Congressional Legislation with the NY-21 Watchdogs!
For Immediate Release
February 3, 2025
Contact:
ny21congresswatchdogs@gmail.com
Fred Balzac, 518-588-7275 (mobile)
SARANAC LAKE, NY — Inspired by the work of longtime consumer and public-interest advocate Ralph Nader, NY-21 Congress Watchdogs is a new regionally based, grassroots advocacy group whose aim is to work across party and even ideological lines to monitor the voting record, statements and actions of whomever is currently serving as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 21st Congressional District (NY-21)—regardless of the person’s party affiliation—while, at the same time, inform district residents of their representative’s activities to encourage widespread citizen action that is in the public interest and serves the common good.
On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at 8:15 pm, the Watchdog group is offering a free training workshop online on how to research Congressional legislation. The training will be led by Peter LaVenia, a founding member of the group, Co-Chair of the New York State Green Party and a professor of political science at SUNY Oneonta. The workshop is open to all, and people can sign up to receive the meeting link by emailing ny21congresswatchdogs@gmail.com.
Know Your Representative—and Who She Really Represents
NY-21 Congress Watchdogs’ first project was researching the voting record of current NY-21 Representative Elise Stefanik in the area of labor rights. It turns out that, in 2023, Stefanik sponsored three bills in the U.S. House that, if passed, would benefit employers at the expense of employees and other workers.
One bill would make it easier for businesses to designate individuals who work for them as independent contractors—in other words, gig workers—rather than employees. A second bill would weaken worker protections against wage discrimination by employers, while the third bill would reduce penalties for businesses that engage in wage theft.
“Knowing how to research Congressional legislation, including shortcuts and other tips to make the process less time-consuming, is a useful skill for engaged citizens interested in learning what their own representative is up to in Washington, as well as Congress as a whole,” said LaVenia.
In a media release disseminated in late October 2024, the Watchdog group noted the disparity between the wide support Stefanik enjoys from many working-class people in NY-21 and the advantages her bills would provide to employers and businesses over those same members of the working class. A couple of weeks later, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Stefanik to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations—triggering a process that is nearly all but certain to result in a special election in NY-21 later this year to choose Stefanik’s successor.
“In some ways, the information we found and released is even more relevant now, in that it shows how Stefanik used her decade in office to advance her career by serving the demands of special interests such as corporations rather than the needs of her largely working-class constituents,” said Fred Balzac, another NY-21 Congress Watchdog founding member. “Being a vast rural region that includes the Adirondack Park, the 21st Congressional District has a relatively small number of corporations. We also know that much of the campaign funding Stefanik has received over the years has come from outside the district.”
A Public-Interest Test Case
The NY-21 Watchdog project is essentially a test case for what Nader envisions in his 2012 book “The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future” — namely, a Congress watchdog, or CWD, group established in every one of the 435 Congressional Districts across America. The NY-21 Congress Watchdog group is strictly nonpartisan in that it is not affiliated with any political party, and it welcomes all members of the public who share its mission of acting in the public interest and serving the common good.
Offering this training opportunity on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln seems especially appropriate in that Lincoln served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1847-49) as something of a public-interest advocate himself. Elected in 1846 as a member of the Whig Party, he promised to serve only one term; opposed the Mexican-American War; supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in any new U.S. territories; and, in January 1849, proposed a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.
To learn more about the group’s efforts—including to receive a copy of the aforementioned media release, titled “Elise Stefanik’s Record Regarding Working People Is Downright Spooky!” —please write to ny21congresswatchdogs@gmail.com.