Candidate Answers to JOLDC: Charles E. Schumer for US Senate D-NY

Candidate Name: Charles E. Schumer

Office Seeking Election for: US Senate D-NY

Website: https://www.chuckschumer.com/

1. Explain, based on life experiences and accomplishments, why you believe you are best qualified to represent your district.

The oldest of three children, I was born in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. My father, Abe, who grew up in Utica and served as a radar operator in planes flying over the Himalayas in World War II, took over his father’s exterminating business after the war. Shaped at an early age by my father’s experiences as a small businessman, I has never forgotten the difficulties faced by middle-class New Yorkers who work hard to create a better life for their families. I attended public school in Brooklyn at P.S. 197 and Madison High School. I was a hard working basketball player and a good student who became valedictorian. In 1967, I attended Harvard, becoming the first in his family to attend college. At first, I studied chemistry, but soon became active in the College Democrats, working on Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 Presidential campaign. After graduation, Chuck attended Harvard Law School where he further developed his commitment to a career in public service. I have dedicated my career to bettering the lives of every New Yorker and striving for equity in our country. On January 20th, 2021, following the historic election of Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, I became the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate. I am the first New Yorker and first Jewish person to serve as Senate Majority Leader. Coming into office amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I focused on getting the American people the relief they need. In less than two months as Majority Leader, I passed the American Rescue Plan, the most impactful bill ever passed to support working families. The ARP delivers $1,400 stimulus checks to nearly every American, provides critical funding to speed up vaccinations, reopen schools and support small businesses, and cuts the child poverty rate in half. It provides nearly $2 trillion in aid to the American people, and $0 to corporations and the special interests. As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and four years of failed leadership, I knows we need bold, transformative change to move our country forward. As Senate Majority Leader, I am leading the fight to solve the climate crisis, cancel student debt, legalize marijuana, address the inequities in our criminal justice system, fix our broken immigration system, and protect voting rights from an onslaught of Republican attacks. While the demands of leading the Senate Democratic caucus in Washington are many, I also pride myself on traveling to all 62 counties of the state and working intensely on community problems. There is no issue too big or small. I am proud to be voice and advocate for our local issues.

1. Do you now support or have you ever supported an openly LGBTQ candidate for public office?

Yes, I have history of not only supporting but recruiting LGBTQ candidates for public office and for federal appointments. Most recently, this includes championing Judge Ali Nathan to be elevated to the powerful and prestigious Court of Appeals.

1. If applicable, what legislation directly affecting the LGBTQ community have you introduced or co-sponsored? (indicate accordingly).

I have a long history of supporting legislation that directly impacts the LGBTQ community including HOPWA, Ryan White Funding, supporting equality under the law, and domestic and international HIV assistance, but my current focus is on the Equality Act. I am an original cosponsor and was proud to reintroduce the Equality Act, now as Majority Leader. It is an essential, urgent, and long-overdue legislation that will move us closer to a society where all Americans are treated equally under the law.

From education to housing, to family planning, from the workplace, to adoption, to immigration discrimination against LGBTQ+ people remains a serious problem that demands Congress’ attention. As majority leader, I'm committed to getting it that focus and attention. Congress must pass the Equality Act so that LGBTQ+ Americans will no longer have to face discrimination in these most basic areaas of life.

When the Equality Act was passed by the House last Congress, it was a bipartisan vote. Yet for years, leader Mitch McConnell buried the Equality Act, like he buried many other commonsense bipartisan House-passed bills. It was what we called his legislative graveyard. Now, Democrats are in the majority and one of my powers as majority leader is to put bills on the floor. The Senate will finally have the opportunity to act on this critical civil rights legislation among several other bills that have been neglected in the Senate for far too long.

I’m hopeful that just like in the House, the Equality Act will pass the Senate with bipartisan support. It’s great now that we have an ally in the White House with President Biden who has promised to make the Equality Act a priority.

