WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?—Rep. Lawler Gets an Earful from Constituents at First In-Person Town Hall All Year
Protestors Demand Rep. Lawler Choose Constituents Over Toeing the Party Line
WEST NYACK, NEW YORK — Yesterday, as Congressman Mike Lawler held his first in-person town hall meeting of the year, a coalition of grassroots organizations, labor unions, activists, and concerned NY-17 constituents held a rally and protest outside the West Nyack venue. The long-awaited event comes after months of sustained pressure from Hudson Valley and Westchester residents, as Rep. Lawler continued to dodge face-to-face meetings with his constituents. While the people of his district held empty-chair town halls in his absence, the Congressman stuck to the safety of highly controlled environments where questions could be screened and pre-approved.
A coalition of grassroots organizations, labor unions, activists, and concerned NY-17 constituents held a rally and protest outside Rep. Lawler's first in-person town hall of the year. | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
Standing outside the venue, protesters took turns expressing their frustrations with Rep. Lawler’s recent votes in Congress, which have seen the self-proclaimed ‘moderate’ abandon Hudson Valley communities in favor of toeing the party line. Most recently, Rep. Lawler voted to advance the Republican budget plan, which authorized a more than $5.3 trillion extension of tax cuts primarily benefitting the wealthy while slashing $1.5 trillion in funding for critical federal programs and services. While Rep. Lawler maintains that he will not support any cuts that would undermine programs like Medicare or Medicaid, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that the goals of the GOP plan will be impossible to achieve without serious cuts.
“Congressman Lawler has been twisting himself into knots, trying to claim that he’s not systematically attacking the life-saving safety nets that so many of his constituents rely on,” said Dylan Wheeler, NY-17 Regional Organizing Director for Empire State Voices. “But over the past few months, we’ve seen Rep. Lawler consistently vote to undermine programs like Medicaid and SNAP—programs that are widely supported by the people of his district—all in the service of delivering massive handouts to billionaires and corporations. New Yorkers are tired of politicians who only give them lip service, then turn around and work on behalf of the wealthy and special interests. Congressman Lawler needs to stop with the excuses and start fighting to protect the people of NY-17.”
Protesters took turns expressing their frustrations with Rep. Lawler’s recent votes in Congress, which have seen the self-proclaimed ‘moderate’ toeing the party line. | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
“We are here to push back against $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid that would cause real harm to real people,” said Maurice Larry, Political Organizer with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. “Whether it’s seniors, children, people with disabilities, or people working hard at low-wage jobs that don’t offer affordable insurance—we won’t leave our fellow New Yorkers behind. Healthcare workers and our communities will not allow life-saving care to be gutted to fund tax cuts for Trump’s cronies.”
“Medicaid cuts are not just a problem for recipients, but put in jeopardy the thousands of nurses and technologists that CWA represents across New York,” said Joe Mayhew, Secretary-Treasurer for Communications Workers of America Local 1103. “Hospitals in NY are currently only reimbursed at less than 70% of the cost of a Medicaid patient. If Rep. Mike Lawler and his colleagues succeed in cutting $880 billion from Medicaid, that rate will likely fall even lower, forcing hospitals to reduce healthcare staff, pass increased costs onto patients, and reduce or even cut services in rural areas. Cuts to Medicaid are everyone's problem.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that the goals of the GOP plan will be impossible to achieve without serious cuts to Medicare or Medicaid. | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
Serious frustrations were also levied against Congressman Lawler for what many claimed was his continued concessions to the excesses of the Trump administration. From education and reproductive rights to the most basic civil liberties, many of Lawler's constituents feel that he hasn’t been willing to stand up and defend the people and communities that he has sworn to represent.
“I’m here today to speak up for my community, for my country, for the black and brown working-class Americans like my family, whose livelihoods and whose very lives are being threatened by Donald Trump and his enablers. Enablers like Congressman Mike Lawler,” said Jennifer Cabrera, Chair of the Working Families Party Westchester-Putnam Chapter. “We’re all here today because we are outraged — outraged by the willful destruction of our social safety net, outraged by the chaotic dismantling of our civil institutions, outraged by the unending lies. But most of all, we are outraged by the disgraceful SILENCE of our congressional representative in the face of all these injustices.”
“NY-17 deserves a representative who tells the truth, listens to their community, and stands up for our values,” said Pasquale Jean-Gilles, Co-Chair of Indivisible Rockland. “We are proud to join the over 400 people today who rallied for no cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, women’s reproductive rights, and education.”
To learn more about Empire State Voices, please reach out to press@empirestatevoices.org
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About Empire State Voices
Empire State Voices (ESV) is a multi-year campaign dedicated to amplifying the voices of everyday working New Yorkers. ESV is fighting for economic policies that make life more affordable for constituents and holding members of Congress across the state accountable when they fail to do the same.
