Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a preview of his 2019 agenda, laid out an ambitious plan to counteract actions by President Trump and his policies, including strengthening abortion rights, expanding voter access and legalizing marijuana.
Cuomo, in a speech at the New York City Bar Association outlining what he calls his “aggressive progressive” agenda for New York, says he was inspired by FDR’s pledge to make big changes in his first 100 days in office as president.
“We have a president who simply doesn’t believe in FDR’s famous Four Freedoms,” said Cuomo, referring to Roosevelt’s speech on January 6, 1941. “And is affirmatively creating fear and want and stifling freedom of speech and worship.”
The governor says by the end of January, he wants to codify the abortion rights in Roe v Wade into state law a bill that has been stalled for years. He also wants to put in state statue the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and he says he will seek protections against discrimination for transgender New Yorkers, as well as right inequities in the criminal justice system by legalizing recreational marijuana.
Cuomo says while a newly Democratically-controlled state legislature will aid him in his goals, he still expects that there will be “adversity” and that some lawmakers will try to preserve the status quo.
He also chided advocates who want the state to spend billions more dollars on schools to fulfill a 12-year-old court order, calling the high court decision a “ghost of the past.”
