge is reaching out to
states.
And I think in part it represents
the recognition that the federal government
does not have the ability to deal
single-handedly with the events of terrorism
that could be rained upon this country. They
do not have the resources. They do not have
enough judges. The Justice Department doesn't
have enough prosecutors. They do not have law
enforcement to put in the street.
They know full well that the only
way, the only way we can combat terrorism is
5001
by dealing jointly in partnership, by
maximizing our resources, by working
cooperatively. This is not the time for
territoriality. This is not the time for the
kinds of elitism that we have seen
demonstrated, I fear far too often at the
federal level in dealing with criminal justice
issues.
The states are where the rubber
hits the road. The federal government
realizes that. And the federal government
wants to work cooperatively with us. They
would do nothing to discourage us from putting
forward the kinds of legislation that Senator
Balboni has put forward today, some of my
other colleagues have had on this calendar
earlier. In fact, they would encourage it.
And I commend you, Senator Balboni,
and I know that you've worked on this issue
long and hard. I know you've also worked with
the National Conference of State Legislators
on their task force on homeland security. I
think you've done well for the people of the
State of New York by bringing this legislation
forward. I vote aye, Madam President.
5002
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Recorded
in the affirmative.
Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. I didn't hear anybody --
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Are you
rising to explain your vote, Senator Duane?
SENATOR DUANE: And that could be
the only reason I would rise, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Well,
very well, then. Senator Duane, to explain
his vote.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: You're
welcome.
SENATOR DUANE: I did not hear
anyone in this chamber say that there was not
a role for the state in the war on terrorism.
Unless I'm mistaken, I did not hear anyone say
that.
In fact, I heard an awful lot of
people say an awful lot of things that the
state could do in the war on terrorism, and
also to make the lives of those who have been
5003
victimized by terrorism a little bit easier.
I don't know why there's an
objection to some questioning on what the
appropriate role of the state is in the war on
terrorism. I know we're not supposed to ask
questions of that. Of course, there aren't
any committee meetings where we could have
questions on that. But if we have to question
on the floor, then so be it. There's nothing
wrong with that.
Most of us voted for most of these
bills. Most of us believe that there is a
role for the state. And in addition to the
areas covered by the bills today, there are
other areas where the state could be of
assistance.
Thank you, Madam President. I'll
be voting yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Duane in the affirmative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Smith.
5004
SENATOR ADA SMITH: Thank you.
Madam President, I request
unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar Number 1385.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
recorded.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President,
can we at this time call up Calendar Number
1390.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1390, Senator Bruno moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 11723 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 7657,
Third Reading Calendar 1390.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1390, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 11723, an act to amend
the Insurance Law and the Public Health Law.
5005
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President,
on this bill that is before us, this is not
anything that is strange to anyone in this
house. This is the bill that we've been
referring to as the Women's Wellness, the
Women's Health Bill. It's been a while
getting to the floor in this final, agreed-on
form. But like a lot of good things in life
that take a while to get here, it's here.
And this really is a critically
important day for all people here in New York
State -- women especially, but all people,
because we're talking about something that is
important in prevention by early detection of
preventable, in many instances, diseases, and,
when not preventable, when it's detected
early, treatable.
So we're talking about saving
lives. And the Senate, then, has been there
over and over. When we talked about the
reconstructive surgery and made that part of
the healthcare package. When we talked about
the elimination of drive-through mastectomies
5006
and childbirth. We've been there with the
screening for breast cancer, cervical cancer,
early screening.
So this expands the coverage in so
many critical ways for the women of this
state, critical ways. In breast cancer
screening, cervical cancer, osteoporosis,
creating accessibility to OB-GYN rather than
having to be referred from a family
practitioner. And, of course, the making
available contraceptives. Other than for
religious organizations where their main
function is religious and where they employ
people where contraceptives are against their
beliefs and their religion, and we've created
an exemption for that.
So I want to really applaud the
Assembly for joining, and with the Governor,
who has been partnering in this all the way.
I especially want to acknowledge
all of the women's groups that have been out
there, and the other interested groups that
have helped what we're doing here become
reality. Because it is important. And we
appreciate their diligence, their patience,
5007
their persistence in helping really in making
this happen today.
