The failure of politicians and energy providers caused immeasurable suffering for millions of Texans in this recent winter storm and resultant power outages. Do not allow energy providers to shift their costs to already suffering Texan consumers by raising rates or charging excess fees. Texans deserve reliable service and should not bear the costs incurred by multimillion dollar companies who prioritized profits over preparedness. Use the rainy day funds to offset costs and provide relief to already suffering Texans.

Agriculture Committee Members, I oppose bill A04611. This bill has broad sweeping negative impacts on many animal interest groups including farmers, bird breeders, reptile keepers, mammal breeders, and more. New York Assembly Bill 4611 (A04611) was introduced on February 4. This bill seeks to ban the shipping of all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. This included shipments within, into and from the state (both import and export). Per the bill, shipping via any “mail carrier” will be banned so that includes the commonly utilized overnight services from major carriers such as FedEx and UPS (for verified shippers). A04611 was assigned to the Assembly Agriculture Committee. Fines can be $1,000 per violation. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal introduced the bill and she sits on the assigned Agriculture Committee. The Committee members must be made aware of the broad sweeping repercussions of this bill and informed of the many shipping regulations, restrictions, and safeguards already in place. Please allow me to inform you regarding the many regulations already in place to protect animals. Stringent policies are already in place by shipping companies, as well as various federal and state animal welfare laws. First, mail carriers already prohibit the shipment of many animals. The United States Postal Services (USPS) prohibits the shipping of mammals, most birds, turtles, and snakes. The United Parcel Service (UPS) does not allow shipments of mammals, birds, or snakes. Other companies have various restrictions and certifications. For example, FedEx requires that you have a Live Reptile Certification in order to ship live reptiles. If a carrier does allow for the shipment of certain live animals, there are stringent policies and laws in place. These include but are not limited to: Containers must meet construction standards; Proper ventilation; Veterinary health certificates and inspections; Use of heat/cold packs during certain weather conditions; International Air Transport Association (IATA) standards; International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) standards; Labeling requirements; Internal packaging requirements; The federal Lacey Act. Not only are all of these regulations already in place, but shipments are required to be done as timely as possible. When reptiles are shipped, they are delivered to the carrier or picked up late in the day and then delivered early the following day. The travel time is always less than 24 hours, and typically closer to 12 hours. Animals also are not shipped during temperature extremes as various thresholds for animal safety are applicable (too hot/too cold). The shipping of live animals is a serious matter, is not unregulated, and is not taken lightly by either the shippers or the carriers. For those who do ship animals, protections and safeguards for those animals are numerous. I hope you oppose and stop A04611. It is a misguided bill attempting to fix a problem that does not exist due to so many protections already existing. A04611 is bad for New York, the residents, and the animals. Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. Have a good day. Bill Text February 4, 2021 Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Agriculture AN ACT to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to prohibiting the shipment of certain live animals by postal mail The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The agriculture and markets law is amended by adding a new 2 section 382 to read as follows: 3 § 382. Prohibition of the shipping of live animals by postal mail. 1. 4 It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, partnership or corporation to 5 mail or offer for mailing a live animal by postal mail into or within 6 the state of New York or from the state of New York to points outside 7 the state of New York. As used in this section, "live animal" shall 8 mean any mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian. "Postal mail" shall mean 9 mail that is processed and delivered by the United States postal service 10 or other mail carrier. A person, firm, partnership or corporation shall 11 be considered to have mailed or offered for mailing a live animal in 12 violation of this section when such person, firm, partnership or corpo- 13 ration causes such live animal and applicable postage or shipping fee to 14 be physically placed in the possession of the United States postal 15 service or other mail carrier. 16 2. A violation of this section shall be punishable by a civil penalty 17 not to exceed one thousand dollars. Each such violation shall be deemed 18 a separate violation with respect to each animal mailed or offered for 19 mailing. 20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately Sincerely,

As someone who has seen the rise of Fox News lead to the decline of this country I feel that it's come time that this is investigated. I watched the Trump speech on Fox News on January 6th and feel that there is some culpability on their part for the events which took place following that speech. Likewise, they added to the division in this country with their coverage of the election and false reports of election fraud. They've also caused issues with biased coverage of the racial tensions of this past summer.

Except for a few who have lost touch with reality, Republican members of Congress know that Donald Trump lost a free and fair election. By failing to say so publicly, they are endangering Americans' lives. The rest of us must stand up and insist that the truth be told.

The "war on drugs" has led to a the incarceration of millions of Americans with at least a million more incarcerated every year. Many of these people are drug users with an addiction and punishing them with jail or prison time will not break the addiction, but treatment might. In some states, a first time offender can get 10 years in prison for simple possession while in other's, one can get a 20 year sentence for possession. A decade in jail for having an addiction is not the right answer. Our families are being torn apart by drug addiction, and harsh prison/jail sentences are not helping to resolve the problem. Addiction can be defeated with treatment, not prison.