The bottom line is simple: LGBTQ+ Americans deserve the same protections as other Americans. Democrats and your majority leader will fight tooth and nail to make sure these are implemented at the federal level. Discrimination against LGBTQ Americans should be over once and for all, and should be the law of the land in every aspect of our lives.

1. What LGBTQ organizations have you been involved with, either on a volunteer basis or professionally?

I have had long and strong relationships with a broad range of political, business, ciuvic, service LGBT organizations, including Jim Owles, Stonewall, LAMBDA, The LGBT Community Center movement, ACT UP, many LGBT legal and attorney organizations, HRCF, Empire Stae Pride Agenda and many, many more.

1. If applicable, what LGBTQ organizations have you allocated funds to?

Ove the years, I have been responsible for many, many millions (more likely billions over time) of dollars flowing to organizations that directly and indirectly positively impact and serve the New York LGBT community.

1. Do you consider yourself a member of the LGBTQ community?

1. Have you marched in Pride? Which marches and for approximately how many years?

I was the first US Senator to march in the Pride parade and I am now the first Senate Majority Leader to march in the Pride parade. I have always loved the parade and now march in it with my daughter and her wife.

1. Have you employed openly LGBTQ individuals previously? Do you employ any currently?

Proudly Yes to both.

1. If you receive the endorsement, do you agree to identify the club on all literature and electronic materials where you list endorsements?

Yes

1. What press conferences, demonstrations, rallies and protests in support of LGBTQ issues, pro choice legislation, criminal justice issues and the Resist Trump Movement have you attended?

I have attended countless press conferences, demonstrations, rallies and protests in DC and across NY state to promote and defend the Democratic agenda and democracy itself. Some of which include: press conferences outside the Supreme Court in defense of LGBTQ and reproductive rights, health care rallies as the Trump administration tried to gut the ACA and immigrant rights rallies across all five boroughs. For me the most important piece is that I do all of these events in conjunction with the activists and community directly impacted.

1. Will you advocate for legislation to mandate the review of sentences of incarcerated individuals aged 55 and older who have served in excess of 15 years to determine if they warrant release?

I would need to review the exact legislation and would like to hear from the advocates on the issue. I am intrigued by the legislation and empathetic to the problem it seeks to rectify. As it is a state bill, not a federal one, I will need to learn more about its provisions and potential impacts.

1. Will you advocate for legislation that would ensure those appearing before the New York State Parole Board are considered for release from prison based on who they are today and not exclusively based on the nature of their crime?

I would need to review the exact legislation and would like to hear from the advocates on the issue.

1. Do you commit to visit constituents who are incarcerated in state prisons such as Bedford Correctional Facility? When was your last visit to visit incarcerated constituents?

I am open to such visits.

1. Have you participated in any demonstrations or protests in relation to the issues of clemency and parole?

1. Will you affirmatively seek to hire formerly incarcerated individuals?

Yes

1. Do you believe in the decriminalization of sex work?

I would need to review the exact legislation and would like to hear from the advocates on the issue. However my top priority is the safety of safe workers.

1. Will you oppose any legislation that promotes the Nordic model

I would need to review the exact legislation and would like to hear from the advocates on the issue.

1. What proposals will you advocate for the protection of immigrants and further New York as a Sanctuary City?

My goal has been and will always be to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of hardworking immigrants and to ensure that immigration reform was not treated as an afterthought. In 2013 I led the fight in passing comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate and while we were not successful in making into law because Right Wing xenophobic Republican backlash blocked it in the House; it has remained a top priority and passion of mine.

Passing immigration reform is one of the best things we could do to combat income inequality, revitalize our economy and honor our founding principles as a nation.Immigrants are dreamers and doers, and America is a great nation because we welcome those who come here to make a better life for themselves and their families with open arms.

Currently I am working on how we can provide a pathway to citizenship through the reconciliation process.

