|
Presented by Airlines for America: Your afternoon must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Joseph Spector | | | |  Sixteen of New York's 26 House members voted for the debt ceiling bill late Wednesday. | Jon Elswick/AP Photo | New York’s 26 House members were fairly split late Wednesday over their support of the bill to raise the country's debt limit. Sixteen of them – 10 Republicans and six Democrats — voted for the controversial bill to avoid a government default. Meanwhile, 10 voted no — including nine New York City-area Democrats and embattled Long Island GOP Rep. George Santos. The vote again shows the divide in New York among moderate and liberal Democrats as they head into the 2024 elections when Democrats will be looking to regain some of the seats they lost last year on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley. Hudson Valley Republican Mike Lawler, a moderate freshman, said it was important to support the deal. “For me, there were three critical components,” he said Thursday on MSNBC. “The president and the speaker needed to negotiate. We needed to cut spending. We could not default. Default was never an option. The speaker and the president over the last two weeks negotiated a deal. I think it's a good deal on behalf of the American people.” The bill, H.R. 3746 (118), passed 314-117 in the Republican-controlled chamber. Rep. Marc Molinaro, another freshman Republican and a key target for Democrats, said upstate New York families couldn’t bear the brunt of more economic uncertainty. “To deliver relief, I approached the debt ceiling debate seeking to find common ground on three primary objectives: to curb inflation, avoid a default and protect future generations from overwhelming debt,” he said in a statement. But progressive Democrats in New York City panned the deal, saying they couldn’t vote for it. “I voted no on the bill after it received the votes needed to pass,” Manhattan Rep. Jerry Nadler said in a statement. “I could not support a deal that included harmful spending cuts, bad permitting reform policies that undermine environmental justice or work requirements for social safety net programs.” But other upstate Democrats said they begrudgingly agreed to back the bill. “While Republican-sought provisions in this legislation will be actively harmful to working families and the environment, these effects pale in comparison to the devastating impact that a default would have on these same people and our economy as a whole,” Albany-area Rep. Paul Tonko said in a statement. “In supporting this bill, I am choosing between the lesser of two evils.”
| 
How they voted | U.S. House of Representatives | | | | | A message from Airlines for America: Did you know? Every day 800,000 workers make the U.S. airline industry run. Last year, we helped 50,000 new careers take flight -- thousands of new pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and others. In fact, job growth for U.S. airlines in March was three times the overall U.S. job growth – and we are still hiring! Learn more: www.airlines.org/jobs. | | | |  | From the Capitol | | | 
New York will allow cannabis cultivators to continue processing and distributing their own products. | Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images | WEED WATCH: New York will allow the first cannabis cultivators to continue processing and distributing their own products for another year under a bill signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul Thursday. New York’s legalization law that passed in 2021 allowed the state’s first cultivators limited processing and distribution capabilities in order to launch a regulated market quickly. Under that law, cultivators would be able to process and distribute their own products until a Thursday deadline that would require them to apply for a processing or distribution license. But those license types are still not available, leaving the state’s first cannabis cultivators in the lurch. The new law will allow cultivators to continue certain processing activities like turning flower into pre-rolls and distributing their own products to dispensaries. — Mona Zhang CAP AND TRADE INPUT SOUGHT: New York policymakers are seeking input on regulations to implement a cap-and-trade style program (dubbed “cap and invest”) to reduce emissions in the state and provide funding for clean energy programs. While the Department of Environmental Conservation had already started to seek feedback and typically does so in private forums before a formal rulemaking, the landmark cap-and-trade policy, which would be the first economy-wide program on the East Coast, is getting a higher profile treatment. The Hochul administration has raised concerns about the affordability of the plan, offering an ill-timed pitch to rewrite the state’s climate law to change the parameters. The first of seven webinars was a fairly dry outline of the dozens of questions DEC is seeking input on. Some of the key issues include:
- The 2030 and 2050 targets are set, but the slope — the rate at which the emissions cap declines to reach those limits already established by DEC based on the climate law — is a key decision point. If the cap declines too swiftly, it could lead to much higher allowance prices that make the program more costly in the short term. If it declines too slowly, the state could be at risk of not hitting its targets or having higher prices in the future.
- Defining obligated sources and thresholds for both compliance (entities required to purchase allowances to pollute) and reporting (those that have to provide information) are also key questions. Non-obligated sources will still be accounted for in the program to ensure achievement of the state’s targets.
Jon Binder, DEC’s deputy commissioner for Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy, said designing the program to potentially have linkage to markets like California in the future is a priority. That could prove tricky given the unique accounting requirements in New York’s climate law that differ from those used elsewhere and result in different emissions intensities for fuels.
