Regular Session - March 18, 2019
1779
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 March 18, 2019
11 4:07 p.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
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16
17
18 SENATOR SHELLEY MAYER, Acting President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
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25
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The Senate
3 will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and repeat with me the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Reverend
9 Louis Straker, the senior pastor of Reflections
10 of Christ's Kingdom, in Brooklyn, will give
11 today's invocation.
12 Reverend Straker.
13 REVEREND STRAKER: Let us pray.
14 Our Father Who are art in heaven,
15 hallowed be Thy most holy name. We beseech Your
16 throne of grace and mercy as we invoke Your
17 presence with us on this day that You have made.
18 We ask that Your spirit would
19 descend upon this assembly, guide the hearts and
20 the minds of those whom You have sovereignly
21 chosen to represent the people of the great State
22 of New York. Grant them Your wisdom, knowledge
23 and understanding to govern over the affairs and
24 the complexities that we face in our
25 ever-changing world.
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1 I command a blessing upon every
2 elected official present here today. I ask that
3 You cover their families and their constituents.
4 And as these great men and women commence on this
5 afternoon session, I ask that You bind this
6 chamber together in the power of unity and the
7 sacrificial love exemplified by Your son, the
8 greatest representative of all humanity.
9 It is in that mighty and matchless
10 name that I humbly make these requests and
11 petitions known. In the precious name of our
12 Lord, Jesus the Christ, I pray.
13 Amen.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
15 reading of the Journal.
16 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Sunday,
17 March 17, 2019, the Senate met pursuant to
18 adjournment. The Journal of Saturday, March 16,
19 2019, was read and approved. On motion, Senate
20 adjourned.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Without
22 objection, the Journal stands approved as read.
23 Presentation of petitions.
24 Messages from the Assembly.
25 The Secretary will read.
1782
1 THE SECRETARY: On page 14, Senator
2 Salazar moves to discharge, from the Committee on
3 Children and Families, Assembly Bill Number 1239
4 and substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
5 Number 3248, Third Reading Calendar 239.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
7 substitution is so ordered.
8 THE SECRETARY: On page 15, Senator
9 Sepúlveda moves to discharge, from the Committee
10 on Investigations and Government Operations,
11 Assembly Bill Number 5975 and substitute it for
12 the identical Senate Bill Number 4211, Third
13 Reading Calendar 246.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
15 substitution is so ordered.
16 THE SECRETARY: On page 18, Senator
17 Hoylman moves to discharge, from the Committee on
18 Health, Assembly Bill Number 4071 and substitute
19 it for the identical Senate Bill Number 870,
20 Third Reading Calendar 290.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
22 substitution is so ordered.
23 THE SECRETARY: On page 19, Senator
24 Rivera moves to discharge, from the Committee on
25 Health, Assembly Bill Number 1034A and substitute
1783
1 it for the identical Senate Bill Number 4183,
2 Third Reading Calendar 295.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
4 substitution is so ordered.
5 Messages from the Governor.
6 Reports of standing committees.
7 Reports of select committees.
8 Communications and reports from
9 state officers.
10 Motions and resolutions.
11 Senator Gianaris.
12 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
13 Madam President.
14 On behalf of Senator Sanders, I move
15 the following bill be discharged from its
16 respective committee and be recommitted with
17 instructions to strike the enacting clause:
18 Senate Bill 4584.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: It is so
20 ordered.
21 SENATOR GIANARIS: On behalf of
22 Senator Ramos, I move the following bill be
23 discharged from its respective committee and be
24 recommitted with instructions to strike its
25 enacting clause: Senate Bill 1948.
1784
1 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: It is so
2 ordered.
3 SENATOR GIANARIS: And on behalf of
4 Senator Comrie, on page 15 I offer the following
5 amendments to Calendar 261, Senate Print 3215,
6 and ask that said bill retain its place on Third
7 Reading Calendar.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
9 amendments are received, and the bill shall
10 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar.
11 Senator Gianaris.
12 SENATOR GIANARIS: Please call on
13 Senator Griffo.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
15 Griffo.
16 SENATOR GRIFFO: Madam President, I
17 move, on behalf of Senator Flanagan, that the
18 following bills, Senate Bill 963 and 2408, be
19 discharged from their respective committees and
20 be recommitted with instructions to strike the
21 enacting clause.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: It is so
23 ordered.