Preceding that, we accomplished many profound and first-ever policy victories that helped our immigrant sisters and brothers confront and cope with and overcome the pandemic. This included:

• Allowing PPP to flow to all workers – so many of who are recent immigrants of all status;

• Making sure vaccines were free for all at our community health clinics and beyond;

• Securing for the first time ever the ability of mixed immigrant families to receive stimulus payments – something that previous bills had failed to do when we did not have the majority;

• And we made sure the record level of billions in rental relief could flow to all immigrants who were tenants;

I also secured billions in state and local aid through the American Rescue Plan which provided the funds for New York to set up the essential worker payment fund and I effectively pressured the IRS to change its rules so that those with ITINS could easily apply.

I will continue our push to fix our broken immigration system and will pursue every means to achieve a pathway to citizenship.

1. Will you advocate, including introducing legislation, to remove public funding from religious schools?

I have long been a staunch supporter of public schools. I am a proud product of the public school system and I have fought for and delivered man, many billions of dollars to support our public school system and its workers.

1. Do you support the establishment of safe consumption spaces?

Yes.

1. Have you ever endorsed any member of the IDC or any candidates who challenged IDC members? Please identify all candidates

No. In fact I publicly called out the IDC. I have worked very hard throughout the years to help elect Democrats and create a Democratic majority in the Senate, including campaign endorsements and events for all priority candidates.

1. Will you commit to hiring a member of the LGBT community to serve as a liaison to the community?

Yes.

1. Will you commit to ensuring diverse LGBT representation among your staff?

Yes.

1. Who did or do you support for office in the Democratic primary in the following races A) mayor and comptroller in 2021 B) President in 2016 and 2020 C) Governor and Lt. Governor 2022

As a national and statewide party leader, I rarely get involved in primary battles.

1. Describe any federal legislation and policy changes that you support in order to address the ongoing effects of slavery, racism, colonialism, and discrimination

I look at every legislative issue through the lens of how we benefit and rectify the injustices to those that have been most disadvantaged. In almost every case our black and brown families have been subject to gross disadvantage and lack of investments in their communities. Deeply rooted systemic racism, bias, and discrimination have created disparities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

That is why through the various pandemic relief bills I have worked to:

• Provide Housing Relief:

o $21.55 billion for Emergency Rental Assistance to help families pay the rent and utilities and stay in their homes.

o $100 million for housing counseling, which will be distributed to housing counseling organizations through NeighborWorks. This funding will allow counselors to help both homeowners and renters remain in their homes and avoid being faced with overwhelming debt burdens.

o $5 billion in assistance for people experiencing homelessness. The bill provides funding help communities provide supportive services and safe, socially distant housing solutions, including purchase of properties like motels for use as non-congregate shelter, to protect the health of these families and individuals and help control transmission of coronavirus.

o $5 billion for emergency housing vouchers which will help transition high-need homeless and at-risk families, youth, and individuals, including survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, to stable housing. o $9.961 billion for mortgage and utility assistance – the first of its kind since the pandemic began – this funding will, be critical to help homeowners get back on track. Homeowners of color are disproportionately likely to have fallen behind during the pandemic.

• Expanded Child Tax Credit: Increased the credit amount from $2,000 to $3,000 per child age 6 to 17, and $3,600 per child below the age of 6

o An estimated 3.5 million children across New York benefited from this anti-poverty measure

• Expanding Affordable Access to Broadband: $42.45 billion in available funding for states to deploy high-speed internet in unserved areas, including regions of rural New York that have no internet access and New York City neighborhoods where high-speed internet is too costly for low-income families

o New York will receive a minimum allocation of $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the state.

o Nearly 200,000 New Yorkers who currently lack broadband internet will gain access

o An additional 5.4 million New Yorkers will be eligible for subsidies to bring down the cost of existing access for low-income families

• Student Loan Relief Tax Exclusion: Included a provision forgiving income taxes on forgiven student loan debt for loans discharged between December 31, 2020 and January 1, 2026.

• Food for Hungry Families: Allocated $1.07 billion in nutritional assistance for low-income families across Pandemic EBT benefits and SNAP

• Aid for Public Schools: Directed $9 billion in flexible funding for K-12 schools to support school districts in reopening safely, including dedicated funds to address learning loss.

