May, 16 2019, 12:00am EDT
15 Progressive Groups Send Letter to NYS Assembly Speaker Heastie Urging Passage of TRUST Act to Get Trump's Tax Returns
Coalition Continues Massive Constituent Call Campaign to Support TRUST Act, Generating Over 2,100 Calls in 10 Days
New York
Today, a coalition of local and national organizations led by Stand Up America has sent a letter to New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie urging him to swiftly pass the TRUST Act (A7194) and send it to Governor Cuomo's desk to be signed into law. The coalition of progressive organizations is urging the Assembly to immediately pass this critical piece of legislation that would allow the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to cooperate with ongoing congressional investigations into President Trump and his various financial entanglements by providing his state tax returns to Congress.
The letter comes after Stand Up America and its coalition partners drove more than 2,100 calls from constituents in 10 days to state lawmakers urging them to support the legislation in conference ahead of a floor vote. The coalition's grassroots campaign has included constituent calls, digital ads, and lobbying efforts in Albany.
"The undersigned organizations, on behalf of our members and communities, urge you to work with your conference to swiftly pass the New York State TRUST Act (A7194) in the Assembly and send it to Governor Cuomo's desk to be signed into law," wrote the coalition in its letter to Heastie. "This bill is a critical piece of legislation that would not only allow Congress to investigate President Trump and his various financial entanglements, but would also allow the American people to hold him accountable for his deeply troubling conflicts of interests."
The campaign will continue until the TRUST Act reaches Governor Cuomo's desk. Read the full letter here and below.
Additional Background: The TRUST Act requires the commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to cooperate with investigations by certain committees of the United States Congress. The law would require the Department to provide state tax returns and other return information upon written request from the chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation. The congressional request must be made for a specific and legitimate legislative purpose and the committee must have requested the related federal tax information from the Internal Revenue Service pursuant to 26 U.S.C. SS 6103(f)--the same law Chairman Neal used to request Trump's tax returns from the IRS. Once obtained, the congressional committee can review and release the tax returns to Congress consistent with federal law.
# # #
To Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie,
As Speaker of the New York State Assembly, you have the power and duty to champion legislation that is in the best interest of New Yorkers and the American people at large. In this perilous political moment for our country, we need your leadership and courage now more than ever.
At every turn, President Trump and his administration have ignored democratic norms of transparency and attempted to hide the truth from the American people. Today, the administration is illegally blocking congressional requests for Trump's personal and business tax returns and stymieing the progress of numerous investigations into his conflicts of interest.
While the House Ways and Means Committee attempts to force Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Internal Revenue Service to comply with the request for President Trump's tax returns, we believe it is imperative that you pursue every available avenue for obtaining and publicly disclosing President Trump's state tax returns.
To that end, the undersigned organizations, on behalf of our members and communities, urge you to work with your conference to swiftly pass the New York State TRUST Act (A7194) in the Assembly and send it to Governor Cuomo's desk to be signed into law.
This bill is a critical piece of legislation that would not only allow Congress to investigate President Trump and his various financial entanglements, but would also allow the American people to hold him accountable for his deeply troubling conflicts of interests.
We firmly believe that it is in the public's interest to ensure that any elected official, especially the President of the United States, pays their fair share and is free of financial and business entanglements that may influence his or her decisions in office. Your support for the New York State TRUST Act and your commitment to pushing it through the Assembly would ensure that President Trump cannot continue obscuring the truth from lawmakers or the public.
We look forward to your response and to your swift action on this matter.
Sincerely,
Stand Up America
Co-Signed By The Following Organizations:
32BJ SEIU
Americans for Tax Fairness
Citizen Action of New York
Common Cause New York
CREDO
Empire State Indivisible
Equal Justice Society
Persist NY
Public Citizen
Rise and Resist
Rockland United
Strong Economy for All Coalition
Tax March
Working Families Party
LATEST NEWS
Container Ship That Destroyed Baltimore Bridge Has Troubled History
The Maersk-chartered MV Dali—which lost propulsion just before the collision—not only was involved in a previous crash, but was also briefly detained last year over problems with its propulsion system.
