Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush (R,C,I-Black River) and his Minority colleagues today called on the Speaker to allow individual women’s equality bills to be brought to the floor for a vote. In light of the Senate’s passage of eight bills separately, Blankenbush said the legislature should act now to accomplish important reforms for women.

“The Speaker must stop politicizing women’s equality and allow for each point to come to the floor for a vote, as the Senate did,” said Blankenbush. “Forcing all points into one omnibus bill means that real reform for women will again be delayed. In the end, I want to make sure that we deliver solutions to help end the discrimination, harassment and abuse of New York’s women.”

The Women’s Equality package has been introduced with some controversy. For the third year in a row, the Senate has voted on each point separately. Despite the Speaker’s reluctance to address the matter, the legislature was able to pass part of the package which addressed restraining orders. To many legislators, this proves there is no reason that action cannot be taken on the points individually.

Additionally, Assembly majority members have expressed interest in moving the legislation forward, as exampled by Assemblywoman Paulin’s bill and her push to address human trafficking. Paulin’s bill is one of the points of the Women’s Equality Agenda and has broad bi-partisan support.

“Let’s start the legislative session right and deliver this long overdue set of reforms to the women of this state by the end of this month. This is an opportunity to show that people come before politics,” concluded Blankenbush.