As a Member of the New York State Assembly, I serve on five committees where we host hearings, report on legislation, and meet and vote on whether to send bills to the Assembly floor: Banks; Children and Families; Local Governments; Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development; and Environmental Conservation. As part of this last one, I have the additional honor of chairing the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

This subcommittee allows me to seek accountability from the DEC, including reviewing and conducting hearings on the DEC’s usage of state funds and assessing New York’s existing environmental programs. As you may know, protecting our natural resources, including Lake Erie, and ensuring our environment doesn’t cause harm to those in our community is a top priority of mine. In addition to helping pass the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to combat climate change, sponsoring the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, and introducing a bill that would establish a committee to determine how to eliminate single use plastics, I’m working to make sure the DEC is upholding its mission, which is "To conserve, improve and protect New York's natural resources and environment and to prevent, abate and control water, land and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state and their overall economic and social well-being."

One issue I have begun working on affects the local staff of the DEC itself. Recently, I met with several local DEC employees and their union representatives from PEF Region 1 to discuss the safety of the Buffalo DEC office. A NYS Department of Health investigation more than six years ago found that the office has a “statistically significant higher than expected” number of brain cancer cases, with more workers diagnosed since. It was heartbreaking hearing from employees who have lost colleagues and friends to glioblastoma and who want nothing more than to ensure that no one else is exposed to whatever could be causing this cancer. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the DEC employees who are tasked with keeping us safe and our environment healthy are themselves kept safe and healthy in their own workplace.

Moving forward, I plan to use my role as Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight of the DEC to conduct hearings to gather testimony on issues such as toxic algae blooms, water quality, single use plastics, budget impacts, and other pressing environmental issues.

If you have questions about this or any other issue, please contact my office at (716) 608-6099 or BurkeP@nyassembly.gov.