• Community Health Centers: Provided immediate relief to frontline providers who serve communities of color and underserved populations hardest hit by pandemic. This includes $7.6 billion for community health centers, $1.44 billion for Older Americans Act programs, $800 million for the National Health Services Corps and more.

• Helping Working Families with Utility Payments: Included $4.5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and $500 million for water utility bill assistance

• Lifted the Ban on Pell Grant Eligibility for the Incarcerated: CRRSAA opened up a new door to economic justice and dignity for millions by lifting this outdated prohibition

• Invested in Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institution: Across all bills, CDFIs and MDIs received billions of dollars to strengthen their services for small businesses in low-income communities and communities of color

• Secured Real Debt Relief for Taxi Drivers: Working together with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance and allied organizations and state and local elected officials, I convinced the New York City Mayor to offer a more generous debt relief plan to thousands of taxi drivers and their families, many of whom are immigrants of color.

• Partnered with Los Deliveristas to Deliver Relief to Delivery Workers: Beginning with a powerful video elevating the plight of essential delivery workers, I have worked closely with Los Deliveristas public and privately to deliver resolution on unpaid wages and immigration issues from major app-based delivery services, as well as pressuring the IRS and NYS to develop a common-sense compromise solution to the problem of excluded workers not receiving their duly entitled benefits.

• Intervened to Extend NYS Eviction Moratorium: I built upon my efforts to secure an historic influx of federal rent relief for working families by pushing forcefully for an extension of the NYS eviction moratorium from August 31, 2021 to January 15, 2022. My timely behind-the-scenes interventions with leadership in the State Legislature are credited by activists, issue experts, and state lawmakers as having played a decisive role in the extension.

• Farmers of Color: The bill will provide debt relief and assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who have faced disproportionate impacts from the pandemic as a result of longstanding discrimination. The Agriculture Department’s lending and financial assistance programs have long discriminated against Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and other farmers of color. Black farmers in the South alone have lost more than 12 million acres of farmland since the 1950s and many farmers of color who remain in agriculture struggle with burdensome debt that has prevented many from being able to grow and sustain their farms, especially during the pandemic Looking ahead I am currently working on the following:

• Housing: NYCHA is underfunded and in urgent need of repair to very serious health and safety issues. From heating problems, lead and mold contamination, elevator outages, so many issues are plaguing NYCHA and their residents that require immediate federal investment. I am working to get the highest level of funding possible to address the serious backlog of repairs and upgrades for public housing. To not only ensure buildings get brought back up to code to ensure that they are safe and livable, but also retrofit them to increase energy efficiency and resiliency so that they can serve their residents for the next decade and decades after that.

• Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement: Finally ending the federal prohibition on marijuana; for too long, draconian marijuana laws have contributed to racial inequality. This bill would not only allow for expungement of marijuana convictions and arrests, sealing of records, and re-sentencing opportunities, it would also help level the economic playing field for Black, Brown, and low income communities. I have long believed that any effort to reform our nation’s marijuana laws should also include significant measures to undo the harms that too many families and communities have suffered as a result of the War on Drugs. At the time I introduced the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, which seeks to achieve many of the same goals as the MORE Act, I was the highest ranking Democrat in the country to call for an end to federal prohibition of marijuana.

• Justice in Policing Act: We must work to bring accountability to police departments so that bad actors are not shielded from culpability and to incentivize and reward those officers who do the job the right way. Led by Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Senate Democrats put together the Justice in Policing Act, a comprehensive bill that would bring lasting change to police departments across America.

Our bill does several things:

o Bans racial and religious profiling, and mandates sensitivity training;

o Bans chokeholds, and no-knock warrants in federal drug cases;

o Promotes de-escalation tactics; o Creates a publicly available nationwide database on police misconduct;

o Eliminates qualified immunity for law enforcement; and o Limits the transfer of military equipment to police departments.

• Community Violence Intervention: I am fighting to secure federal support for CVI programs and organizations that will help our communities of color. These programs use evidence-based strategies including focused deterrence, street outreach, and hospital-based violence intervention models, complete with wraparound services such as behavioral therapy, trauma recovery, job training, education, housing and relocation services, and financial assistance.

