Tenney Calls On Speaker Heastie to Pass Stronger Ethics Reforms Starting With Common Sense Assembly Rule Changes

Press Release

Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney (R, C-New Hartford) today wrote a letter to Speaker Carl Heastie calling on him to enact substantial reforms to the Assembly Rules which will lead to an open and accountable government.

"Restoring the public trust begins with real ethics reform through common sense changes to the Assembly Rules. The Assembly has not functioned as a true representative government under Silver's power. Now that the Silver-era has finally ended and he no longer serves as a member of the Assembly, Speaker Heastie must take this opportunity to enact Assembly Rules reforms that will empower individual members, strengthen the committee process and hold legislators accountable," said Tenney.

After Silver was arrested in January 2015, Assembly Republicans proposed a number of common sense Rules Reforms and general policy initiatives, but the proposals were voted down by every Democratic Assembly member with the exception of Mickey Kearns, from the Buffalo area.

Tenney has put forward a number of her own reforms to the Assembly Rules which would hold legislators accountable and restore Thomas Jefferson's ideal of the citizen-legislator:

Enact term limits on the Speaker and committee chairs to six (6) years.
Allocate all staff funding equally to each member of the Assembly, regardless of seniority. This will eliminate the Speaker's power use staff allocations to punish members who don't fall in line.
Empower the committee process by allowing standing committees to decide if bills should come to the floor for a vote, without interference from the speaker.
Require committees to have the autonomy to vet issues and to seek input from the public.
Prevent the Speaker from removing committee chairs for mere policy disagreements.
Require receipts for all per diems submitted by members before reimbursement.
Cut legislative pay in half by reducing the legislative session and closing session on April 1, instead of dragging it out until the end of June.
Enact term limits on legislators to Five (5) terms. This will begin the process of changing entrenched Albany interests and providing true citizen legislators.
The New York State Senate passed similar reforms to their Rules in 2009 to increase transparency and accountability. The Senate strengthened and opened the Committee process by enacting term limits on committee chairs, extending the committee process later into the session year, allowing committee chairs and ranking members to hire and fire their own staff, and requiring all committee meetings to be broadcast live from the website and archived in a way that is easily accessible to the public. They also now publish a list of bills for the next day by 8PM the prior evening or 2 hours after session ends, whichever is later.

Other legislation that should be enacted includes: The Public Officers' Accountability Act A. 4617, which Tenney co-sponsors, that would place term limits on legislative leaders and committee chairs, reform member items by requiring submission of a detailed report on requests for appropriations, establish a new committee to oversee all official government conduct, require an elected official convicted of a felony in relation to their official duties to forfeit all campaign contributions, prohibits campaign funds from being used for personal expenditures and would make failure to report corruption a crime.

The Assembly Republicans also propose a bill, A04643A, which Tenney sponsors, that would strip taxpayer funded pensions from those convicted of certain felonies while in office. Assembly Democrats did not let this bill come to the floor for a vote. Instead, they offered a watered-down version of this bill that would create a loophole allowing some legislators to still collect their tax-payer funded pensions even after being convicted of a felony.

"Corruption plagues Albany but we have another chance to enact serious common sense reforms and finally end the pay for play culture of our state government. The Assembly should follow in the footsteps of the Senate by enacting these reforms. New Yorkers deserve representatives who honestly and fairly advocate for their constituents. True leadership should empower individual members by encouraging them to stand up for the people they serve," said Tenney.

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