Difficult times ”“ and the Trump era qualifies, according to state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman ”“ demand a more active role by state government.
Speaking Thursday evening at the Business Council of Westchester”™s political leadership series in Rye Brook, Schneiderman described how attorneys general from across the country have been responding to “bad policy ideas.”
“I”™m your lawyer,” he said. “I view it as my job to protect New Yorkers and to stand up to the federal government whenever it does something that hurts the people I represent.”
Schneiderman, who was first elected to the office in 2010, positioned himself as an activist attorney long before Donald Trump became president. He has prosecuted corrupt politicians, for example, secured billions of dollars in settlements from big banks implicated in the financial crisis and regulated charities more closely.
Even before the presidential election, he sued Trump University and ultimately won a $25 million settlement for students who had been defrauded by a phony curriculum.
He told his Westchester audience that Trump”™s ascendancy has galvanized his office and the offices of several state attorneys general.
Within days of the inauguration, they had intervened to stop the president”™s travel ban on people from majority Muslim countries. They have defended clean power plant environmental regulations, protected provisions in the Affordable Care Act, advocated for sanctuary cities and sued to protect immigrants under President Obama”™s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.
Pre-Trump investigations and lawsuits have prepared the way, Schneiderman said. Even as his office was cracking down on corporate excesses and nonprofit scandals and fighting for health care coverage, he said relationships were being forged with the good actors in those sectors. “We”™re seeing a unity of purpose with business, labor and government that is very important,” he said.
Schneiderman said that his colleagues across the country sense more than ever that they can be an effective check on bad public policy. Federal employees who feel shut out by the new administration are switching to state jobs.
Among those who see serious challenges to the nation”™s values and who believe that government is a force for good, “The enthusiasm has been tremendous,” he said.
He said New York”™s business and political clout have made the state a leader.
“It”™s time for all of us,” Schneiderman said, “to step up to the plate.”