24 SENATOR GRIFFO: Also,
25 Madam President, I would move on behalf of
1785
1 Senator Ortt that Senate Bill 1288 be discharged
2 from its respective committee and be recommitted
3 with instructions to strike the enacting clause.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: It is so
5 ordered.
6 SENATOR GRIFFO: And
7 Madam President, on behalf of myself, I would ask
8 that on page 14, amendments are offered to
9 Calendar Number 234, Senate Bill Number 3220A,
10 and ask that it remain on third reading.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
12 amendments are received, and the bill shall
13 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar.
14 Senator Gianaris.
15 SENATOR GIANARIS: Can we now take
16 up the reading of the calendar, please.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The
18 Secretary will read.
19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
20 133, Senate Print 588, by Senator Kennedy, an act
21 to amend the Social Services law.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
23 last section.
24 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
25 act shall take effect immediately.
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
2 roll.
3 (The Secretary called the roll.)
4 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
5 Kennedy to explain your vote.
6 SENATOR KENNEDY: Thank you very
7 much, Madam President.
8 Let me just start by thanking our
9 leadership, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, for
10 bringing this bill to the floor.
11 This is something that is near and
12 dear to the hearts of folks not only in Erie
13 County and Western New York, but I think across
14 the state, as we have seen time and time again
15 young children abused and so horrifically treated
16 and ultimately in some instances killed by their
17 abuser.
18 In Erie County, for the last five
19 years we have been working to tighten up Child
20 Protective Services, make the system work better,
21 make it more accountable, and put in place
22 reforms that allow those individuals on the front
23 lines to do their jobs more effectively and more
24 efficiently.
25 I want to take this opportunity to
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1 thank all of the Child Protective Service
2 workers, not just in Erie County and Western
3 New York but across this entire state. They're
4 truly doing God's work. Oftentimes they are like
5 guardian angels in these horrific and offensive
6 circumstances.
7 This legislation today is something
8 that for five years has languished. What we're
9 advancing today is a result of different
10 workgroups out in Erie County putting their minds
11 together, coming up with these reforms to keep
12 our children in our respective communities safe.
13 The legislation amends the Social
14 Services Law so that children in Child Protective
15 Service investigations may not be interviewed in
16 the presence of an individual who's been named in
17 the report of suspended abuse or neglect.
18 Now, while it may seem simple -- and
19 it is -- what this ultimately does is it prevents
20 these children from being manipulated by their
21 abuser in the presence of the abuser while this
22 guardian angel, this front-line Child Protective
23 Service worker is there to find out how the abuse
24 happened in the first place.
25 The sad aspect is, Madam President,
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1 that I could go on and on and on talking about
2 child after child across this state in each and
3 every one of our communities who was killed at
4 the hands of their abusers for various reasons --
5 including, and sadly so, the fact of the system
6 failing those children at different times.
7 This strengthens the system, it will
8 help to protect our children, and it will help
9 these guardian angels, these child protective
10 service workers, to do their job just a little
11 bit better by getting these children away from
12 the reported abuser during these interviews.
13 I call to mind also two children,
14 Eain Brooks, who was killed at 5 years old, and
15 Abdi Mohamud, killed at 10 years old, in
16 Erie County in 2014 and 2012 respectively. And
17 again, I could go on and on naming children. But
18 this legislation and others is a response
19 particularly to those two horrific deaths.
20 So all of that said, I ask my
21 colleagues to be supportive of this legislation
22 and thank each and every one of you once again
23 for that support.
24 Madam President, I vote aye.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
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1 Kennedy will be recorded in the affirmative.
2 Senator Savino.
3 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
4 Madam President.
5 It pains me to depart from my
6 colleague, my seatmate, my friend Senator Kennedy
7 on this bill, because I really do believe that he
8 sincerely wants to improve the Child Protective
9 Service system to make it not just easier for
10 workers, but to also make it easier for the
11 children and the families that they investigate.
12 But unfortunately, as someone who's
13 done this work -- and I actually still hold the
14 title of a Child Protective Service worker --
15 this bill will not do that. In fact, it will
16 have the exact opposite effect.
17 And I don't doubt his sincerity or
18 the sincerity of people who have helped him write
19 this bill. But I just want to take you through
20 the process.
