NY CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION STANDS UP FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR FAMILIES’ HEALTH ON A MAJORITY OF VOTES

Environment New York

New York, NY (Dec. 7, 2017) — Today, Environment New York released its federal scorecard evaluating how the New York congressional delegation has voted when it comes to supporting clean air, clean water and other environmental protections. Absences count against a member’s score. Heather Leibowitz, Director of Environment New York, released the following statement:

“The country is terribly polarized these days on all sorts of issues, including the need to protect our environment. It shouldn’t be this way and it didn’t used to be. Unfortunately, the New York delegation is no exception. 

“Overall, the U.S. Senate scored only 48% and the U.S. House of Representatives scored 45%, which does not bode well for our air or water.  The two senators from New York averaged 100% and our house members averaged 73%. So New York is well above the national average.

“We in New York can be proud that  12 members from both branches voted with us 100% of the time, which means our planet and our families are represented by a lot of real environmental champs. Real standouts from our delegation included the following Members: Representatives Kathleen Rice (D-NY-4), Grace Meng (D-NY-6), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY-7), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-8), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY-13), Joseph Crowley (D-NY-14), Jose Serrano (D-NY-15), Nita Lowey (D-NY-17), Paul Tonko (D-NY-20), Brian Higgins (D-NY-26), as well as Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).  

“We also had a few members who were willing to part with their Republican colleagues to protect the environment. Representatives Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21), John Faso (R-NY-19), and John Katko (R-NY-24) voted against limiting EPA’s ability to curb methane emissions. 

“But, unfortunately New York also had 7 members who voted with us less than 25% of the time, including Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1), Peter King (R-NY-2), Dan Donovan (R-NY-11), John Faso (R-NY-19), Claudia Tenney (R-NY-22), Tom Reed (R-NY-23), and Chris Collins (R-NY-27).

“The New York delegation is a mixed bag when it comes to the environment. Here’s hoping our Congresspeople uniformly start to show the kind of strong and effective leadership we need to reflect the core environmental values so many of us share.”