Mondaire Jones Calls Out Rep. Mike Lawler & Dysfunctional GOP Majority

Last week former Congressman Mondaire Jones spoke alongside a group of Rep. Mike Lawler’s disaffected constituents about Lawler’s year-long inability to pass long-term funding legislation, find bipartisan solutions to the migrant crisis, and respond to the actual concerns of NY-17 constituents by delivering real results for the Lower Hudson Valley.

"Congressman Lawler and Republicans in the House narrowly passed another short-term funding bill ahead of yet another threatened government shutdown," Jones said, noting "Lawler and the dysfunctional GOP majority have barely been able to keep the lights on this term, and they continue to govern by crises they create".

According to Jones, because of the chaos caused by Lawler and extreme MAGA Republicans, the current Congress is the least productive Congress since the Great Depression with critical issues not being been addressed and communities in the Lower Hudson Valley paying the price.

"Congressman Lawler hasn't taken the serious actions needed to address border security and the migrant crisis, instead just speaking on television about illegal border crossings instead of finding real bipartisan solutions," said Jones, adding that in September 2023 Lawler voted for a bill that proposed a 8% cut to federal law enforcement and immigration services, making it more difficult for agencies to prevent drugs and immigrants from crossing the border illegally and would have cut more than 12,000 agents and staff at the FBI, and more than 2,000 prosecutors.

Jones notes that Lawler also “proudly” supports Speaker Mike Johnson, who recently pledged to do nothing to address the migrant crisis and to allocate funds for border security because he wants to wait until Donald Trump is President and Republicans have majorities in both chambers of Congress.

"They don’t want to solve the border crisis because they want to use it as a political issue to campaign on, Jones stated. "Mike Lawler is part of the problem and needs to take some responsibility for these crises and for voting to reduce resources that help protect our border and keep our communities safe. We know with Congressman Lawler we can’t trust what he says, we have to watch what he does."

"Unlike my opponent, I have consistently voted for funding to secure our border, Jones added. "Of course, I support comprehensive immigration reform that would allocate sufficient resources to secure our border, and also create a plausible pathway for citizenship for law-abiding people already in the United States of America, including Dreamers, who are here through no fault of their own."

Mike Lawler’s constituents spoke to issues the congressman is not addressing during his term so far in Congress, including gun safety, veterans’ issues, and the SALT tax respectively.

“Not only has Mike Lawler been part of an extraordinarily unproductive Congress, but his record specifically on gun violence prevention is terrible. He voted to overturn a rule that bans the use of stabilizing braces on pistols, devices that have been used in several mass shootings,” noted district resident Shari Maurer about Lawler’s poor record on gun safety.

Constituent Justin Green, who served as a Marine Corp. attack helicopter pilot expressed his disappointment as a veteran by Congressman Lawler’s inability to get anything done of substance in Congress and his failure to be a champion of veterans in the 17th district."Ignoring the needs of veterans is akin to abandoning your Marines, your soldiers, and your sailors, he said, adding that "despite the rah-rah talk, the Republicans and Lawler have turned their backs on veterans when it mattered. Support for our military should be non-partisan, but Republicans have been playing politics with our military. Congressman Lawler voted for the Default on America Act, a bill that would have made drastic cuts to veterans’ support, including defunding veteran health care and would have taken money away from the VA to process a backlog of urgent applications for benefits," he said.

Area voter Al Osterlitz has been disappointed with Lawler’s tenure in the House. "He is unable to get laws passed that could help homeowners in the Lower Hudson Valley, Osterlitz said. "The SALT tax deduction that we used to be able to take with our taxes on our small house has been capped at $10,000, which has become a financial burden”.

New York’s 17th Congressional District includes northern Westchester County, all of Rockland and Putnam Counties, and part of Dutchess County. District residents interested in Jones' election campaign can visit https://www.mondaireforcongres..., https://www.facebook.com/Monda..., https://twitter.com/MondaireJo..., https://www.instagram.com/mond... and https://www.youtube.com/channe... to learn more, volunteer, and/or contribute.