Our chairs, when we formed this
Committee on Women's Health and Wellness,
Senator Bonacic, Senator Rath, who really
celebrates her birthday today -- and that's an
added bonus today for our doing this today.
What a birthday present for Senator Rath.
And to all of the members on this
committee, all of the members in this chamber
that have participated over these years to get
us to where we are today. This is something
we can be proud of, something that we have
done together. We here in the Senate, both
sides of the aisle, all the outside interests,
with the Assembly and with the Governor.
So again, we're grateful to the
chairs, Senators Bonacic and Rath, grateful to
the committee, all the staff support and all
the people who are out there helping make this
great thing happen here in this chamber now.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Bruno.
Senator Bonacic.
5008
SENATOR BONACIC: Thank you,
Madam President. This has been a three-year
struggle. And I do believe it's worth it.
You're going to have the most comprehensive
women's healthcare package, not only in
New York but in the United States. It
restores equity and fairness between men and
women when it comes to healthcare coverage.
And I believe that you will see other states
in the nation imitate what we are doing here
today.
Our State Board of Health indicates
that there are about 1,100 women a year that
die from breast cancer. I believe as a result
of this legislation, with early detection and
prevention, we will see those numbers go down.
And with early detection, some women will
continue to die with breast cancer, but
hopefully they can live longer and enjoy a
better quality of life.
Osteoporosis, bone density. I've
been told, I don't know if it's factually
true, but we may be the first state in the
nation to cover this testing for women, where
it strikes women eight times greater than men
5009
with bone weakness.
And last but not least, the access
to contraception. I believe that this will
diminish unwanted pregnancies and help
diminish painful abortions.
Now, these things do not happen by
yourself. We had some very powerful
institutions and very powerful people resist
this legislation from day one. And if it was
not for our Majority Leader, Joe Bruno, my
fiercest ally -- my fiercest ally -- and my
colleagues who stood with us when this heavy
artillery was coming at us for the last three
years, this is something that would not have
gotten done. So I say to you, Leader, and my
colleagues, thank you.
Mary Lou Rath, my partner in this,
who was with us all the time, Mary Lou, to you
I say thank you.
To the advocacy groups, especially
the women who are up here in the gallery, who
never lost their passion, their commitment,
their motivation for over three years, I say
thank you.
I also want to thank both sides of
5010
the aisle in both houses, and Deborah Glick,
who carried this bill in the Assembly. And it
would be so tempting to get involved in the
politics of the sexes. But she tried to keep
it focused, and she tried to keep it
professional. And she did, and I thank her
for that.
Last but not least, I want to thank
the press. Because it was the press who
continually wrote editorials that held both
houses' feet to the fire to be accountable, to
do something real and not get comfortable,
engage in the politics of pandering, that we
do something real.
And this bill, I understand, passed
the Assembly about an hour ago. I understand
that the Governor will sign it as soon as he
gets it.
And, you know, one other thing I
notice. When we have these late budgets, it
goes later and later in the year, we have
philosophical differences, we have
geographical differences, we have political
differences, we have partisan politics. And
in that environment, it's extremely difficult
5011
to do things that are real, legislation of
public policy that affects the people of the
State of New York.
But when we rise above that stuff
and we do something like we are doing today,
for each and every elected official in both
houses, it's got to make you feel good and
it's got to make you feel proud. But for the
men and women of the State of New York, today
it's got to make you feel great.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you,
Madam President.
And thank you, Senator Bruno, for
your unwavering commitment to this issue, for
appointing two distinguished chairs of this
committee to see it through to the very end.
I'm very proud today to rise as a
member of the New York State Senate and say
what a great, great achievement this is for
all of us.
And we've all seen the statistics.
Minority women die at a disproportionate
5012
percentage from diseases like cervical cancer
and breast cancer because they lack early
detection. They simply do not have the same
access to healthcare, they do not have the
ability to get that treatment at a stage where
it can save their lives. So we will save
lives of women. We will keep families intact
in the minority community.
For thousands of thousands of women
of all races classified as working poor, we
will now have healthcare providing one of the
most critical lifesaving measures possible by
that early screening.
