Platform and Policies

The damage that Donald Trump and his enablers have done to our democracy in this second term is staggering. When our Constitution gets in the way of whatever the administration wants, its words are simply ignored—from definitions of citizenship, to the emoluments clauses, to the power granted to Congress to appropriate funds. 

“Emergencies” are manufactured to justify reckless tariffs and advance the interests of fossil fuel companies. Due process? It no longer exists for immigrants they want removed or civil servants they want fired. And Congressional district boundaries that don’t produce enough Republicans are simply lines to be redrawn. The list goes on and on.

Democrats in Congress need to be doing more—a lot more—to fight back. That’s true right now while we’re in the minority. And it will be even more true once—hopefully—we regain one or both chambers in November.

In the State Assembly, Micah literally wrote the blueprint for what Democratic-led states should be doing to fight back, and he’s led the way to protect New Yorkers and our values—and fight fire with fire. He’s also published detailed white papers that spell out how Congressional Democrats can put up effective roadblocks to Trump’s authoritarian agenda right now and provide a roadmap for aggressive oversight once Democrats regain control of the House. And he’s already looking beyond the next three years to find ways to prevent future Presidents from sowing chaos and trampling democratic norms as Donald Trump has.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Use every procedural tool in our arsenal—from joint resolutions, to discharge petitions, to Rules Committee amendments—to throw sand in the Republican gears. 
• Never lend his vote to a MAGA majority that’s holding the American people hostage.
• Once Democrats regain the House, initiate the most aggressive oversight hearings in U.S. history to expose and curtail abuses by ICE, reveal the costs to families of Trump’s tariffs and the widespread grift and corruption, reverse the attacks on vaccines and science-driven health policy, and halt the weaponization of the Justice Department.
• Increase public engagement to shape the narrative around Democratic issues in 2028 and help Democrats win back the White House and grow our majority.

Micah’s Record:

• Passed laws to empower Attorney General Tish James to take up the work of federal agencies that are being shut down or handcuffed by Trump, like the CFPB, FTC, and DOJ.
• Introduced the constitutional amendment to allow New York to redraw our congressional district lines, mid-decade, if another state (e.g. Texas) does so first.
• Wrote the RECOURSE Act, which allows our state to stop sending money to the federal government if federal funds are illegally withheld from New York.
• Wrote the Tariff Transparency Act, to shine a light on the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs on automobile prices.
• Wrote legislation, in response to RFK Jr.’s reckless disregard for public health, to ensure continued access to the COVID-19 vaccine in New York. Micah’s proposal was incorporated into Governor Hochul’s 2026 budget.

Everywhere we turn, New Yorkers face higher costs. Whether it’s a housing shortage and rising rents that now make more than half of New York’s tenants rent-burdened by the federal standard, higher insurance premiums and utility bills, skyrocketing child care costs, or just the annoying alert about another monthly subscription increase.

The affordability crisis is no “hoax” — and we need a Congress that aggressively works to solve it. Micah is committed to doing that. And he will give special attention to two of the biggest ticket items that hit working families especially hard: the urgent need to create more housing and expand access, and reduce costs, for child care.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Repeal Trump’s tax breaks to the rich and restore devastating cuts to the social safety net.
• Massively expand federal investment in child care.
• Expand housing tax credits and increase funding and eligibility for rental assistance.
• Leverage federal dollars to spur pro-housing policies at the state and local level.
• Vote for the Child Care Modernization Act to expand access and the Child Care Workforce and Facilities Act to address the shortage of child care workers.
• Raise the minimum wage across the nation and index it to inflation.
• Co-sponsor the PRO Act to make it easier for workers to join unions.

Micah’s Record:

• Helped enact New York’s $4.5 billion affordable housing capital program, the most ambitious in state history.
• Passed the landmark FAIR Business Practices Act, which strengthens consumer protection in areas ranging from common scams to predatory lending.
• Worked successfully to finally index New York’s minimum wage to inflation. 
• Sponsored legislation to protect tenants and create the first public revolving loan fund for mixed-income housing.
• Wrote the Consumer Grocery Pricing Fairness Act to give small and independent grocers a fair shot.

What is happening in immigrant communities across the country is unconscionable. Every day, people here legally, making claims for asylum, are accosted by masked ICE agents, removed from their homes and workplaces or cuffed outside our courts. And then forced into detention centers and deported. Dozens of people have died in ICE custody, and the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis put the violence and cruelty of this regime into stark relief. 