21 When you receive a referral from the
22 State Central Registry of an investigation of
23 abuse and neglect and you go to the home of a
24 family and you knock on that door, first and
25 foremost, you don't know who's on the other side
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1 of that door. You don't know who the parents
2 are, you don't know who the children are. You
3 have a piece of paper that has the names of the
4 subjects and an allegation. And the first order
5 of business is to get on the other side of that
6 door, which means the parents have to allow you
7 in.
8 Under New York State Social Service
9 Law, they are not obligated to let you in the
10 door. That requires you to develop a rapport to
11 get in the door and first establish a
12 conversation with parents who are the subject of
13 abuse or neglect, or another adult in the home.
14 And then determine that the children that are
15 present in front of you are actually the named
16 children in that report. You don't know that
17 either without the cooperation of those parents.
18 Under the best of circumstances, a
19 CPS worker has the right, under Social Service
20 Law, to request an interview of that child
21 separate and apart from their adults. Those
22 parents do not have to oblige you the first time.
23 They don't have to.
24 So let's assume we pass this law and
25 the Assembly passes it and the Governor signs it
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1 and we amend Child Protective Service law and we
2 put into statute that you have to get the child
3 separate and apart from the adults in the home.
4 And you knock on the door -- and by the way, no
5 one's ever happy to see us when we knock on their
6 door. Nobody.
7 What's going to wind up happening is
8 you're going to have to go to court first and get
9 a remand to get that child away from their
10 parents so you can interview them. And if you
11 thought they were reluctant to talk to you
12 before, they are going to be traumatized and
13 terrified.
14 So while I agree with Senator
15 Kennedy's intent that we need to do more to
16 improve casework practice, that we need to do
17 more to make sure we protect children who are
18 victimized and abused and neglected, I don't
19 believe this bill the way it's currently drafted
20 will do that. Which is why it pains me because I
21 know what he wants to do. It really hurts me to
22 vote against his bill, but I have to, as someone
23 who has done this work.
24 I'm going to vote no and I'm going
25 to continue to work with him to help develop a
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1 better Child Protective Service system for the
2 workforce and for the children and families that
3 we have to serve.
4 Thank you, Madam President.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
6 Savino will be recorded in the negative.
7 Announce the results.
8 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
9 Calendar Number 133, those Senators recorded in
10 the negative are Senators Akshar, Amedore, Funke,
11 Griffo, Jordan, Lanza, Little, O'Mara, Ritchie,
12 Savino and Serino. Senator Robach as well. Also
13 Senator Antonacci.
14 Ayes, 48. Nays, 13.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
16 is passed.
17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
18 239, Assembly Bill Number 1239, substituted
19 earlier by Assemblymember Jaffee, an act to amend
20 the Family Court Act and the Public Health Law.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
22 last section.
23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
24 act shall take effect immediately.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
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1 roll.
2 (The Secretary called the roll.)
3 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
4 Salazar to explain her vote.
5 SENATOR SALAZAR: Thank you,
6 Madam President.
7 Across our state there are currently
8 over 200,000 children who live in the care of a
9 relative other than their birth parents, commonly
10 known as kinship care, often due to hardships
11 that their birth parents may be facing.
12 These families and the children in
13 their care are often dealing with extraordinary
14 stress and challenges, and we have a
15 responsibility to minimize additional unnecessary
16 stressors in their daily lives. That is what
17 this legislation seeks to do.
18 Under current law, a child's legal
19 custodians can be denied non-emergency medical
20 care for the children in their care if they do
21 not have a court order expressly providing them
22 the authority to seek medical care for the
23 children.
24 This creates a serious barrier to
25 accessing medical care for children who become
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1 ill while in the custody of a relative. It also
2 can prohibit children from receiving basic
3 preventive care as simple as going for a regular
4 checkup.
5 Furthermore, the current law puts
6 the health of many children at risk because
7 without a court order, their legal guardian can't
8 effectively advocate for them.
9 As children we all relied on the
10 adults who cared for us to advocate on behalf of
11 our well-being. But until now, we've allowed
12 children in kinship care to fall through the
13 cracks without ensuring that someone can advocate
14 for them when their birth parents are unable to.
15 Kinship care has increasingly become
16 a more common way to alleviate situations in
17 which children are at risk of being removed from
18 their birth parents' custody by Child Protective
19 Services. This makes it all the more urgent for
20 us to pass this bill today that will empower the
21 family members who have been granted this legal
22 responsibility to care for those children.