I remember not that many years ago
I heard from a good friend of mine,
Dr. Patricia Newman, who's the director of the
Breast Cancer Clinic in Syracuse and a
renowned surgeon, good friend. And she said,
"We must do something about early screening,"
and she told me some statistics that were
alarming about women aged 40 and even under
who were developing breast cancer. She said,
"Without screening for them, we can't wait
until they're 50. There are far too many of
you."
5013
At that point, it was still
somewhat a vague concept to me. And then my
own younger sister developed breast cancer at
age 36. I think it was a remarkably early
screening in her case, but it still didn't
save her life, and she was dead one year
later.
I'm sure there's nobody in this
chamber that has not been touched one way or
another by breast cancer in their immediate or
extended family. We are clearly sending a
message in this action today, through the
Senate and through the Assembly, and with the
great support of the very kind Governor of
this state, that we value the lives of the
women in this state and we do not want to see
any more women's lives lost prematurely. This
early screening, this early detection and
commitment to treatment is something that
everyone in this chamber can be proud of.
And as to the contraception
coverage measure, I want everybody to realize
that when contraceptives are prescribed by a
physician, in many, many cases it is not for a
birth control measure at all. Large numbers,
5014
thousands of young women in this state are
prescribed birth controls as a means of
regulating or minimizing the difficulty
experienced through their menstrual cycle. It
is a fairly routine prescription for a very
unpleasant, at times, characteristic of
women's health that men could very little
understand.
But we have a responsibility to all
of the women of this state to make
contraceptive coverage affordable and
accessible through insurance plans, just as we
make a wide range of men's health aids and
other activities available to them. It is
really long overdue that this contraceptive
coverage clause be within this bill.
I have no doubt that we will
withstand any legal challenge. I, along with
many others in this chamber, have talked with
the leaders of the Catholic Church in my own
area. And I'm disappointed that the Catholic
Church, which so really recently has taken a
bold step dealing with another national issue,
seems reluctant to recognize the need to have
a conscience clause in place to allow
5015
contraceptive coverage for all of the women
who are employed in those facilities that,
although operating under the aegis of the
Catholic Church, are in fact functioning in a
public way. With the use of public funds and
access to the general public for all their
services, they clearly meet the means test for
a public requirement for insurance coverage.
In sum, I would say how proud I am
to be a member of the Senate today, and thank
once again the leader of this chamber and all
of those who have made this day possible.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Oppenheimer.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: I'd just
like to mention -- thank you, Madam
President -- two things that have me
disappointed. But then I would like to go on
to mention the things that I consider very
valuable in this bill.
As I had spoken earlier, I had
hoped that there would not be required annual
deductibles and copays, because I felt that
that was an unfortunate situation for some of
our less-affluent women in our state. But we
5016
do have a section that says they can apply to
the Healthy Women's Partnership. So if they
earn up to 250 percent of -- okay, I'm
blanking. Thank you, I just missed the
words -- of the federal poverty line. If they
earn to 250 percent of the federal poverty
level, then they'll be able to seek this
assistance under the Healthy Women's
Partnership.
The other piece that was less than
what I had hoped is that the prescription
contraceptive coverage is only available if a
rider is placed into the policy. There is no
mention in this bill whether that rider will
be paid for by the employer or by the
employee. It is just totally silent. And
that is somewhat concerning.
However, it will of course still be
less money than if the woman were to pay out
every month for her contraception. Because as
we all know, the cost of women's health is
about 67 percent higher than the cost of
men's, and that is principally because of the
contraceptives that are required by many
women.
5017
Let me applaud the fact that we now
have baseline mammograms in this bill for
people ages 35 to 39. And, more importantly,
a requirement of annual coverage for breast
cancer mammograms for women age 40 to 49.
It actually has a very, very
significant thing for women, which is the Pap
test. The Pap smear test has saved many
lives. And that will be covered in the
insurance, as will the bone density test for
osteoporosis. This is a bill which some of
you I have spoken with on the subject. My
mother had a very severe case and lost
6 inches, had eight cracks in her spine, and
the pain was unbelievable.