The Trump regime’s assault on the rights and safety of immigrants is part and parcel of an effort to undermine the civil rights of Americans more broadly. Micah Lasher will continue to fight to protect immigrant communities, stop the broader assault on civil rights and voting rights, and do everything he can to derail Trump’s authoritarian train.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Fight to abolish ICE.
• Vote for the Restoring Access to Detainees Act to ensure noncitizens who are detained have due process and can contact lawyers and families.
• Support the Protecting Our Democracy Act to stop presidential power abuses on pardons, self-enrichment, and congressional appropriation power
• Fight to pass the For the People Act to expand voting rights and tighten “dark money” regulation.
• Support the John Lewis Voting Rights Enhancement Act to restore protections from the original 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Micah’s Record:

• Wrote and passed legislation to enshrine federal housing discrimination enforcement into state law.
• Wrote legislation to protect people from warrantless arrests at sensitive locations such as schools, houses of worship, healthcare facilities, and government offices.
• In the Attorney General’s Office, helped stop 20 school districts from blocking the children of undocumented immigrants from enrolling. 
• Wrote legislation to establish civil liability and criminal penalties when federal officers deprive New Yorkers of their rights.

Micah Lasher believes that health care should be a right, not a privilege. That’s why he supports making health care available to all — through Medicare for All or a similar universal plan that guarantees a basic level of comprehensive care.

Despite Donald Trump’s ridiculous claim that he’s reduced drug prices by 400%, we pay far higher prices for prescription drugs than people in other countries do. We have to change that — along with a host of other things that contribute to a wildly expensive and inefficient system.

Micah also believes Democrats in Congress must fight harder against Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s quackery, especially his continued assault on vaccines—something Micah has stepped in to blunt here in New York.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Push to pass Medicare for All, or a similar plan that ensures universal care.
• Increase funding for community-based health services and mental healthcare. 
• Strengthen the Affordable Care Act and extend its subsidies.
• Vote for the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act.
• Reverse the Republicans’ harsh and misguided cuts to Medicaid.

Micah’s Record:

• Co-sponsor of the New York Health Act, which would guarantee quality, comprehensive healthcare to all New Yorkers.
• Helped craft a plan to invest $1 billion in mental health services, reversing decades of State disinvestment.

Micah Lasher understands there are few things more important to New Yorkers than being safe — and feeling safe — wherever you are in the city, from our schools to our subways to our places of worship. He will continue to focus on things that actually make us safer — whether it’s working with local police precincts to crack down on reckless e-bikers, investing more in mental health care, or continuing the never-ending fight for stronger gun safety laws.

He’ll also focus on things that matter to our day-to-day quality of life — tackling the scourge of endless scaffolding, illegal weed shops, and annoying helicopter noise. 

In Congress, Micah will:

• Vote for universal background checks for all gun sales and transfers.
• Reinstate the ban on assault weapons and support a national Red Flag law.
• Increase investment and focus on mental healthcare.
• Oppose the deployment of the National Guard to cities that neither want nor need them.
• Support the federal Clean Slate Act to help people with non-violent records re-enter society.

Micah’s Record:

• Helped write sweeping new gun safety laws in New York, including background checks for ammunition purchases, new license requirements for gun purchases, and expanded Red Flag laws.
• Helped craft the state’s $1 billion investment in mental healthcare, including recovering or creating 1,000 in-patient psychiatric beds and funding for 3,500 units of supportive housing.
• Introduced the RESTORE Act to speed up the removal of scaffolding.
• Co-sponsored legislation to require licensing and registration for e-bikes.
• Served as a board member of Everytown, the nation’s leading gun safety advocacy organization.

Long before the day the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights and health have been under constant assault across the country. More than a dozen states have now banned abortion outright. Women who travel to pro-choice states for abortions—and the doctors who provide them—are threatened with prosecution. And from opposing access to emergency abortions to pardoning people convicted of blocking access to clinics, the Trump administration has made clear it will continue to chip away at the right to choose every chance it gets. 

Micah Lasher understands we must aggressively fight back. He’ll bring to Congress a long track record of defending and advancing abortion rights, which is why he earned the endorsement of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Votes in his 2024 campaign for Assembly. 