Mar 26, 2024
The mega-container ship that lost propulsion before toppling Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in a Tuesday morning collision was involved in a previous crash, and was cited last year for propulsion-related problems.
Newsweekreported that the Maersk Line Limited-chartered MV Dali—which crashed into the Interstate 695 Patapsco River crossing just before 1:30 am, causing the span to collapse and sending a construction crew into the water—collided with a wall in the harbor at Antwerp, Belgium in 2016. The accident, which was reported by Vessel Finder and other outlets at the time, was attributed to errors made by the ship's master and pilot.
The 9-year-old Dali was also detained by port officials in San Antonio, Chile last June after inspectors discovered a problem related to the vessel's "propulsion and auxiliary machinery," according toThe Washington Post, which cited records from the intergovernmental shipping regulator Tokyo MOU.
The ship's owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and operator, Synergy Marine, "have been sued at least four times in U.S. federal court on allegations of negligence and other claims tied to worker injuries on other ships owned and operated by the Singapore-based companies," according toThe Associated Press.
Maersk was also sanctioned last year by the U.S. Labor Department for allegedly stopping employees from reporting safety concerns, documents published by The Lever revealed.
According to a July 14, 2023 Labor Department letter to Maersk regarding an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation, the Danish company "suspended and then terminated" a worker "in retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions and contacting the U.S. Coast Guard."
The fired employee "engaged in numerous protected activities" including reporting a leak and the need for repairs to a ship's cargo hold bilge system, alcohol use aboard the vessel by crew members, and inoperable equipment including an emergency fire pump and lifeboat block and releasing gear.
The search for six construction workers who were on the bridge when it collapsed into the river was suspended until Wednesday, according toThe Associated Press. The workers are presumed dead by their employer, Brawner Builders. Local media reported that multiple vehicles plunged into the river and that two workers—one of whom was briefly hospitalized—were rescued from the water.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Pentagon Urged to Just Say No to AI-Powered Killer Robots
"The Department of Defense should declare its opposition to the development and deployment of autonomous weapons."
Mar 26, 2024
The watchdog group Public Citizen on Tuesday led a letter urging Pentagon leaders "to clarify that the Replicator Initiative will not involve the development and deployment of autonomous weapons systems," also known as "killer robots."
Last September, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks "asserted that the development of all-domain, attributable autonomy systems (ADA2) is an essential way for the Pentagon to maintain its comparative cutting-edge and keep up with the technological advancements of other states," notes the letter, which was addressed to her and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
"However, those comments failed to specify whether or not supporting autonomous weapons systems is one of the key focuses of this initiative," the letter stresses. "When addressing whether or not 'ADA2 means weapons systems,' Secretary Hicks stated: 'That's a serious question to be sure. They are not synonymous. There are many applications for ADA2 systems beyond delivering weapons effects.'"
"Autonomous weapons are inherently dehumanizing and unethical, no matter whether a human is 'ultimately' responsible for the use of force or not."
Public Citizen and the 13 other organizations argued that "this is no place for strategic ambiguity. Autonomous weapons are inherently dehumanizing and unethical, no matter whether a human is 'ultimately' responsible for the use of force or not."
Deploying lethal weapons that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) "in battlefield conditions necessarily means inserting them into novel conditions for which they have not been programmed, an invitation for disastrous outcomes," the groups warned. "'Swarms' of the sort envisioned by Replicator pose even heightened risks, because of the unpredictability of how autonomous systems will function in a network. And the mere ambiguity of the U.S. position on autonomous weapons risks spurring a catastrophic arms race."
"We believe the Department of Defense should declare its opposition to the development and deployment of autonomous weapons," the coalition concluded. "However, even if you are not prepared to make that declaration, we strongly urge you to clarify that the Replicator Initiative will not employ autonomous weapons."
