Pat Ryan Explains His Foci
The Lookout asked Congressman Pat Ryan (D-NY-18) what he focuses on these days. These are his emailed responses.
TSL: What are your points of focus?
I’m fighting to deliver much-needed economic relief for Hudson Valley families struggling to make ends meet and to protect our fundamental American freedoms that are increasingly under attack. The number one point of concern I hear from Hudson Valley families is the cost of living. Lowering day to day costs for Orange County families is a top priority for me.
The MTA recently voted to pass its absolutely unacceptable, uninformed, and unfair congestion pricing plan that will penalize hardworking Hudson Valley families $15 per day just to go to work. From day one, I’ve called for the MTA to listen to the Hudson Valley voices that it has ignored for decades, even holding my own public hearing when the MTA refused to hold one in the Hudson Valley. I’m going to keep pressuring the MTA on this. Their plan, which doesn’t have carve outs for commuting public servants or any commitment to investing in service improvements in the Hudson Valley, is just detached from reality.
We’re in a housing crisis here in the Hudson Valley, and I’m proud that two of my community funded projects this year are for housing creation here in Orange County. I secured $1 million for the Rumshock Veterans Foundation to build ten homes in Port Jervis for unhoused veterans and $1 million for the Chester Agricultural Center’s farmworker housing project. I will continue working to lower the cost of housing and bring more affordable housing opportunities here to the Hudson Valley.
I’m also fighting to lower bills for Hudson Valley families - from internet bills to healthcare costs.
There are over 46,000 families in NY-18 who rely on the Affordable Connectivity Program for critical internet access, but funding for that program is now running out. I’ve heard from families who won’t be able to keep in touch with loved ones, pay online bills, or access telehealth services without the ACP. I’ve made repeated calls and signed onto legislation to call for continued full funding of the ACP and will not relent in that fight.
Making quality healthcare more affordable for Hudson Valley families is also crucial. Last year, JT Crawford, a 15 year old freshman at Pine Bush High School, and his mom Jillian, traveled down to my office in DC. It was hands down one of the most meaningful and impactful meetings I’ve ever had. JT told me about all of the challenges he’s had to fight through dealing with type 1 diabetes, how it’s affected every aspect of his life; how he hates the fact that kids like him, that already have so much on their plate, have the added stress on themselves and their families of affording insulin and other medications that are literally life or death for them.
No 15-year old should have to worry about this. No family should have to worry about this.
But the more my team and I dug into this issue, the more furious I got. Right now, the average American pays $1300 per year on prescription drugs. Families facing serious health issues like JT’s are paying two or three times that — seniors, even more. At the same time, Big Pharma corporations across America are making record-breaking profits – $110B in the last year alone.
That’s why I proudly introduced landmark legislation – the “Stopping Pharma’s Ripoffs and Drug Savings For All Act,” – that will dramatically lower the costs of prescription drugs for millions of Americans, including JT’s family, and finally start to check the power of these huge corporate monopolies.
I’m also committed to making sure that Hudson Valley families have easy access to the services, benefits, and assistance they rely on. That’s why I rolled out my Constituent Advocacy Resources Empowerment Services (CARES) Van to bring help with federal agencies directly to Hudson Valley families right in their own neighborhoods. My team has visited every one of the 82 municipalities in NY-18 with the Van, helping us return nearly $24.5 million in federal dollars owed to NY-18 residents. The CARES Van was also instrumental in bringing together community partners to deliver aid and resources to last July’s flood victims directly in their communities and has been key to making sure that veterans and seniors can easily access benefits like Social Security and VA benefits.
2. What particular challenges is the Congressman addressing now or will be addressing, particularly relating to Port Jervis, Warwick, and Orange County? 3. What specific goals does the Congressman have?
Some of my main points of focus and goals in Orange County are ensuring that every community has access to clean drinking water, supporting our local first responders, especially in their fight against the opioid epidemic, and helping our local economies thrive.
Every Hudson Valley family deserves to know that the water coming out of the faucet is safe to drink. Warwick, Cornwall-on-Hudson, and Middletown were among the communities that I secured community project funding for, with each receiving nearly $1 million for major water infrastructure projects critical to preserving clean drinking water access for families.