But more important, the cost --
while this is costly, the fact is it is much
less costly than the cost of taking care of
the people that have osteoporosis. Fifty
percent of all women over the age of 60 have
osteoporosis, and that cost is astronomical,
in the billions of dollars. And that's
because broken hips and any number of
fractures on all parts of the body are very,
very costly and the rehab is very costly. So
5018
it's really pay now or pay later, and it's
much less costly to pay now.
So I'm very happy to be supporting
this bill, even if it isn't a hundred percent
of what I wanted. But that's the art of
compromise, isn't it.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hassell-Thompson.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Madam President. Just on the bill.
Senator Oppenheimer beat me to the
floor, so that most of the issues I wanted to
cover she covered very ably, I will admit.
But I just needed to make a comment.
When this bill first came, last
year when I first came to the Senate, I
listened to Senator Bonacic, and we discussed
this bill on the floor. And the one thing
that nobody wants to give themselves credit
for is that even in this environment that you
described, with all these differences of
opinion, what this difference of opinion has
done, I believe, is make this a better bill.
And sometimes we need adversarial activities
5019
in order to bring out the best of us.
I told you then and I will tell you
again that this is an exceptional bill. It
speaks to a sensitivity, Senator Bonacic and
Senator Bruno, that is rare among men when it
come to the health of women. And I will be
willing to accept any criticism afterwards
about that statement. But it is -- it does
show a very great level of sensitivity, and
for that I am appreciative.
A better bill comes, like a better
sword, from hammering, hammering, and
hammering. Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Liz Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Madam President, to speak on the bill.
I would be lying if I said that I
didn't wish this bill had passed three years
ago. But I'm very happy to be a member of
this house today and be able to vote for this
bill. I do want to compliment the members in
both houses for working towards resolution.
It is not a perfect bill. There
are things in this bill that I would have
5020
changed. And I believe that we can focus on
some of those expanded improvements in future
years. But I'm very happy to be able to be a
member of the Senate tonight and to be able to
vote on this bill. I look forward to the
Governor signing it.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Madam
President, on the bill.
I'm very proud also to support this
measure. And I think it demonstrates what can
happen when people have the will to resolve an
issue. This demonstrates that people working
together can resolve differences. And I hope
that this is a harbinger that future issues
will be taken up collaboratively and
collectively so that we can continue to pass
similar bills in the public interest.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Madam President.
5021
I am pleased that we're finally
passing this piece of legislation. Although I
must say that listening to Senator Bonacic's
words -- and I know he's worked very hard on
this -- frankly, I think most of our
constituents think this is what we're supposed
to do all the time, is resolve difficult
issues and put policy and principle above
politics. So I'm sorry that we are in a
Legislature where that is perceived to be a
rare event.
Many people have worked very hard
on this. The coalition that assembled around
this bill, that was really put together to a
great extent by Assemblymember Glick, did a
tremendous job, hung together. And it is very
difficult to get groups of people who are
really focused on different issues to work in
a coalition the way they have. They deserve
tremendous credit for this.
But as we are in a Legislature that
really doesn't rise above politics to deal
with policy, let's also recognize the
political circumstances of the passing of this
bill. And if we were really honest in this
5022
town, we would call it Liz's Law.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Any
other Senator wishing to speak on the bill?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 18. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
January.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Bonacic, to explain his vote.
SENATOR BONACIC: There's two
other people that I just wanted to thank.
Ken Riddett, who did so many drafts
on this bill for the last three years, I think
it would have been easier for him to prepare a
constitutional amendment and get it through.
And last but not least, someone you never hear
about but that worked 24/7 whenever we called
on this legislation from Senate staff, Caron
Crummey. I'd like to thank those two
individuals also.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
5023
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
DeFrancisco, to explain his vote.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes. A lot
that's been said here today I agree with a
hundred percent. There's a lot of great
portions of this bill that indicate that we
are doing things for prevention of disease.
Whether it's a woman or a man, prevention of
disease is important for both sexes. The fact
of the matter is, everything that's been said
concerning the positive aspects of this bill.
But there's a negative aspect that
I discussed last time concerning the religious
beliefs of individuals that I think should be
honored. And quite frankly, I think that
portion of the bill is going to be struck down
as unconstitutional.