• Gun Control: I am fighting to pass legislation to expand background checks for firearms sales and to make straw purchasing a federal crime. I am also working to secure funding for ATF, the tip of the spear in the federal government’s fight against gun trafficking, in the next round of appropriations. I have personally called on the Department of Justice to use every resource they have to combat gun trafficking in New York as well as in the states and regions from which the illegal guns used here originate. As the original author of the Brady Law, I have long championed the strong gun safety measures and that will continue for as long as I am in the Senate.

1. What legislation or other policy changes do you support in order to make college and graduate school affordable for poor, working-class, and middle-class Americans and to alleviate the crushing loan debt that many students and alumni are facing?

I, along with Senator Warren, introduced a resolution for the President to use existing authority under the Higher Education Act to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt for Federal student loan borrowers. Education is supposed to be a ladder up, but for too many the burden of student debate has become an anchor holding them down. Massive student loan debt is exacerbating the historic and overlapping crises our country is facing, especially for communities for color, which have been hit hardest by the health and economic consequences of COVID-10. This proposal ensures that there is no tax liability to federal student loan borrowers resulting from administrative debt cancellation. Cancelling student loan debt would provide immediate relief to millions who are struggling during this pandemic and recession and would be a great step in helping to close the racial wealth gap for black and brown households, that has persisted for far too long.

1. Do you support a single-payer universal health care system? Please elaborate.

I have one goal: There should not a person in America who cannot afford the health care they need. We’re working hard this year to figure out the right policy that can achieve that goal and get enough votes to pass. It’s a top priority for me to get it done. I believe in universal health coverage.

First, we must make coverage more affordable and accessible. This includes making the ACA more affordable and opening it to more people, finally expanding Medicaid in all 50 states, helping people with employer plans afford their coverage and more.

Second, we must reduce the price of prescription drugs, including capping out of pocket costs, limiting price increases and finally empowering Medicare to negotiate the best possible deal.

Third, we must reduce the racial disparities in our health care system. Covid has put a painful magnifying glass on this issue. We must increase the number of providers in underserved communities, address maternal and infant health, improve mental health and addiction treatment, and more.

1. Discuss your stance on reproductive rights, including access to contraceptives and abortion services.

We are amidst an unprecedented number of unconscionable, Republican attacks on reproductive rights across the country, and we cannot just call each and every one of them out—but we need to stop them. I made a major push for the Senate to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) after setting the historic Senate early this year, and I will continue to work to get this crucial bill passed. This legislation will safeguard Roe v. Wade by ensuring the constitutional right to abortion is enshrined in federal law and available to everyone, no matter their zip code. Hundreds of state laws have been passed that restrict and ban abortions. Access to an abortion is critical, as one in four women in the U.S. will have an abortion before age 45. Women of color, immigrants, those struggling to make ends meet, and the LGBTQ+ community are disproportionately affected by abortion bans and restrictions, Schumer noted. Currently, 90% of American counties are without an abortion provider.

The WHPA guarantees a pregnant person’s right to an abortion—and the right of an abortion provider to deliver these abortion services—free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship.

Specifically, the legislation says governments may not limit a provider’s ability to:

· Prescribe certain drugs,

· Offer abortion services via telemedicine, or

· Immediately provide abortion services when the provider determines a delay risks the patient’s health.

Additionally, governments may not require a provider to

· Perform unnecessary medical procedures,

· Provide medically inaccurate information,

· Comply with credentialing or other conditions that do not apply to providers whose services are medically comparable to abortions, or

· Carry out all services connected to an abortion

I helped write and pass the The Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the first federal legislation protecting women from domestic abuse. For decades, it strengthened the federal government’s ability to investigate and prosecute acts of domestic violence and provided support for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Unfortunately, the Violence Against Women Act expired in 2019 and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch refused to even let the Senate vote on reauthorizing it. I believes we should permanently reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and expand its protections so it’s harder for people with a history of domestic violence to purchase guns.

