Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that members of New York’s Congressional Delegation – Representative Nydia Velázquez, Representative Thomas Suozzi, Representative Carolyn Maloney, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Representative Gregory Meeks, Representative Grace Meng, Representative Eliot Engel, Representative Paul Tonko, Representative José Serrano, Representative Joe Morelle, Representative Adriano Espaillat and Representative Yvette Clarke – will propose the ‘Americans First Law’ to help prevent corporate bailouts following the COVID-19 pandemic. First proposed by the Governor on May 10th, the law states that a corporation cannot be eligible to receive government funding if it doesn’t maintain the same number of employees that the corporation had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Governor also issued a joint statement with NGA Chair, Maryland Governor Hogan renewing the bipartisan call from the National Governors Association for unrestricted fiscal support for states in the next federal COVID-19 relief bill. The next bill should focus on funding state and local governments, working families, state testing and tracing efforts and a real economic stimulus with no handouts to corporations who do not protect their workers and only enrich executives or shareholders.
“This virus has taken a toll on all of us, but it has especially hurt working Americans and our front line workers – they are the ones who really need the financial help, not big businesses,” Governor Cuomo said. “I have spoken with a number of members of New York’s Congressional Delegation and they have agreed to propose the Americans First Law to stop bailouts of greedy corporations that are not protecting and rehiring their employees once they open back up.”
Finally, the Governor confirmed 1,430 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 338,485 confirmed cases in New York State.