In addition to Public Citizen, the coalition included the American Friends Service Committee, Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, Backbone Campaign, Demand Progress Education Fund, Fight for the Future, Future of Life, National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, RootsAction.org, United Church of Christ, the Value Alliance, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom U.S., Win Without War, and World Beyond War.
The letter comes on the heels of Public Citizen releasing a report about the rise of killer robots, AI Joe: The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence and the Military.
The February report addresses the Pentagon's AI policy, the dangers of killer robots, the need to ensure decisions about nuclear weapons aren't made by automated systems, how artificial intelligence can increase not diminish the use of violence, risks of using deepfakes on the battlefield, and how AI startups are seeking government contracts.
The publication concludes with recommendations that Public Citizen president Robert Weissman echoed in a statement Tuesday.
"The United States should state plainly that it will not create or deploy killer robots and should work to advance global treaty negotiations to ban such weapons," Weissman said. "At minimum, the United States should commit that the Replicator Initiative will not involve the use of autonomous weapons."
"Ambiguity about the Replicator program essentially ensures a catastrophic arms race over autonomous weapons," he added. "That's a race in which all of humanity is the loser."
Keep ReadingShow Less
12 Palestinians Drown Trying to Retrieve Airdropped Gaza Aid From Sea
One campaigner called the incident "another deadly example of why airdrops are not the answer to famine in Gaza."
Mar 26, 2024
Human rights defenders on Tuesday pointed to the drowning deaths of 12 Palestinians trying to retrieve humanitarian aid parcels airdropped off the Gaza shore as yet another reason why Israel must stop blocking aid from entering the embattled strip by land.
Video published on social media shows Palestinians running toward the Mediterranean Sea in Beit Lahia as aid parcels parachute downward. Eyewitness Abu Mohammad toldCNN that the people who drowned "don't know how to swim."
"There were strong currents and all the parachutes fell in the water," Mohammad said. "People want to eat and are hungry. I haven't been able to receive anything."
Ramy Abdu, chair of the Geneva-based group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, said that some of the victims died after becoming entangled in parachute ropes.
BREAKING| 9 Palestinians drowned and 5 others missing in the Sea of Gaza while trying to get humanitarian airdrop aid due to falling into the sea. pic.twitter.com/tSPpbrKsTg
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) March 26, 2024
According to the U.S. military—which along with Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Singapore has been airdropping aid into Gaza—parachute malfunctions caused three of the 80 parcels dropped to land in the sea. The Pentagon did not say which country carried out the drop.
Earlier this month, five children were crushed to death and numerous other Palestinians were injured by U.S.-airdropped parcels on which the parachutes apparently malfunctioned.
The airdrops come amid widespread and increasingly deadly starvation in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been accused of using hunger as a weapon of war. Last month, Michael Fakhri, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, called Israel's forced starvation of Gazans part of "a situation of genocide" in the besieged enclave, where more than 114,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since October 7 and around 2 million people out of a population of 2.3 million have been forcibly displaced.
While Israel claims there are no limits on aid entering Gaza by land, Israeli officials said Monday that United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East trucks would be blocked from entering northern Gaza. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked aid convoys and their police escorts, forcing UNRWA to suspend humanitarian deliveries.
Israeli forces have also on several occasions attacked starving Palestinians as they desperately attempt to get food for their families, including in the February 29 "
Flour Massacre" that left more than 870 Gazans dead or wounded.
Also blocking humanitarian aid from reaching starving Palestinians are Israeli civilians who have camped at border crossings to prevent convoys from entering Gaza. Last month, right-wing extremists set up a giant inflatable children's bouncy castle where aid trucks are meant to pass through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in an effort to lend a festive atmosphere to the action.
Medical Aid for Palestinians, a London-based humanitarian group, said Tuesday that "airdrops will not end famine and are a dangerous proposed 'solution.'"
Palestinians in Gaza expressed similar sentiments.
"We call for the opening of the crossings in a proper fashion," Mohammad told CNN, "but these humiliating methods are not acceptable."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular