New York – New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin receives a major checkhave emerged as","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/14/nyc-council-speaker-turns-up-heat-on-mamdani-00870571","_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd50004","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd50005","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>a major investigation On America’s most talked-about mayor, who has sparked a lot of unwanted controversy in just three months, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
Now he has created a storm for himself.
Menin is pursuing complex legislation related to home health aides that has infuriated some of the most powerful forces in New York. This is an issue he signed on for before winning his current post, but it is causing big problems for him just three months into leading the 51-member body.
During the speaker’s race last year, she struck a deal with a fellow Manhattan lawmaker: In exchange for her colleague’s support, Menin promised to help advance a domestic health assistance bill that, under previous council leadership, had failed to overcome a mountain of opposition.
Almost everyone involved agrees that something needs to be done to help underpaid and overworked home health care workers who work 24-hour shifts.
But the bill’s cost is estimated to be in the millions of dollars and there are concerns about whether it would put patient safety at risk. With the state trying to finalize its budget and city finances in a mess, a powerful labor union, the mayor’s office and Governor Kathy Hochul — exactly the wrong enemies a new speaker collectively wants to make — are all pushing back.
Earlier this month, Menin withdrew the bill from consideration. But his troubles are not over yet.
With her talk hanging in the air and advocating a no-holds-barred pressure campaign, including a hunger strike, the path she is taking will tell a lot about speechmaking still in its infancy and Menin’s ability to navigate the kind of dangerous political territory the mayor traverses on an almost daily basis. By extension, this will affect his ability to effectively anger his governing partners at City Hall.
“Everyone witnessed this promise,” said Yinghao Tan, a former 24-hour home care worker and law attorney. “Are you bowing before Mayor Mamdani now? Are you bowing before Governor Hochul?”
No one wins the race for Council Speaker without some backroom deals.
Local political organizations want their loyalists to gain prominent positions in the committee in exchange for votes. Unions, who can help form key coalitions, are looking for someone who will support them during legislative battles or contract negotiations. And members themselves can leverage their support for a particular committee position or help with a specific policy.
Last fall, it was painfully clear what Council Member Christopher Marte wanted: The lower Manhattan official’s attention has been almost single-mindedly focused on the issue of promoting health aides who provide care in patients’ homes.
The program is regulated by the state and funded largely through Medicaid. A portion of these aides work 24-hour shifts, and sleep at the homes of high-need patients. Yet, under state legal guidance, they are only paid for 13 hours.
Rallying for weeks outside City Hall, advocates described decades of grueling schedules — often with little sleep — caring for elderly and disabled New Yorkers without days off and repeatedly tending to some patients in the middle of the night. Some compared the change to modern slavery.
“I think this is a moral crisis, and it needs to be fixed,” said Marte, who has now introduced his bill for the third time in four years. “I’m not doing this just because my mother did this and my aunts did this – these workers are being left in the shadow and exploited.“
Late last year, Marte appeared to be gaining new ground when he abandoned his bid to become council speaker and endorsed Menin’s candidacy. In return, Menin promised to help advance Marte’s long-in-force legislation that would have required home care agencies to assign two 12-hour aides to patients requiring around-the-clock care.
On March 18, Menin appeared to go a step further. She stood with Marte amid a crowd of smiling supporters took the oath of office","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWFWDwcAd3w/?igsh=cG9nZXNwOGp1cjZq","_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd50006","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd50007","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>pledge of legislation Will be passed in April. When asked if there would be changes, Menin answered in the negative – advocates pledged that the bill’s language would remain pure, although a person close to the speaker said Menin was not actually ruling out changes to the text.
That’s when things started going wrong.
At that time, Menin had begun to position himself as a more significant counterbalance to Mamdani, pushing back on the mayor’s budget strategy, emphasizing the political toxicity of his proposed property tax increase, and even helping to organize a small protest.","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/14/nyc-council-speaker-turns-up-heat-on-mamdani-00870571","_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd50008","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd50009","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>organize a small protest Outside the mayor’s 100-day celebration in Queens. But an April 13 letter in opposition to the law, signed by the likes of DC 37 and the Legal Aid Society, the city’s largest public sector union, began to complicate the momentum.
The signers, which also included disability rights advocates, warned that the bill would dramatically increase the cost of the program beyond what is covered by Medicaid—meaning the city or state would have to bear the entire financial burden, something no one wanted to do. And, absent changes to rules at the state level, he further cautioned, the proposed change in policy could result in some patients not receiving adequate care.
“If passed and signed into law, Intro 303 would completely destabilize and collapse the home care system, endangering not only those who require 24-hour live-in services, but all those who need care and the home care workers who provide that care,” the groups wrote.
Separately, 1199SEIU, another major union representing home health aides, said any changes to the system must be fully funded — an implicit knock on the bill given the slim chance of getting the needed cash.
In response, Menin withdrew the legislation from consideration before the April 16 meeting where it was to be voted on.
last week, As stated in the documentation","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://documentedny.com/2026/04/15/governor-hochul-home-care-24-hour-bill/","_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd5000b","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd5000c","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>As stated in the documentationThe governor also expressed his opposition to Menin’s team — a rebuke that means Albany won’t face $460 million estimate of 1199Is","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2026/03/will-new-york-city-ban-24-hour-home-care-shifts-00813607","_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd5000d","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-ce76-dcf3-a1df-eff74bd5000e","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>1199 is estimated The law would cost, although Marte disputes that metric.
Meanwhile, Mayer endorsed the legislation as a candidate and continued to reiterate support for home care workers generally. However, on Wednesday he was happy to insist that taking the lead was a problem for Menin.
“Ultimately, it is the Council’s decision as to what legislation they bring forward for a vote and how they vote on that legislation,” he said at an unrelated press briefing.
All this puts the Council Chairman in a difficult position.
Menin has tried to portray herself as a trusted leader to her members and a cool budget analyst as she negotiates the city’s $127 billion spending plan with the mayor. Going back on his words to Marte would hurt one side of that image, while passing the legislation could lead to millions of dollars in new spending that the other side would reverse.
At a press conference in mid-April, Menin downplayed the governor’s opposition, saying that Hochul did not like the previous version of the bill and that a revised proposal would be sent to the governor’s office. The speaker’s office said Friday that it has also sent the new bill language to the mayor’s office.
But what will be the final result is still unclear.
“Speaker Menin has long fought for stronger worker protections and believes more must be done to prevent exploitation and ensure safe working conditions,” spokesman Benjamin Phang said in a statement. “As part of the ongoing legislative process, Council has sent an updated version of this bill to the Mayor’s Administration for review, and we have remained in constant communication with stakeholders throughout this process.”
Marte told POLITICO that he agreed to concessions on the bill that would allow workers to work more than 56 hours a week and would delay implementation of the bill until next year to figure out funding. The Mamdani administration has sought to streamline the worker grievance process along with existing government admissions processes. And DC 37 has advocated exempting union-represented workers.
However, it remains to be seen whether any or all of these changes to the law will adequately satisfy investing parties.
In an April 23 press release, Marte announced that she and the Speaker’s office reached an agreement to advance the legislation supported by advocates by mid-May – although Menin’s office said no date had been agreed upon and negotiations were ongoing.
“If there is no action on this bill by May 15, I will be on the ground with these activists and take whatever action we need to take to make sure they get this bill voted on,” Marte said.
