Press Release

Gillibrand Statement On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Jan 18, 2016

“This holiday gives us a chance to look back and celebrate Dr. King’s incredible life, and then look ahead, to map out where we are heading as a nation. We can tackle inequality. We can reduce gun violence. We can make our families more stable and more cohesive, and to do it, we need new policies that actually reflect the world we live in today.

“We need equal pay for equal work, so a single mom can take care of her kid just as well as a single dad. We need day care that doesn’t bankrupt a family. We need to finally make gun trafficking a federal crime, so that guns from states with lax gun laws stop flowing into New York. And we need paid leave in this country, because eventually all of us are going to have moments when we need to miss work to take care of our families – or we need them to take care of us. We need new policies that actually reflect the way things are in this country in the year 2016.

“In the spirit of Dr. King, in the year ahead, let’s raise our voice and speak out about the issues that matter to us. If we do that, we can change the world.”