NYCLU On Passage of State Budget

ALBANY – Following Governor Hochul and the State Legislature’s passage of the FY 2027 state budget, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) released the following statements on select provisions and exclusions:

Anti-speech provisions that needlessly attack protest and activism: “After months of advocacy from the NYCLU and partners, we’re heartened Albany decided against an all-out buffer zone mandate,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director. “While it’s a relief that the new law does not establish automatic, demonstration-free buffer zones, its provisions nonetheless risk chilling speech at a time when New Yorkers are rightly participating in historic demonstrations. And delaying the state budget for months to negotiate New Yorkers’ fundamental rights behind closed doors is no way to govern. The NYCLU will closely monitor how this new law is enforced.”

Failure to pass the New York For All Act: “While it is meaningful that Albany has barred the most formal types of collusion between local law enforcement and ICE, this immigration package is far from enough and leaves immigrants vulnerable to ICE’s cruelty,” said Zach Ahmad, NYCLU senior policy counsel. “Despite ICE terrorizing our immigrant communities, Albany leaders chose a weakened proposal over the comprehensive, common sense measure right in front of them: the New York For All Act. We urge lawmakers to pass New York for All before the legislative session concludes to ensure immigrant New Yorkers have the protections they deserve.”

Dangerously insufficient funding for immigration legal counsel: “As federal immigration authorities aggressively ramp up arrests to meet cruel immigration quotas, it’s devastating that Albany denied immigrant communities appropriate funding for legal counsel,” said Zach Ahmad, NYCLU senior policy counsel. “For someone facing a potential deportation, legal representation is everything — whether or not your life will be uprooted, your family will separate, or a loved one will be sent somewhere dangerous. But all hope isn’t lost: New York lawmakers could pass the Access to Representation Act and the BUILD Act to ensure legal funding is guaranteed into law. Access to a lawyer should never be incumbent on how much money someone has in their pocket, or political winds.”

Failing to meet the moment for trans New Yorkers: “As the Trump administration continues to pose an existential threat to the transgender community, we are profoundly disappointed that the FY2027 New York State budget invests zero state dollars to support access to the health care many transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and intersex people rely on to live in their bodies with dignity and health — a complete failure to meet the moment,” said Allie Bohm, NYCLU senior policy counsel. “We urge our lawmakers and the Governor to take urgent action to restore New York’s reputation as a beacon for gender-affirming care access by codifying New York’s insurance coverage requirement for gender-affirming care, strengthening our health care anti-discrimination laws, enacting robust health privacy protections both for electronic health records and for consumer health data, and advancing hospital transparency.”

Rolling back key environmental protections: “The CLCPA is a critical safeguard against environmental racism. At a time when the Trump administration is determined to erase hard-won environmental progress, our state must strengthen its commitment to protecting disadvantaged communities, not retreat from it.  The Governor’s rollbacks are an affront to Black and Brown communities that have long borne the brunt of pollution and rely on these protections,” said Lanessa Owens-Chaplin, director of the NYCLU’s Racial Justice Center. “Black and Brown New Yorkers cannot be treated as an afterthought in the fight for climate justice. We will continue to fight to uphold the promise of the CLCPA.”

Expanding access to childcare: “This budget includes unprecedented investments to make child care more accessible to New York families. We are pleased to see leaders in Albany recognize child care as an essential building block for thriving families and communities,”  said Jenna Lauter, NYCLU policy counsel. “But there is still a long way to go to build towards an equitable universal child care system, including further investment to ensure that low-income children do not continue to languish on waitlists for subsidized care, as well as support for the child care workforce, which is largely women of color and severely underpaid. While this budget is a historic step towards expanding access to care, we must prioritize the needs of New York’s most marginalized families as we purposefully move towards a truly universal system.”

For more detail on the NYCLU’s policy positions, please see here.