In Congress, Micah will:

• Fight to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to restore abortion rights nationwide.
• Vigorously oppose any Republican proposal for a national abortion ban.
• Vote to repeal the Hyde Amendment to make choice available to all women.
• Continue to fight to preserve access to abortion pills, IVF, and contraception.

Micah’s Record:

• As Governor Hochul’s Director of Policy, helped enact the New York State Equal Rights Amendment, to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, and helped write legislation post-Dobbs to protect abortion patients and providers in New York.
• Worked to expand Medicaid coverage of abortion and develop a comprehensive plan to improve maternal and infant health.
• Helped craft the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act in the Attorney General’s office.
• Worked with NARAL Pro-Choice New York to defeat anti-choice New York State Senators.

The Trump administration is the most corrupt in U.S. history, without question. From the obscene profiteering to the shameful pardons of cronies and donors to the control exerted over once proud independent media outlets, the grift knows no bounds.

Corruption has exploded under Donald Trump, but it’s obviously nothing new to Washington. Big corporate money has long had far too much sway on government and policy. The floodgates opened by Citizens United fifteen years ago have made that infinitely worse. Fixing our democracy demands doing everything we can to reduce the influence of big money, reform a broken system, and lead by example. 

In Congress, Micah will:

• Vote to ban stock trading by members of Congress.
• Fully codify the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses to safeguard against presidential self-dealing.
• Demand aggressive oversight to rein in pay-to-play and conflicts of interest.
• Continue to refuse to accept any corporate PAC money to his campaigns.

Micah’s Record:

• Introduced reform legislation to end corporate spending in campaigns in New York.
• Wrote legislation to prevent law firms from compelling lawyers to do free legal work directed by the Trump administration.
• Introduced the MEGA Corporations Act to stop large multinational companies from dodging state taxes.

As a graduate of New York City public schools, and a public school parent today, Micah Lasher has a deep, personal stake in their success. His commitment goes back to his work over 15 years ago helping to create two new schools in this congressional district and fighting to get all of our city schools their fair share from Albany.

Today, that commitment is more important than ever as Donald Trump moves to dismantle the Department of Education, slash funding for school-based social services, ban books from school libraries, and garnish wages of those struggling to pay back their student loan debt. We need Democrats in Congress who will do more to fight back.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Vigorously oppose Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
• Work to reverse federal cuts to education funding across the board.
• End the Republican tax penalty on student loan forgiveness.
• Support the Paraprofessionals and Education Support Staff Bill of Rights.

Micah’s Record:

• Worked to fully fund the State’s Campaign for Fiscal Equity obligations to public schools as Governor Hochul’s Policy Director.
• Developed a transformative plan to improve reading instruction and literacy throughout the state.
• Took action in the Attorney General’s Office against 20 school districts that were blocking the children of undocumented immigrants from enrolling in school. 
• Helped create two new public schools in this congressional district: Frank McCourt High School and P.S. 452.

There has been a sharp and distressing increase in hate crimes across the country. Reported cases have doubled in the past decade. And in a city that’s home to the second largest Jewish population in the world, the rise in antisemitism is especially alarming. One-third of American Jews reported experiencing antisemitism personally in 2024.

We cannot allow a state of elevated bigotry and political and religious violence to become the new norm. Micah Lasher will continue—through legislation, community engagement, and by consistently raising his voice—to fight hate in all its ugly forms.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Work to increase funding for security around places of worship and community centers.
• Expand education about the Holocaust, its causes, and antisemitism in society today.
• Fight for full funding of hate crimes initiatives and ensure comprehensive national data collection.

Micah’s Record:

• Introduced legislation to create buffer zones for safety around houses of worship. 
• Helped pass legislation to ensure that every college has a Title VI coordinator to address discriminatory harassment.
• Introduced the ACCESS Act to further strengthen the law against discriminatory harassment at educational institutions.

Few areas have been more directly harmed by this Republican Congress than the fight against climate change. Last year’s Big Ugly Bill reversed critical climate advances, ending tax credits for electric vehicles and putting the brakes on efforts to green the energy system. And hostility to renewable energy has been on full display through both Trump administrations—from the president’s incoherent blasts against wind power, to withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, to erasing terms like “sustainability” and “decarbonization” from the Department of Energy lexicon.