1. Will you refuse money from individuals or Political Action Committees representing the real estate?

2. Will you refuse money from police and corrections unions?

We must work to bring accountability to police departments so that bad actors are not shielded from culpability and to incentivize and reward those officers who do the job the right way. Led by Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Senate Democrats put together the Justice in Policing Act, a comprehensive bill that would bring lasting change to police departments across America.

Our bill does several things:

o Bans racial and religious profiling, and mandates sensitivity training;

o Bans chokeholds, and no-knock warrants in federal drug cases;

o Promotes de-escalation tactics; o Creates a publicly available nationwide database on police misconduct;

o Eliminates qualified immunity for law enforcement; and o Limits the transfer of military equipment to police departments.

1. Will you refuse and refund any contributions from executives at corporations complicit in the Trump agenda?

I am foursquare opposed to Trump and all he stands for and worked very hard to impeach him, get him out of office and secure a Democratic Senate majority.

1. What additional information would you like Jim Owles to consider when we are making our endorsements decisions?

There are three issues that I think are the most pressing challenges of our time: income inequality, the climate crisis and restoring integrity to our democracy. Income inequity corrodes our society and in particular our low income and communities of color are the first to suffer. This pandemic is just one glaring example of the many ways that inequality exacerbates a whole gamut of issues, often across racial lines. From healthcare, to housing, to education, to immigration status, to whether a family has access to a local supermarket, or a mother survives childbirth, or the very air children breathe when they step outside is clean.

The climate crisis is an existential threat in every sense of the word. It literally threatens our continued existence as a city, as a country, and as a planet. Our planet is warming so fast that extreme weather disasters are now commonplace in America and across the world. And I am committed to 1) reducing our carbon emissions at least 50% ; 2) achieving an 80% clean grid; and 3) ensuring 40% of the benefits go to disadvantaged communities. I am committed to prioritizing investments in clean energy, overall resiliency and righting the wrongs to our communities of color.

Restoring our democracy: Under my leadership the Senate has confirmed more judges in a single year since the Reagan Administration and I am prioritizing judges who have diverse backgrounds- ethnically, racially, socioeconomically and professionally. Here are some confirmations and pending nominations that exemplify the full spectrum of judicial candidates that I have pushed forward:

• Eunice Lee, formerly of the Federal Defenders of New York, is the first public defender to become a Second Circuit judge and the only African-American woman currently sitting on the Second Circuit

• Myrna Perez, formerly of the Brennan Center, is a nationally renowned voting rights expert who is the first Latina confirmed to the Second Circuit since Justice Sotomayor

• Ali Nathan, currently a Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, will be the second openly lesbian woman ever confirmed to the federal appellate bench as a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

• Dale Ho, an Asian-American man who is arguably the most prominent voting rights lawyer in the country, is nominated to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

• Jessica Clarke, a decorated African-American civil rights attorney who currently leads the NYS Attorney General's Civil Rights Bureau, is nominated to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

• Nina Morrison, an openly lesbian woman who is a national leader in exonerating the wrongly convicted and reforming the criminal justice system as a leader of the Innocence Project, is nominated to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

• Nusrat Choudhury, a nationally recognized civil rights attorney at the ACLU, is nominated to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and will be the first Bangladeshi American and only the second Muslim American to serve on the federal bench

• Hector Gonzalez, a Cuban American with deep progressive experience in both criminal and civil law, is nominated to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

I also nominated Damian Williams (SDNY), Trini Ross (WDNY), and Breon Peace (EDNY) as three of New York's four U.S. Attorneys. These are the highest-level federal prosecutors in New York in charge of overseeing the federal justice system in our state, and this will be the first time that all three posts are held by African Americans.

