State Senator Pat Fahy warns New York is facing threats from Washington's new agenda.
After her tenure in the state Assembly, New York state Senator Pat Fahy has represented the 46th district since January, which coincides with executive orders and funding cut proposals by President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans who control the Congress.
"Constituents are coming up to me with tears in their eyes over some of the losses and some of the fear," said Fahy. "Some of whom have been federal workers and lost their jobs with no notice. I am trying to show up to every rally, including the Ukraine one last Sunday, I'm trying to show up to every rally. I'm using my social media. I've restarted a podcast I had done six years ago, pre-COVID, but this time, the focus of the podcast will be federal. It is on federal actions and cuts and what the local impact is."
Fahy says she fears changing federal policies will make life harder for New Yorkers.
“I think we're going to see our farmers hurt in a big way, the fact that the RNA Institute, that this is when they're hiring their graduate fellows for summer internships," Fahy said. "This is when they're getting, they're gearing up for the grants for planning for the summer and next year, and now all those grants are on hold, let alone will be cut. So that's serious, serious research. Remember, it's RNA. It's their work that was a part of some of the COVID vaccine discoveries and as well as muscular dystrophy, diabetes and other things they're doing. Important research. Those investments matter. So to see this at the local level is quite disturbing.”
Fahy also expects the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico will have a far-reaching impact, from consumers to the state budget.
"That is going to dramatically increase, even the cost of a can of beer," said Fahy. "Because we import so much of our aluminum from Canada, we import our lumber, that's going to increase the price of housing even more, and that indirectly, is fueling the homeless crisis. So yeah, it's drinking from a fire hose right now. Yes, federal actions are having a very serious local impact, and if we start to see tens of millions, if not well, billions cut in Medicaid, as is proposed right now by the Trump administration, we can't backfill that.”
Fahy says Trump's tariffs and the price of eggs just may be the tip of the iceberg.
"The price of eggs had come up repeatedly during the campaign, because eggs were really rising, and it was not getting the attention that there was the bird flu, fueling the egg shortage all of last year. That has only gotten worse. And of course, the price of eggs has gotten worse as well. But he conveniently continues to blame that on the Biden administration. And he is cutting the FDA, the Federal Drug Administration, slots, cutting anyone who's been hired in the last two years. Cutting slots throughout the federal government, cutting workers. So the idea of not doing even, or doing even less inspections, can make us less safe. And the fact that we are eliminating, are starting to see a chilling effect on vaccines, we are only going to see more spread of disease beyond the bird flu, right? We're seeing an outbreak of measles in Texas, in Kansas and others, our worst outbreak in decades and decades. So how any of that is going to keep our people safer, children safer, and then our food supply safer is beyond me," Fahy said.