Micah Lasher believes few priorities are as urgent as the battle against climate change. His commitment to the fight goes back to his time in the State Attorney General’s office tackling climate denialism by Big Oil and includes local efforts like initiatives to mitigate flooding and erosion as Chair of the Riverside Park Conservancy.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Prioritize supporting our clean energy transition and hold big polluters accountable.
• Invest in climate-resilient infrastructure and protect our waterfront and subway system.
• Support legislation to quickly and dramatically curb carbon emissions.
• Fight to rejoin international efforts to fight climate change throughout the world.

Micah’s Record:

• Helped enact first-in-the-nation legislation to ban gas in new buildings.
• Passed legislation to unlock wind and solar energy projects throughout New York State.
• Co-sponsored the NY HEAT Act to wean New York off its fossil fuel dependency.
• Helped launch investigations that exposed climate change lies by big fossil fuel companies like Peabody Coal and Exxon Mobil.
• Negotiated the City’s takeover from the State of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park to create two new magnificent open spaces.
• Helped pass legislation over a decade ago to move buildings away from high-emissions heating oil.

The Trump administration’s assault on LGBTQ+ Americans is heartless—and heartbreaking. From rollbacks of anti-discrimination orders, to targeted policies against transgender people, to mean-spirited budget cuts for LGBTQ+ programs and services, the Republican Party is shamefully undoing decades of hard-won progress. Micah Lasher has always championed the cause of LGBTQ+ equality and civil rights and will be a powerful voice for them in Congress, which is why he’s the overwhelming choice of community leaders and activists, from Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal to Assemblymember Deborah Glick.

In Congress, Micah will:

• Support the Equality Act, prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Codify in law Biden-era Executive Orders to ensure trans and gender nonconforming individuals are protected from discrimination and able to access gender-affirming care.
• Support the Do No Harm Act, which would restore the original intent of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, protecting religious freedom without causing harm to LGBTQ+ individuals and other minorities.
• Work to ensure that transgender individuals get the healthcare they need by fighting for Medicare for All.
• Fight for passage of the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act to prohibit public child welfare agencies from discriminating against foster or adoptive families on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.
• Strengthen legislation like the Fair and Equal Housing Act to prevent housing, education, and employment discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals.

Micah’s Record:

• Organized advocacy and lobbying efforts as Director of State Legislative Affairs for the City of New York to pass marriage equality. 
• Helped end the Boy Scouts of America’s longstanding ban on openly gay leadership, took on anti-gay discrimination in professional sports, and worked to ensure equal access to healthcare for transgender New Yorkers in his role as Chief of Staff to the New York State Attorney General. 
• Helped enact New York’s Equal Rights Amendment, which expands the State’s constitutional anti-discrimination protections to include sexual identity and gender identity as Policy Director under Kathy Hochul.
• Wrote and passed legislation in the Assembly to strengthen New York’s laws against housing discrimination and co-sponsored legislation to strengthen legal protections for individuals who provide or receive gender-affirming care.

So much of Donald Trump’s foreign policy seems like something from a dark novel. Canada as our 51st state. Invading Greenland, or maybe just buying it, and destroying NATO in the process. Insane tariffs all over the world—on one day, off the next. A military operation that removed Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro but doesn’t, Trump and company say, constitute an act of war.

Micah Lasher believes it’s long past time for Congress to reassert its power over foreign policy, one explicitly granted by the Constitution. He’ll fight to restore the United States’ role as a serious leader on the international stage, advancing democracy, human rights, and collaboration to resolve shared global challenges, and for a foreign policy rooted in diplomacy and the rule of law. 

In Congress, Micah will:

• Stand up against any president’s attempts to bypass congressional authority on matters of foreign policy, especially by strengthening the War Powers Resolution.
• Work to rebuild and strengthen our alliances with NATO members and other democratic nations.
• Fight to repeal Donald Trump’s irresponsible and vindictive deployment of tariffs, which are raising costs and directly causing harm to U.S. small businesses. 
• Use the power of congressional oversight to hold the Trump administration accountable for their abusive and illegal actions and increase transparency. 
• Prioritize diplomacy, de-escalation, and long-term stability, with military action only as a last resort with clear objectives and accountability. 
• Fight for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and reestablish the United States as a leader in international cooperation to combat the existential threat of climate change.
• Advocate for the reassembly of the State Department and USAID, which faced extensive cuts under the Trump administration.
• Rebuild a U.S. foreign policy that centers transparent, principled, and constitutional actions and strengthens democracy on the global stage.