The following questions were sent to Sen. Felder’s office over recent days. As of the time of this posting, no answers had been received. Any responses from Mr. Felder’s office received subsequent to this posting will be added to this blog.
(1) Question on the New York Health Act – On 5.30, Nick Loss-Eton, one of Sen. Felder’s constituents in the 17th district, sent the following email to Sen. Felder’s legislative director, Bryan Best:
Hi Bryan – I’m a middle class freelancer and I support single payer health care for NY State, especially during a time when the ACA (on which I rely) is threatened.
What is Senator Felder’s position? I am disturbed that he declined to do an interview with the Village Voice and is not responsive about his policy positions in the press or with his constituents.
Loss-Eton said he did not receive an answer from the office.
In his email, Loss-Eton referenced an article published in the Village Voice on May 25 concerning Mr. Felder’s approach to the New York Health Act. It included the following:
The Village Voice has been reaching out to Felder, the pivotal vote on the New York Health Act. Where does he stand on the bill? As a member of the senate’s health committee, surely he has an opinion…For two weeks, the Voice called Felder’s office at least a dozen times, and each time his staff insisted they would “get back to us” if we left our number. We decided to drive up I-87 to Albany and find Felder ourselves, to try to get some sort of comment — to find out whether he was undecided, opposed, or in favor. Anything on the record would have been appreciated.
Felder remained mostly on the senate floor on Monday afternoon, speaking with aides while seated on the Republican side of the chamber. Visits to his nearby office ended with “no comment” from his aides, who said they would speak to the senator about our questions. The Voice resumed its vigil of the senate floor, hoping to talk to Felder about his position during a break in the session. Perhaps Felder had been alerted to our presence — when the break came, he quickly left the senate floor and retreated to his office. When we knocked, we were told he was unavailable.
(2) Question re: Felder’s approach to the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) – In an email, a constituent of Mr. Felder’s summarized the following question she asked his office:
I called Felder’s Albany office on May 24 to ask about his letter to the IDC and what it meant. The staffer who answered said he didn’t really know. I asked if this meant Felder would rejoin the Democratic Party. He didn’t know but said he would pass my comments on to the senator, took my name and number, and said someone would get back to me. Of course, no one has.
The constituent was referencing a May 24 letter (published by The New York Times) that Mr. Felder wrote to Sen. Jeffrey Klein, who leads the IDC.
Mr. Felder’s letter was itself a response to the IDC’s recent call for “all elected Democrats to sign a pledge, become sponsors, and help enact progressive legislation before this legislative session ends.”
Specifically, the IDC called for passage of “the Reproductive Health Act, the DREAM Act, GENDA, protecting Title X funding, public campaign finance, single-payer health care and the Contraceptive Care Act.”
The eight Democratic members of the IDC currently caucus with the Senate Republicans, keeping the Senate under Republican control.
In a related article, the Times reported the following concerning Felder’s letter to Klein:
The call for a breakaway faction of Democrats in the State Senate to abandon its Republican allies and rejoin the party’s fold picked up a surprising supporter on Wednesday: Senator Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who also sides with the Republicans.
Mr. Felder sent a letter urging Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, the leader of the faction, the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference, to “unconditionally and publicly rejoin the Democrats.”
The letter, dated Wednesday, was all the more striking because it came from Mr. Felder, who, within days of being elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2012, declared that he would caucus with the Republicans.
It was unclear whether Mr. Felder’s call for the Independent Democratic Conference to reunite with the mainline Democrats would mean that he, too, would consider leaving the Republican conference. But his letter articulated a frustration with the tactics of the Independent Democratic Conference, which has grown in size and influence in recent months.
In his letter to Klein, Mr. Felder wrote the following:
“Although I am no longer a practicing CPA, it would make more sense for your 25% [of Senate members] to rejoin the rest of the Democrats rather than everyone else join you and support issues you deem a priority. Who are you to decide what the legislative priorities are for loyal Democrats across New York State? While I concur with you that the Democrats must work together to confront challenges ahead for New York, there are many such issues that you have failed to include in your so-called Unity Pledge.”
“I would welcome unity,” Mr. Felder’s letter concluded, “if it effectuates my priority to have the greatest positive impact on my constituents and all New Yorkers.”
(3) Questions re: New York Health Act, Bag Fees, and bill to force release of Trump tax returns – On 5.30, John V. Santore, a constituent of Mr. Felder’s, emailed the following questions to Mr. Felder’s office:
1) Does Mr. Felder have a position on the New York Health Act? If not, what specific information does he want to learn before he takes a position on the bill?
2) Does Mr. Felder have a position on S5572? (text of the bill: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2017/s5572/amendment/a) If he does not have a position on the legislation, can you explain why?
3) Is Sen. Felder involved in any way with the New York State Plastic Bag Task Force, and if so, what is his involvement with the group? Does he have any comment on the Task Force’s work so far?
A response was not immediately received.
– Posted by John V. Santore
Felder Tracker 