Labeling it monumental and historic, New York congressional lawmakers gathered outside City Hall Tuesday to urge the Senate to act soon on the Build Back Better plan.

The sweeping social and climate package, which is the second part of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, has already cleared the House with a near party line vote.

“It will help so many of our working families and our kids and our senior citizens,” Queens Rep. Grace Meng said of the bill.

From immigration to SALT, New Yorkers have leaned in as part of negotiations, hoping to get their priorities included.

While more changes are expected to the legislation in the Senate, where Democrats cannot afford a single defection if they hope to get the bill to the president’s desk, how have the priorities of New York lawmakers’ fared so far?


Public Housing

For months, Sen. Charles Schumer, Rep. Ritchie Torres, and a host of other New Yorkers pushed for $80 billion to repair the nation’s public housing.

That would be enough to address the $40 billion backlog at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) - with plenty for the rest of the country, too.

The bill passed by the House late last week does not go quite that big, but Torres is confident it would still have a major impact back home, calling it “more resources than NYCHA has ever seen.”

“Enough resources to replace the core infrastructure, roofs, bricks, boilers, elevators. Residents are going to see an appreciable improvement in their living conditions,” said Torres, who grew up in public housing.

SALT

All along, Rep. Tom Souzzi has had a single rallying cry: “No salt, no deal!”

The House-passed plan lifts the cap on the federal deduction for state and local tax payments to $80,000, up from $10,000.

However, that could change in the Senate, where Sen. Bernie Sanders instead wants to base the deduction on a taxpayer’s income.

The White House has so far declined to publicly pick a side.

“We’re going to work with the Senate on a bill that can reach the president’s desk,” said Kate Berner, the White House Deputy Communications Director.

 

Immigration

Several New Yorkers have looked to this Democrat-only measure as a means to create a pathway to citizenship for many of the undocumented.

The House-backed bill does not go that far, instead opening the door to short-term work permits and protections from deportation.

“It is the first step and I'm going to continue to fight for a pathway to citizenship,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

Just this week, several New Yorkers - including Espaillat - signed onto a letter urging Senators to go bigger, reinstating the pathway to citizenship in the plan. However, doing so would require them to sidestep the Senate parliamentarian.

Paid Family Leave

Throughout negotiations, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has carried the flag for paid family leave.

“I think it's important that some paid leave is in this base bill, because there’s some things that cannot be covered on a bipartisan basis,” she said in a recent interview.

The House bill would provide four weeks of paid time off, which Gillibrand says is not enough.

But even four weeks may not survive in the Senate, because West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin has objected to its inclusion. Gillibrand says she is having conversations with him.

Berner with the White House said that if paid leave is not included in the final plan, they will fight for it in a different measure and “continue to work at it.”