Sen. Harckham appointed chair of New York Senate Environmental Conservation Committee

New York State Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins appointed State Senator Pete Harckham, as chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. Harckham represents New York's 40th Senate District, which includes the towns of North Salem, Bedford and Southeast and the village of Brewster. The announcement of Stewart-Cousins’s committee chair appointments and committee assignments was made Wednesday as the State Senate began its 2023-2024 session.

“I am very honored and grateful to Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins for appointing me as chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee and entrusting me with this major responsibility,” said Harckham. “With our focus on the state’s ambitious goals enacted in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, there will be much work to plan and complete statewide, which I look forward to, in partnership with my colleagues in the legislature and advocates across New York.”

Previously, Harckham served as chair of the Senate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Committee since taking office in the State Senate four years ago. He succeeds Todd Kaminsky, a former state senator who retired at the end of 2022, as chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee.

Harckham noted that particular attention would need to be paid to protecting New York’s abundance of freshwater, which, in the years to come, will give the state a competitive economic edge over other states.

Hackham listed the following priorities for his position as chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee:

• Protecting the state’s fragile drinking water supplies at the source against pollution, especially PFAS, phosphorus and nitrogen
• Reducing plastic waste, more efficient recycling and instituting greater producer responsibility
• Putting in place more systematic evaluation processes for chemicals, pesticides and other toxins that are creating risks to human health
• Oversight of the expenditures relating to the state’s recently enacted $4.2 B Environmental Bond Act

Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins appointed Harckham to six other Senate committees today as well: Alcoholism & Substance Abuse; Codes; Insurance; Local Government; Transportation; and Veterans, Homeland Security & Military Affairs.