We’re also facing the emerging threat of PFAS contamination in everything from water to household items across the country. Orange County has been hit particularly hard by this danger due to contamination at Stewart Air National Guard Base. Exposure to the toxic “forever chemicals” has been linked to serious health risks and I introduced the PFAS Action Act, the most comprehensive PFAS legislation in history, to crackdown on PFAS exposure risks. The EPA recently announced that it is implementing a major part of my bill by creating a national standard for the amount of PFAS in drinking water. That is going to help reduce PFAS exposure for over 100 million Americans, including families in Newburgh and New Windsor exposed by the contamination at Stewart. This was a huge first step, but I’m going to keep pressing to get every part of the PFAS Action Act passed into law. I’ve also made repeated calls for the Department of Defense to conduct and expedite the full clean up of PFAS contamination at Stewart Air National Guard Base and the surrounding Newburgh and New Windsor communities.
Unfortunately, that is not the only emerging environmental threat posing health hazards to Orange County families. Last summer, the Wall Street Journal dropped bombshell reporting on how major telecommunications companies are allowing a network of decrepit, lead-sheathed cables to shed the toxin into the environment, including above a playground in the Hudson Valley. I immediately called on the multi-billion dollar corporations to be held accountable, to clean up the mess they made, and to foot the bill for it. Since then, I’ve heard from Orange County families who were literally stumbling over these abandoned cables because the corporations won’t even publicly disclose the locations of the cables. I joined with local advocates and officials in Cornwall-on-Hudson to clean up the cables that they found and to, again, call on the corporations to be held accountable. I’ll keep that pressure up until Hudson Valley families are safe from lead exposures.
Our first responders undertake huge risks to keep our families safe and I’m working every day to ensure they have the resources they need. Last year, I secured $300,000 in federal grant funding for the Middletown Police Department and am pushing for legislation that expands the grant programs available to local law enforcement, especially for departments that serve smaller and rural communities. I’m proud that one of my first votes in Congress was to pass the Invest to Protect Act of 2022 to better fund the local law enforcement workforce.
I’m also working to make sure our first responders are fully supported in every respect, including after they hang up their uniforms. Last year, I joined with Hudson Valley fire departments to unveil my Fighting for Firefighters Plan to ensure that our firefighters and their families get the benefits they deserve, while at the same time increasing federal funding for local departments. As a member of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, I’m proud to also cosponsor the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act, the Federal Firefighter Cancer Detection and Prevention Act, the Federal Firefighters Pay Equity Act, and the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2023.
The opioid epidemic has taken a tragic toll on Hudson Valley families, and our first responders have been on the frontline. I’ve made repeated calls for increased funding to combat the epidemic within our communities, and also to prevent illicit fentanyl from reaching our communities in the first place. I was proud to secure $125,000 for the Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition to combat youth drug use in Warwick schools and cosponsor numerous bills like the Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act and the END FENTANYL Act to stop illicit fentanyl trafficking at its sources.
As a former small business owner, I know the hard work and dedication that it takes to sustain and grow a business. Our family-owned businesses and farms are the drivers of our local economies and I’m fighting day in and day out to secure federal funds to help grow our local economies, like the $70,000 I delivered for the Hudson Valley Regional Council to grow emerging sectors like advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and technology.
We’ve seen historic investments in our manufacturing sector and infrastructure with bills like the Chips Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Inflation Reduction Act and I’ve been fighting to bring those investments back to NY-18 to create jobs. Just last year, I secured Inflation Reduction Act funding for Port Jervis to employ high schoolers for a Youth Tree Corps and nearly $600,000 in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for Safe Streets projects in Warwick and Goshen.
9 out of 10 NY-18 farms are small, family-owned operations and too often, they’ve been left out to dry by past Farm Bills. I spent last summer touring small farms to hear directly from them about how I can deliver for them in the Farm Bill. Maria from my team regularly meets with the Orange County Farm Bureau to make sure we’re aware of their needs real-time and working together efficiently.
I’ll keep working every day to make sure that all sectors of the Orange County economy have the federal resources they need to continue to thrive.
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