So although -- if this was strictly
a woman's health bill without that clause in,
I would support it in a minute. And that's
why I'm voting no.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
DeFrancisco, in the negative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
5024
the negative on Calendar Number 1390 are
Senators DeFrancisco, Farley, Maltese,
Maziarz, Meier, Nozzolio, Stachowski, Trunzo,
and Volker. Also Senator Padavan. Ayes, 49.
Nays, 10.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
(Applause.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President,
can we ask for an immediate meeting of the
Rules Committee in the Majority Conference
Room.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
the Majority Conference Room.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: And can we at
this time have the noncontroversial reading of
Supplemental Calendar Number 1.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1366, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 98B,
5025
an act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
exempting.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
SENATOR HEVESI: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: This is
a noncontroversial reading right now, Senator
Hevesi. Do you want the bill laid aside?
SENATOR HEVESI: Lay it aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Lay the
bill aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1367, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 1797, an
act to amend the Workers' Compensation Law, in
relation to excluding.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
5026
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1368, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 2078,
an act to amend the Environmental Conservation
Law, in relation to adding.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
act shall take effect April 1.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Hassell-Thompson.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Madam President. I rise to request
unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar 1367. They did not see
my hand.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Without
objection. We're so sorry. Without
objection.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Madam President.
5027
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1369, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 2136A --
SENATOR BRUNO: Lay it aside for
the day, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1370, by Senator Stachowski, Senate Print
2578A, an act to amend the General Municipal
Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1371, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 2613A,
an act in relation to the initial date.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
5028
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1372, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 2893C --
SENATOR ONORATO: Lay it aside,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1373, Senator Padavan moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 7559 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 3392,
Third Reading Calendar 1373.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1373, by Member of the Assembly Klein,
5029
Assembly Print Number 7559, an act to amend
the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in relation to
abandoned vehicles.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1374, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 3719B,
an act to amend the General Business Law --
SENATOR ONORATO: Lay it aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1375, by Senator Marchi, Senate Print 3798B,
an act to amend the Business Corporation Law
and others, in relation to mergers.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
5030
THE SECRETARY: Section 65. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1377, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 6176B,
an act to amend the Judiciary Law, in relation
to the judicial hearing officer.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1379, Senator McGee moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
5031
Assembly Bill Number 9986 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6348,
Third Reading Calendar 1379.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1379, by Member of the Assembly Gunther,
Assembly Print Number 9986, an act to amend
the Town Law and the Village Law, in relation
to local laws and ordinances.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
July.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 58. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1380, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 6621A,
5032
an act to authorize the County of Orange to
discontinue.
SENATOR ONORATO: Lay it aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1381, Senator Maziarz moves to
discharge, from the Committee on
Transportation, Assembly Bill Number 4202 and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 6795, Third Reading Calendar 1381.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1381, by Member of the Assembly Towns,
Assembly Print Number 4202, an act authorizing
a public outreach program.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
5033
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1382, by Senator Leibell, Senate Print 7192,
an act to amend the Eminent Domain Procedure
Law, in relation to requiring.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1386, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 7489A,
an act to establish four separate and
independent library funding districts.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 10. This
act shall take effect immediately.
5034
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1391, by Senator Rath, Senate Print 6725B, an
act to amend the Executive Law, in relation to
creating.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. I'd like unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
1367.
5035
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, is there any housekeeping at the
desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Yes,
there is, Senator.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Please
recognize Senator Wright.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Wright.
SENATOR WRIGHT: Thank you, Madam
President. I request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
37, Senate 4889A.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: So
ordered.
Senator Wright.
SENATOR WRIGHT: Madam President,
amendments are offered to the following Third
Reading Calendar bills, and I read as follows:
Sponsored by Senator Maltese, page
number 14, Calendar Number 351, Senate Print
Number 195.
5036
Sponsored by Senator Seward, page
48, Calendar Number 1079, Senate Print 6827;
Sponsored by Senator Nozzolio, page
number 50, Calendar Number 1114, Senate Print
7196A;
Sponsored by Senator Maltese, page
52, Calendar Number 1144, Senate Print 6101A;
Sponsored by Senator Hannon,
Calendar Number 1376, Senate Print 4360A;
Sponsored by Senator Skelos, page
26, Calendar Number 671, Senate Print 6741;
Sponsored by Senator Morahan, page
34, Calendar Number 840, Senate Print Number
6182D.
