Earlier today, in the face of detrimental federal funding cuts, Governor Kathy Hochul today convened a cabinet meeting to discuss the impacts of President Trump’s “Big Ugly Bill” on New York State. The cuts imposed by Washington Republicans include an anticipated $13 billion being cut from New York’s health care system, 1.5 million New Yorkers being stripped of health insurance coverage, and more than 300,000 households projected to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits. In addition to assessing these and other impacts, Governor Hochul has directed State agencies to prepare comprehensive strategies to help limit the long-term damage to vital programs facing federal cuts.
VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).
AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.
PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good almost afternoon, everyone. We're here to discuss what just transpired at our cabinet meeting. We assembled some of the most significant minds, the thought leaders of our state, to address the headwinds that are heading our way. We talked about the “Big Ugly Bill,” the impact on New York, and we still have many unknowns and we cannot mask the consequences that this will have for our state.
First of all, it'll utterly destabilize our health insurance program — cuts of about $13 billion a year between New York State and our overall healthcare system. 1.5 million New Yorkers will be stripped of health insurance, something that many of us when we were in Congress fought for from the Affordable Care Act. It'll be cutting essential funding for hospitals and healthcare systems. And without a doubt, putting lives at risk. Medicaid is literally the lifeline for one in three New Yorkers. Cutting this essential healthcare doesn't keep people from getting sick. It doesn't stop babies from being born. It's simply saying you're on your own — tearing apart the safety net that people in this country have come to rely on throughout their lives. It'll be higher costs for our hospitals, a greater strain on them because people will have to go somewhere. And it doesn't just affect people on Medicaid. I want to be very clear about this: for those who say, “I'm not on Medicaid, it doesn't affect me when that hospital,” perhaps one of five in the North Country closes, you and your family don't have anywhere to go either if you have an accident, car accident, need some emergency treatments. They're not there for you either.
And so, in areas like that are rural parts of the state — and most of our state is rural — you have to drive a great distance to other hospitals if we start closing them down. Now, it's not just our health. That's the first impact, perhaps the most frightening. But also if we stop feeding people — three million people in the State of New York will have their food benefits jeopardized. They rely on this. They're receiving these benefits because they don't have an alternative, and it totally ignores the fact that so many people are already struggling. Tone deaf to what is happening among their own constituents. The people who voted for this, these seven New York Republicans who voted against their districts, now this is going to have economic harm in the SNAP benefits alone.
Think about our agricultural cultural community. The farmers, my God, the most resilient people on Earth had to be our farmers dealing with the winds and climate change and pests and tariffs, and now an outlet for them to be able to sell their products to. I was up in Saranac Lake at a farmer's market. The farmer there brought his crops in. I said, “Is this a big deal for you?” He says, “Look at how many stamps I collected.” This is critically important for him. He worries about the people who won't get the fresh produce, but he also knows this is going to hurt an important outlet for him.
So, the human toll of this is beyond unconscionable. It's an intentional infliction of pain on the people of this great state in our country. It is taking a wrecking ball to the lives of the most vulnerable. For what purpose? Why is this happening? To fund tax breaks for the most privileged, the wealthiest millionaires and billionaires who last eye check are doing just fine. They're not worried about a meal on their table or whether there's healthcare for their children.
What's really cynical about what they just did, they postpone some of the pain till later hoping that New Yorkers will have amnesia when it comes election time next year and will forget what they've unleashed on their own districts. I won't let them forget. They will not get away with this. New Yorkers will know who voted callously to disregard the needs of their district, their constituents, and there are consequences.
Now, the challenge that lies before us, and again, I want to acknowledge my team that's here. We're looking at a $750 million hit in the fourth quarter of this year, January till March, and a staggering $3 billion next year. That's why I've directed my agencies to identify creative strategies that'll limit long-term damage to vital programs. But also during our Budget process, we had some instinct that this would happen, something would happen. That's why we stopped $400 billion in spending. That was anticipated back during our budgeting process. That's why our one-time $3 billion inflation rebate is now a $2 billion inflation rebate — cutting a program that I believe in, but also trying to be cognizant of the fact that we may need that money for future challenges. Again, not knowing the details and truthfully, we don't have the full picture of what's going to happen because this is just reconciliation, which doesn't mean a lot to people — all they know is that this is going to be painful. But the Budget, that could even wreak more havoc on us, comes out this fall.
So, the clear scenario that shows us exactly what is happening is not there entirely, but we're prepared. As I said, we talked about this spring after the Trump election, and he started telegraphing what his intentions were. So, we've been ready, we're prepared, and I want people to know this. They have a state government filled with incredibly competent people who will get us through this. Unlike Republicans in Washington, we actually care about families, we worry about them, we stress about them, and we actually have something called compassion for those whose life has been hard. And I'll continue to make every New Yorker my top priority as we go through these storms.
I asked a number of members of my cabinet to join us here today. We have Secretary to the Governor, Karen Keogh; Kathryn Garcia, the Director of State Operations; Brian Mahanna, our Counsel to the Governor; Blake Washington, our Budget director, but I also invited people from the agencies. So, if you have questions about some of the impact on specific agencies. You can hear from Willow Baer, the Commissioner of the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities; Richard Ball, the Commissioner of Agriculture; Jackie Bray, the Commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services; Barbara Guinn, the Commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; Hope Knight, President of Empire State Development; Dr. James McDonald, the Commissioner of the Department of Health, and RuthAnne Visnauskas, the Director of Community Homes and Renewal Homes and Community Renewal.
They're here because they're the ones that are going to have to help us navigate these unchartered waters, these unnecessarily rough waters. But we're ready for this. We know how to do this. We've been through battles before. We've had challenges. I was Governor for just about two and a half months when Omicron hit, then we had inflation, then we had supply chain challenges. Then we had the migration wave of 220 some thousand people arriving in our state. So we're battle tested.
We're ready to lead. We have been leading, but I want you to have an opportunity to ask questions directly from the people that will be joining me in our efforts to just manage this crisis inflicted upon all of us from the President and the Republicans and the State of New York, who did not have the political courage to cast a vote against something that they knew would be devastating for their own districts.