In The News

As the most unproductive congressional year in recent history winds down, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will be under tremendous pressure to pass an omnibus spending package that keeps the federal government open beyond Dec. 8, when the current funding authority expires. With a 239 member majority, Republicans should not need any help from Democrats to pass this bill. Yet, if anything has been made clear over the past ten months, it is the utter inability of Republicans and their president to lead. Republicans currently control all branches of government, including both houses of Congress. Under normal circumstances, this would mean a strong, unified collective governing body. But these aren’t normal circumstances and, so far this year, Republicans have needed significant help from House Democrats to pass funding legislation to keep the government open. If Speaker Ryan does not call a vote on the DREAM Act (H.R. 3440) as a standalone bill, which would pass with bipartisan support, then he has two ways to approach the pending funding vote. First, he can choose to coalesce his Republican colleagues, including the extreme factions, and enact a hardline budget that drastically cuts funding for essential programs, all while attempting to increase funding for the unpopular border wall. With this, the Speaker would appease a small group of lawmakers at the expense – literally – of most Americans, which is a huge risk that would place Republicans in a difficult position heading into an election year.

After Verizon's decision to remove Univision from Verizon Fios, AT&T recently decided to remove Televisión Dominicana from U-Verse and DIRECTV, which is their only channel that services the Dominican community, leaving viewers who were depending on the channel for news and updates in the dark. Not surprisingly, AT&T’s actions have provoked concern and outrage among Hispanic leaders. "Despite our best efforts to negotiate continued distribution, AT&T's proposals made access to Televisión Dominicana limited and more expensive for the Dominican community," said a spokesman for the channel. According to The Business in Television "There are 2.3 million Dominicans living in the United States, the fourth largest Spanish-speaking population, but AT&T and DIRECTV carry other networks targeting smaller population groups. Among those are three channels from Spain provided by a company partnered with DIRECTV, including the channel that replaced Televisión Dominicana." In the latest of a series of actions, Congress member Adriano Espaillat - the first Dominican-American in Congress - called on the Boards of both AT&T and Time Warner to consider the importance of Televisión Dominicana in the lives of countless Dominican Americans in light of the proposed merger between the two companies.

WASHINGTON.- El congresista Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) criticó abiertamente la decisión del presidente de los Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, de no certificar el Plan de Acción Integral Conjunto (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA), también conocido como ” acuerdo nuclear con Irán”. En un comunicado de prensa, Espaillt dijo que esta decisión aisla a los Estados Unidos de sus tradicionales socios internacionales.

A pair of House Democrats unveiled legislation on Thursday that would prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to display Confederate symbols on federal property. That would include locations such as the Capitol, military bases, highways, parks and streets maintained by the federal government. Democratic Reps. Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.) and Dwight Evans (Pa.) are introducing the bill amid renewed furor over whether Confederate statues in the Capitol and localities across the nation should be taken down. "We recognize these symbols for what they are and for the abhorrence they represent, still today,” Espaillat said in a statement. “We defeated the Confederacy once, and we must be willing to defeat it once again, now and forever, as the tribute to the legacy we leave behind for the next generation.”