23 By expanding the law to include
24 caregivers with lawful custody, many thousands of
25 child care givers will be spared from unnecessary
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1 legal proceedings and costs and delays in
2 accessing medical care for their children.
3 I'm proud to vote in the affirmative
4 on this legislation that will positively improve
5 many New Yorkers' lives.
6 Thank you.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
8 Salazar will be recorded in the affirmative.
9 Announce the results.
10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
12 is passed.
13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
14 240, Senate Print 4004, by Senator Carlucci, an
15 act to amend the Social Services Law.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
17 last section.
18 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
19 act shall take effect on the 90th day after it
20 shall have become a law.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
22 roll.
23 (The Secretary called the roll.)
24 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
25 Carlucci to explain his vote.
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1 SENATOR CARLUCCI: Thank you,
2 Madam President.
3 This legislation is extremely
4 important. I want to thank my colleagues for
5 supporting it.
6 An adoptive parent is someone who
7 provides a permanent home to a child through a
8 legal program or legal status, and no different
9 from any other parent experiencing all the trials
10 and tribulations of parenthood. And I know as a
11 parent raising two young boys that it's one of
12 the greatest joys in life, and yet it comes with
13 heartache and frustration.
14 And fortunately right now in the
15 United States over 80,000 young people are
16 adopted through foster care into a permanent
17 setting. But unfortunately, according to the
18 National Council for Adoption, about 10 percent
19 of adoptions through the foster care system
20 dissolve. And that's something that we have to
21 make sure we're working to not just see people
22 through the process of finally making that
23 adoption, but that that continues and that
24 stability continues.
25 That's why this legislation is
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1 before us today, to make sure that we are
2 supporting our parents, our adoptive parents, by
3 providing a clearinghouse of information about
4 what are the benefits that are available to a
5 child once they become adopted and what are the
6 benefits that no longer exist once you leave
7 foster care.
8 What we've found is that providing
9 this information in a clearinghouse, in a way
10 that's accessible to parents, could possibly
11 prevent many of those dissolutions from happening
12 and continue to have our children in a safe,
13 permanent, healthy setting.
14 So I want to thank my colleagues for
15 supporting this important legislation, and I'll
16 be voting in the affirmative.
17 Thank you, Madam President.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
19 Carlucci will be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Announce the results.
21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
23 is passed.
24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
25 244, Senate Print 3387, by Senator Kaplan, an act
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1 to amend the Social Services Law.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
3 last section.
4 THE SECRETARY: Section 12. This
5 act shall take effect on the first of January
6 next succeeding the date on which it shall have
7 become a law.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
9 roll.
10 (The Secretary called the roll.)
11 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
12 Krueger to explain her vote.
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you,
14 Madam President.
15 I rise to thank Senator Kaplan for
16 this important bill and actually the next bill is
17 also on breast-feeding. It is so important that
18 we assist women, particularly first-time mothers,
19 to learn about the advantages of breast-feeding
20 their infants and the long-term health effects
21 for themselves and their babies.
22 The research shows that when women
23 can in fact learn to breast-feed, there is
24 phenomenal improved health outcomes for their
25 children in their first year of life and
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1 throughout their life, and there are also health
2 advantages for the mothers as well.
3 But people sometimes assume you have
4 a baby, you hold it up to a breast and everything
5 goes fine. Guess what. For a lot of people, it
6 doesn't. And so it's so important that we are
7 expanding the ability for people to get the
8 support they need with insurance coverage,
9 Medicaid coverage for it. And that again, for
10 the next bill that's coming up, to also recognize
11 that women need the support in the workplace when
12 they go back to be able to continue to
13 breast-feed and have the kinds of supports anyone
14 should have when they have a child and they've
15 returned to the workforce.
16 So I really couldn't be -- I've done
17 many -- excuse me. I spent quite a bit of time
18 over the years working on legislation to improve
19 access to better outcomes for women and their
20 newborns to expand the right to breast-feed
21 whenever and wherever you need to, and these two
22 bills today take us another leap forward.
23 So I'm very proud to vote for this
24 and the next bill and want to thank both the
25 sponsors.