Over the last year I have been working on passing a comprehensive voting rights bill to rectify the GOP’s sabotage of our electoral system. While I was disappointed that we were not successful earlier this, it will not deter me from continuing our fight against voter suppression, dark money, and partisan gerrymandering. Facing an uphill battle from the start, we lost the vote. But to have not voted would have been a far greater loss: a loss for our Democratic Party--which for generations has stood for voting rights--for the civil rights advocates who have sacrificed so much on this issue, and for the American people. On an issue this important, not doing everything we could would have been unacceptable and I am committed to leading this fight.

1. If you resign in the middle of your term, will you let the voters decide? Do you plan to serve your term and not send a vacancy to the county committee?

Yes to both.

1. Who are you supporting for Speaker/Democratic leader in 2023?

2. In view of the fact that Ed Koch has been documented to have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people with AIDS, and was blatantly racist, would you support a city bill to rename the former Queensboro Bridge? Do you authorize the use of your name for such a purpose?

1. What is your position on removing the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle and if so, what should replace it?

I believe the community should make a decision and that the process should be open and transparent to the public.

1. What is your position on FOSTA/SESTA, passed in 2018? Do you or will you sponsor the Safe Workers Study Act which has been introduced by Elizabeth Warren and co- sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee and Ron Wyden and a host of other sponsors including Bernie Sanders.

2. Do you support the class-wide scheduling of Fentanyl-related substances, which groups like Human Rights Watch have argued would worsen pretrial detention, mass incarceration, and racial disparities?

The fentanyl crisis needs to be taken seriously. At the same time, we have to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past by trying to arrest our way out of a public health epidemic. The Biden Administration has put forth a framework to permanently deal with fentanyl scheduling without the use of onerous mandatory minimums which have been shown to drive mass incarceration. I am working with my colleagues to find a sensible path forward on this issue.

1. Do you support the Green New Deal?

And that is why in the Infrastructure and Investment jobs act I made sure to include the following:

• Improving Climate Resiliency and Addressing Legacy Pollution

o $21 billion to clean up Brownfield and Superfund sites, reclaim abandoned mine lands, and plug orphan oil and gas wells

o $7.5 billion for clean school buses and ferries, including a historic $5 billion for the replacement of existing school buses with zero emission and clean school buses, and $2.5 billion for the replacement of existing ferries with low carbon ferries

o $106 million for the Long Island Sound Study, a partnership of federal, state, and local agencies, universities, businesses, and community groups working to restore and protect the Long Island Sound.

• Supporting Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

o $175 million over five years to support the expansion of an electric vehicle charging network in New York § $2.5 billion in additional grant funding is available for states to apply for expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

• Remediating Lead Pipes and Ensuring Access to Clean, Safe Drinking Water

o $2.6 billion to improve water infrastructure in New York and ensure that all communities have access to clean, safe drinking water

o $428 million in EPA State Revolving Funds to tackle lead service line replacement in disadvantaged communities and remediate PFAS contamination

o 49 percent of this money will be administered as grants and completely forgivable loans, ensuring New Yorkers get the most out of this funding.

For matters that don’t directly involve the federal government, I often serve as an advocate myself – using my wide platform to bring greater public attention to a problem – and a mediator who helps bring together opposing parties to forge a solution:

• Worked with Advocates to Defeat the Astoria NRG Gas Plant Project: I played a leading role in organizing against the polluting NRG Astoria Gas Plant by holding a press conference that brought wider attention to the issue, creating and publishing video content voicing opposition to the project, and testifying at a NYS DEC hearing.

• Supported the NYS Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act: I forcefully came out in support of the CLCPA to lend strength and momentum to New York Renews and the broader climate movement as they worked to pass this critical legislation.

1. President Biden has not granted a single pardon or commutation. When have you publicly demanded that Biden do more on this issue? Will you pledge to publicly speak out about this in 2022?

While Presidential pardons are granted at the end of presidency I would welcome further discussion on this topic.

1. Do you commit to not supporting Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema? Will you consider supporting a primary opponent?

2. Some members of congress indicate they will only support incumbents regardless of their politics and regardless of who is presenting them a primary. Are you one of them?

No.

questionnaireJim Owles Liberal Democratic ClubApril 23, 2022ussenate2022