“We’re not intending to have offsets be part of this program,” Binder said. That’s an important commitment and has been a key concern for environmental advocates, who worry offsets would weaken the state’s climate goals. The questions are also available on the state’s “cap and invest” website, and DEC is asking for feedback by July 1 to inform the next round of stakeholder input. The next webinar focuses on issues around natural gas and is set for June 6. — Marie J. French | | | | A message from Airlines for America:   | | | | | From City Hall | | REMOTE WORK: Some municipal employees will be able to work remotely for up to two days every week for the next two years, Adams announced. The change is part of a pilot program with the city’s largest municipal union, District Council 37, to test the waters for longer term hybrid work for thousands of employees. It starts this month and will last through May 2025. “As we make this shift into a post-pandemic reality for offices, we must do it in a thoughtful way in partnership with our union leaders,” Adams said in a statement. Exactly how many employees will be eligible isn’t totally clear yet, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. But more than 30 agencies will be involved. The mayor has long criticized remote work, even as his city scrambles to fill tens of thousands of vacant jobs. He shifted his stance on the issue slightly earlier this year when he included a committee to explore flexible work options in the $4.4 billion deal with DC 37. — Zachary Schermele
| 
A chart from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released June 1, 2023, shows the financial picture of New York City | New York State Comptroller's Office | BUDGET OUTLOOK: The city’s short-term bottom line is looking a little better, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. Better than anticipated tax revenue, along with cost-cutting measures, will provide some much-needed cushion for now. Plus, $3 billion in taxes will help the city prepay a portion of spending for the next fiscal year. And though they came with big price tags, recent labor agreements with DC 37 and the Police Benevolent Association have cleared up major sources of financial uncertainty. Make no mistake, though — there’s still a lot that’s unknown about how the city’s finances will shape up over the next few years. “Still, the city faces considerable challenges, including costs to assist asylum seekers and fiscal cliffs for several programs,” DiNapoli said in a statement. Also unresolved are questions about how the just-passed City Council bills that would expand access to housing vouchers will affect the city budget. Members of the Council, where the measures have broad support, say the legislative package will ultimately save the city money. The mayor disagrees. — Zachary Schermele CORRECTION CONFLICT: Adams doubled down on his support for Correction Commissioner Louis Molina on Thursday, seemingly undaunted by the bombshell federal monitor report released last week that called into question Molina’s leadership abilities. “He’s been an amazing commissioner,” Adams said at an unrelated event in Brooklyn. “Whatever he needs to do, not violating any laws, he can do.” The mayor credited Molina with turning things around in the city’s jails and decreasing violence. The special report, however, from federal monitor Steven Martin detailed five “serious and disturbing” violent incidents in recent weeks. In one case, an inmate was left paralyzed from the neck down. Another incident put a detainee on life support. “The issues raised in this special report raise profound uncertainties and significant questions about whether the Commissioner and agency officials are capable of managing such serious incidents,” the monitor wrote. — Zachary Schermele
| | | | A message from Airlines for America: Did you know? U.S. airlines are proud to employ their largest workforce in more than 20 years – 800,000 workers strong! We are constantly working to secure a pipeline of new employees – pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and others – and strengthening our recruiting efforts to ensure we have the right people in the right place to meet the growing demand for air transportation across the country and around the globe. This is why U.S. airlines are investing heavily in our employees and offering quality jobs with wages above the U.S. private sector average. In 2022, airlines helped 50,000 new careers take off – and we are still hiring! Learn more about U.S. airline jobs at www.airlines.org/jobs. | | | | | On The Beats | | |  The debt ceiling deal is raising concern in New York over its impact on food insecurity. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | CHANGES TO FEDERAL AID PROGRAMS: The group No Kid Hungry New York expressed concerns about the deal President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached to raise the debt ceiling making policy changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Those changes include work reporting requirements for more adult participants. An estimated 45,000 New Yorkers are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits due to new restrictions and requirements, the group said. Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry New York, said nearly 3 million New Yorkers depend on SNAP to pay for groceries and “put food on the table.” “We all recognize the catastrophic impact of a default, but we are disappointed that this deal includes policy changes that harm people experiencing hunger and poverty,” Sabella said in a statement. “We shouldn’t be playing politics with programs that help Americans meet their basic needs.” The bill, she said, targets able-bodied adults without dependents, expanding the age bracket of those subject to work requirements to the age of 54. “While it does offer some exemptions for certain groups, including veterans, individuals aging out of foster care and those experiencing homelessness, helping one group while harming another isn’t an acceptable trade off,” she said. — Madina Touré INFANT MORTALITY: New York’s infant mortality rate dipped between 2016 and 2019 but not for Black babies, according to new data from the state Department of Health. Infant mortality rates, defined as the death of a baby before the age of one, increased slightly from 8.37 to 8.46 deaths per 1,000 live births among non-Hispanic Black babies during the three-year period. In the same time, the overall infant mortality rate fell by 12 percent. The leading cause of death, most of which occur within an infant’s first 28 days of life, was complications related to preterm birth and low birth weight, according to the data. — Maya Kaufman
| | — In the latest blow to transparency in city jails, the New York City Department of Correction will no longer notify the press when deaths happen behind bars. (THE CITY) — “City Hall continues to stonewall on migrant counts as calls for transparency grow” (WNYC) — Wastewater data shows COVID on the rise in NYC. (WNYC) — “At This Staten Island Garden, the Plants Are All Queer.” (The New York Times) | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