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1 Thank you, Madam President. I'm
2 yes.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
4 Krueger will be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Senator Helming to explain her vote.
6 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you,
7 Madam President.
8 I am very proud to support this bill
9 and I want to thank Senator Kaplan for bringing
10 it to the floor today. Thank you.
11 As Senator Krueger said, the health
12 benefits of breast-feeding are well-documented.
13 Promoting breast-feeding will lead to healthier
14 babies and healthier mothers.
15 I also just want to take a moment to
16 thank legal counsel from my office, Kristin
17 Frank, who spent the better part of a year
18 working with lactation consultants from around
19 New York State in the development of this bill.
20 So thank you to Kristin as well.
21 I vote in the affirmative,
22 Madam President. Thank you.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
24 Helming will be recorded in the affirmative.
25 Announce the results.
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1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
3 is passed.
4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
5 246, Assembly Bill Number 5975, substituted
6 earlier by Assemblymember Reyes, an act to amend
7 the Executive Law.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
9 last section.
10 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
11 act shall take effect immediately.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
13 roll.
14 (The Secretary called the roll.)
15 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
16 Sepúlveda to explain his vote.
17 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Thank you.
18 Thank you, Madam President.
19 Thank you, Senate Leader
20 Stewart-Cousins. I want to thank my colleagues
21 and of course my Assemblywoman, who is the lead
22 sponsor in the Assembly of this bill, Karines
23 Reyes, who's sitting here behind me.
24 This bill reminds me of the
25 experiences I had with my wife when we had a
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1 young child born seven and a half years ago and
2 we had to deal with the issue of breast-feeding
3 our child.
4 Breast-feeding parents should be
5 guaranteed the right to use break time to provide
6 breast milk for their newborn children at work.
7 This bill will ensure that the employers are
8 following the Human Rights Law by clarifying that
9 lactation is a pregnancy-related condition
10 requiring employers to make reasonable
11 accommodations in the workplace. Women should
12 not have to head to the bathroom, an empty
13 office, a conference room or any other space that
14 is not adequate for them to have the privacy
15 needed for breast-feeding. Mothers need to know
16 that even when they're at work, they have a safe
17 space.
18 There's a lot of discrimination
19 against breast-feeding workers, an action that is
20 completely natural. They are often refused time
21 for pumping breaks and are often faced with
22 harassment from coworkers. In a report titled
23 "Exposed: Discrimination Against Breast-Feeding
24 Workers," an advocacy group called Pregnant at
25 work reports that breast-feeding discrimination
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1 takes many forms, such as firing someone simply
2 for asking for the time to breast-feed, denying
3 pump break requests from their employees who are
4 in pain and leaking milk, and leaving workers to
5 pump their breasts exposed to coworkers.
6 Twenty-one states and the District
7 of Columbia have made laws mandating that
8 employers provide both time and space for
9 expressing breast milk. But with most states
10 lacking clear break time and space law, more than
11 5 million women still do not have either federal
12 or state protections.
13 This bill is crucial to protect
14 women and their right to provide breast milk for
15 their newborn children in the workplace. It is a
16 struggle that is going on, and this legislation
17 will address it.
18 I vote in the affirmative.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
20 Sepúlveda will be recorded in the affirmative.
21 Announce the results.
22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
24 is passed.
25 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
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1 290, Assembly Bill 4071, substituted earlier by
2 Assemblymember Gottfried, an act to amend the
3 Public Health Law.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
5 last section.
6 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
7 act shall take effect on January 1, 2020.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
9 roll.
10 (The Secretary called the roll.)
11 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
12 Hoylman to explain his vote.
13 SENATOR HOYLMAN: Thank you,
14 Madam President.
15 I rise to explain this legislation,
16 which expands the membership on the Public Health
17 and Health Planning Council for New York State,
18 also known as the PHHPC.
19 Currently the PHHPC has only
20 24 members. It has one representative from a
21 healthcare consumer advocacy organization, as
22 mandated by statute. However, that seat is open.
23 And as many of us know who have hospitals in our
24 districts, there is a trend in the marketplace
25 for mergers, consolidation and, worse, closures.
1805
1 Well, up to now it seems,
2 Madam President, it's easier in the State of
3 New York to open a hospital than it is to close
4 one. Well, with this legislation that I'm
5 cosponsoring with my colleague in the other
6 chamber, Assemblymember Dick Gottfried, we hope
7 to make it a little more transparent by requiring
8 at least four members appointed by the Governor
9 to be representatives of healthcare consumer
10 advocacy organizations, and at least three
11 members appointed by the Governor to be
12 representatives of labor organizations for
13 healthcare employees.