Our Constitution prohibits excessive bail and yet over 412,000 innocent people sit in jail every day, most, because they can’t afford to pay their bail. Excessive bail can cost the incarcerated their livelihood, homes, and children plus costs America $15.26 billion a year. The money bail system serves only bail bondsman. D.C. has proven that a system that uses public safety and likelihood to return to court as a measurement for release work and that the cash bail system is NOT NECESSARY. This change will: 1. Prevent individuals from remaining in jail due to lack of funds. 2. Stop wealthy/well-connected individuals from being able to get out of jail despite their danger to society and prevent. 3. Bring equity to a system that disfavors those who are not wealthy.

Though President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Trump and several of his allies claimed that the election was fraudulent and pledged to fight when Congress met on Jan. 6 to formally count the votes of the Electoral College. The attempt to invalidate the votes of the electoral college, much less the popular vote of the People of the United States, is a threat to our very democracy. Nebraskans in particular should note, and remember, Smith’s collaboration in such immoral, indecent behavior. Both before and after the seditious riot at our nation’s Capitol building on January 6th, Smith made quite clear that he supports Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors in inciting his followers to fight and move on the Capitol. With ample time between the attack and the resumption of debate on the floor that day, Smith certainly had an opportunity to examine his conscience and choose Country over party. He did not. If there is anything sacred in American political life, the Nation's Capitol itself is surely that. The insurrection on January 6th violated that sanctity. By continuing to promote the vicious falsehoods that prompted the rioters' actions, Smith demonstrated an extreme lack of integrity. He showed no respect for American democracy or the tenets of its constitution, and his representation is an embarrassment to Nebraska and especially the 3rd District that he purports to represent. Smith essentially voted to disenfranchise millions of voters for the sole purpose of handing the election to our disgraced presidential election loser. Not liking the outcome of an election does not give anyone the right to flip the results.

Marjorie Taylor Greene should not be a member of Congress, her Qanon beliefs and conspiracy theory beliefs are dangerous to our country

Because Senator Roger Marshall CONTINUED to support setting aside Americans' presidential votes; because he CONTINUED supporting the lies that Donald Trump won the election and was cheated out of our presidency; because Roger Marshall is not so profoundly stupid as to believe the lies he supports, and could profess them solely for divisive political purposes: because Roger Marshall CONTINUES to support those lies even after personally experiencing the terroristic violence of the division they cause: Roger Marshall has demonstrated he is and will CONTINUE to be an enemy of America's unity and peace. He should be removed from the U.S. Senate.

The three above mentioned men do not represent freedom. They represent elements of tyranny with disenfranchisement, hate rhetoric, promoting distrust of our laws, twisting of the Constitution, and divisive words and actions.

Americans and people around the globe witnessed in horror as a mob stormed the US Capitol on January 6—stopping the certification of the electoral vote, necessitating senators and representatives to be rushed to safety, seeing the capitol building occupied by unscreened agitators, and ending in 5 deaths. And all this encouraged by the outgoing president who continues his unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him and urges his supporters to take action to save the country. Already the plans for the inauguration were being modified to support people staying safe amidst the pandemic. People have been urged to stay home and watch the inauguration on TV. Now there is even more reason to change this to a televised and online event, as those who are disgruntled with the election results have continued to engage in violence to support their cause. We need to put safety first—safety from the pandemic and safety from the threats of violence. We saw with the presidential conventions that changing to an online format can provide opportunities for greater meaningfulness for Americans, most of whom can't be physically present for such historic events. Let's do that for the inauguration. Hold it indoors with physical attendance limited to those specifically involved in the ceremony, and everyone else can participate via TV and online. Further, we insist there be sufficient security at the presidential inauguration to keep everyone who is physically present safe, including President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris. The appalling lack of security and at the electoral vote certification process was completely unacceptable, especially when the protest gathering was publicized in advance. The lack of action on the part of police or any other security officials stood in stark contrast to the kind of security presence and engagement we saw at the nation’s capital and other locations during the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. We call upon you, as members of the Joint Committee of the Congressional Inauguration Committee, to take these two steps to further ensure the safety of the upcoming presidential inauguration for everyone involved. 1) Change it to an indoor event, restricted to those who are involved, with everyone else participating via TV and online. 2) Guarantee that there is adequate and effective security. Thank you.

Many key Senators who have for months supported the incumbent president of the United States and publicly and boldly opposed the certification of the electoral vote count due to election integrity charges changed their stance after being whisked away into "secure locations" in the Capital building during the lockdown. In order to ensure our representation in Congress through these key representative members has not been compromised by intimidation, threats and other forms of illegal or unconscionable coercion we must have an investigation into the preceding hours after these representatives where whisked away to "secure locations".