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From Childish to Stirring in the Senate Chamber
July 17th, 2009

Yes, it is 3 a.m. and the Senate is still in session. Legislators are getting upset.Minority Leader Dean Skelos just told the chamber that he was entertaining the idea of moving to adjourn.

He said that he thought better of the idea out of respect for legislators who have been waiting all night (and morning) to see their legislation come to a vote.

Skelos complained that a number of Democrats are not present in the chamber.  Sens. Hiram Monserrate, Martin Dilan and Shirley Huntley have not been in the chamber for the last few votes. Four other Democrats haven’t been in session for various other reasons.  Republican Sen. Roy McDonald has missed some votes as well.

Sen. Jeffrey Klein then asked to get back to voting, seeing that Skelos  “withdrew his childish threat.”

Sen. Tom Duane, who has seen more than one bill he sponsored voted down this morning, started screaming at the chamber. “You think you can scare me?” he demanded. “You think you can make me back up? Nothing scares me!” he said as he described living through the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

Suddenly the weight of the responsibility the senate has been shirking for the last month became very real.

Duane is addressing a bill he sponsored that would regulate how much people living with HIV or AIDS have to pay for housing. The bill “Provides that persons living with clinical/symptomatic HIV or AIDS, and who are receiving shelter assistance or an emergency shelter allowance, shall not be required to pay more than 30% of the household’s monthly unearned and/or earned income towards shelter costs, including rent and utilities.”

Duane repeatedly dared the Republicans to vote his bill down. “No, you’re not killing my bill, you’re killing my people!” Duane shouted. Duane pledged to persevere even if the bill was defeated.

The chamber erupted into a standing ovation as Duane finished.

A number of Republicans stood to question the bill. Sen. James Alessi wondered whether the bill was fair because it didn’t apply to people with other maladies. He stressed that his vote wasn’t based on bias.  Sens. Liz Krueger, Eric Adams and Eric Schneiderman stood to counter Alessi’s argument.

Republican Sen. John DeFrancisco stood to say he would vote for the bill but he wanted to counter the idea he was voting yes because Duane had accused Republicans of trying to kill his bill, or to avoid embarrassment. “I don’t want anyone in the world to think I was being pushed to vote yes.” he said.

“We could have killed every single bill that came to the floor today. We didn’t do that,” DeFrancisco continued, pointing out how many Democrats were absent from the chamber.

Other Republicans said they took offense to Duane’s accusation that Republicans thought it would “be funny” to kill the bill.

The bill passed 52-1. Sen. Kemp Hannon provided the lone vote against the bill.

By David King on July 17, 2009, 3:01 am
In category: Albany, Eye on Albany | No Comments »

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