14 That's important because, as I
15 mentioned, not only are consumers not represented
16 on this all-important PHHPC which might recommend
17 to close a hospital in your district, but there
18 are currently no labor representatives. And we
19 know that labor has an enormous stake in
20 healthcare -- 1.2 million private-sector jobs are
21 represented in the healthcare system, and
22 healthcare systems are the three largest
23 employers in New York State. And it's only
24 getting better.
25 So with this legislation we bring
1806
1 consumers and labor to the table to make certain
2 that our communities are represented when these
3 incredibly important decisions are made.
4 So I want to thank our healthcare
5 chair, Senator Rivera, for passing this through
6 his committee, and my colleagues for their
7 support of this bill.
8 I vote aye.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
10 Hoylman will be recorded in the affirmative.
11 Announce the results.
12 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
13 Calendar Number 290, those Senators recorded in
14 the negative are Senators Akshar, Amedore,
15 Antonacci, Boyle, Flanagan, Funke, Gallivan,
16 Griffo, Helming, Jacobs, Jordan, Lanza, LaValle,
17 Little, O'Mara, Ortt, Ranzenhofer, Ritchie,
18 Robach, Serino, Seward and Tedisco.
19 Ayes, 40. Nays, 22.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
21 is passed.
22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
23 294, Senate Print 3339A, by Senator Thomas, an
24 act to amend the Social Services Law.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
1807
1 last section.
2 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
3 act shall take effect immediately.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
5 roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
8 Thomas to explain his vote.
9 SENATOR THOMAS: Thank you,
10 Madam President.
11 Thank you to the leadership and
12 thank you to the Health chair, Senator Rivera,
13 for passing this through his committee.
14 I introduced this bill on behalf of
15 my constituents Vinny Scheppa and his mom
16 Christine Scheppa, residents of Garden City,
17 because caregivers are overlooked and
18 underappreciated members of our community. They
19 tirelessly and thanklessly take care of their
20 loved ones on their own time and their own dime.
21 Every morning before Christine
22 Scheppa goes to work as a registered nurse, she
23 starts her day by caring for her son Vincent, who
24 was severely disabled after suffering a traumatic
25 head injury in 2016. She checks his vitals,
1808
1 brushes his teeth, monitors the medical equipment
2 and all things specified to Vincent's care. She
3 then goes to work, leaving her son to a home
4 health caregiver.
5 Christine is constantly having to
6 train a revolving door of home health aide
7 workers on the specific medical needs of her son.
8 She has been by Vincent's side since the
9 accident.
10 This bill will allow family members
11 to provide services traditionally reserved for
12 those licensed as nurses in limited instances.
13 However, the Consumer Directed Personal
14 Assistance Program does not have a mechanism to
15 allow relatives to be hired and pay a nursing
16 rate for approved in-home nursing care.
17 This legislation provides a
18 mechanism for Medicaid recipients or their
19 representatives to apply to the Department of
20 Health in these rare instances where a family
21 member is qualified and interested in providing
22 nursing services through the Medicaid program.
23 When this bill becomes law, Chris
24 Scheppa and so many other registered nurses who
25 take care of our children will have the ability
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1 to take care of their own.
2 I vote aye.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Senator
4 Thomas will be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Announce the results.
6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
8 is passed.
9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
10 295, Assembly Bill 1034A, substituted earlier by
11 Assemblymember Gottfried, an act to amend the
12 Public Health Law and the Education Law.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Read the
14 last section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
16 act shall take effect October 31, 2019.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Call the
18 roll.
19 (The Secretary called the roll.)
20 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: Announce
21 the results.
22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: The bill
24 is passed.
25 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
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1 reading of today's calendar.
2 SENATOR GIANARIS: Madam President,
3 is there any further business at the desk?
4 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: There is
5 no further business at the desk.
6 SENATOR GIANARIS: In that case I
7 move we adjourn until tomorrow, Tuesday,
8 March 19th, at 3:00 p.m.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT MAYER: On motion,
10 the Senate stands adjourned until Tuesday,
11 March 19th, at 3:00 p.m.
12 (Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the Senate
13 adjourned.)
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