Madam President, I now move that
theses bills retain their place on the order
of third reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted, and the
bills will retain their place on the Third
Reading Calendar.
Senator Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Thank you, Madam
President.
I wish to call up Senator Skelos's
5037
bill, Print Number 2683A, recalled from the
Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
66, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 2683A, an
act to amend the Family Court Act.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Thank you, Madam
President.
5038
I now wish to call up Senator
Balboni's bill, Print Number 7202, recalled
from the Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1234, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7202,
an act to amend the General Municipal Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Thank you, Madam
5039
President.
I wish to call up Senator Saland's
bill, Print Number 4899A, recalled from the
Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
69, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 4899A, an
act to amend the Social Services Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Espada.
5040
SENATOR ESPADA: Madam President,
I wish to call up Senator Nozzolio's bill,
Print Number 6444, recalled from the Assembly,
which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
457, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 6444,
an act to amend the Tax Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Espada.
SENATOR ESPADA: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Fuschillo.
5041
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, can we please stand at ease pending
the report of the Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Senate will stand at ease.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: And for the
information of the members, Madam President,
those bills will be taken up tomorrow.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Fuschillo.
(Whereupon, the Senate stood at
ease at 7:12 p.m.)
(Whereupon, the Senate reconvened
at 7:15 p.m.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Madam President. May we please return to the
reports of standing committees. I believe
there's a report of the Rules Committee at the
desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Reports
of standing committees.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
5042
from the Committee on Rules, reports the
following bills:
Senate Print 5150B, by Senator
Brown, an act to amend the Highway Law;
5463, by Senator Volker, an act to
authorize;
6071A, by Senator Marcellino, an
act to amend the Civil Service Law;
6268A, by Senator Padavan, an act
to amend the Highway Law;
6479, by Senator Kuhl, an act to
authorize;
6609, by Senator Stafford, an act
to amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
6677A, by Senator Stafford, an act
authorizing;
6873A, by Senator Larkin, an act
authorizing;
7145, by Senator LaValle, an act to
amend the Social Services Law;
7193A, by Senator Maziarz, an act
to amend the General Municipal Law;
7364, by Senator Morahan, an act to
amend the Banking Law;
7370, by Senator Breslin, an act to
5043
authorize;
7390B, by Senator Maziarz, an act
to amend the Tax Law;
7463, by Senator Kuhl, an act
authorizing the assessor of the Town of Milo;
7472A, by Senator Trunzo, an act to
amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
7485, by Senator Stafford, an act
to amend Chapter 485 of the Laws of 2000;
7490, by Senator Maltese, an act to
amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
7495, by Senator Leibell, an act to
amend the Retirement and Social Security Law;
7511, by Senator McGee, an act to
authorize;
7540, by Senator Marchi, an act
authorizing;
7557, by Senator Lack, an act
authorizing;
7560, by Senator Libous, an act to
amend the Mental Hygiene Law;
7565, by Senator Leibell, an act to
amend the General Municipal Law;
7576, by Senator LaValle, an act to
amend the Town Law;
5044
7577, by Senator Morahan, an act to
amend the General Municipal Law;
7581, by Senator Maltese, an act to
amend the Correction Law;
And Senate Print 7589, by Senator
Nozzolio, an act to amend the Highway Law.
All bills ordered direct to third
reading.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Move to
accept the report of the Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: All in
favor of accepting the report of the Rules
Committee signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
report is accepted.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, is there any housekeeping at the
desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: We have
a substitution.
5045
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: On page 55,
Senator LaValle moves to discharge, from the
Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number
11084A and substitute it for the identical
Senate Bill Number 7147A, Third Reading
Calendar 1193.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitution ordered.
Senator Oppenheimer.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Oh, thank
you. I would like unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
1112, Senate Bill 6806, by Senator Spano.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Without
objection.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, there being no further business, I
move we adjourn until Tuesday, June 18th, at
12:00 p.m.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: On
motion, the Senate stands adjourned until
5046
Tuesday, June 18th, at 12:00 p.m.
(Whereupon, at 7:20 p.m., the
Senate adjourned.)