Legislative Career
First elected to the State Assembly in 2006, Lancman ran uncontested in the 2008 and 2010 general elections. Lancman represented the 25th Assembly District in Queens, which includes the neighborhoods of Hillcrest, Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens Hills, Parkway Village, Briarwood, Flushing, Bowne Park, Broadway-Flushing, Station Road, Auburndale, Kissena Park, Flushing Suburban, Hillcrest Estates, Jamaica Hills and Richmond Hill.
In September 2007, he was named one of City Hall's "40 under 40" for being a young influential member of New York City politics.
Lancman wrote and passed 19 laws during his three terms in the New York State Assembly. His legislation has focused on topics such as homeland security, economic fairness and workplace safety. His work has earned him a reputation as a serious legislator and an aggressive advocate for progressive causes.
Several important homeland security laws were written and passed by Lancman between 2007-2010. Those laws include the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, which protects journalists from overseas libel actions brought by politically motivated opponents, the Freedom to Report Terrorism Act, which protects citizens who reasonably believe they are observing possible terrorist activity and report it to authorities from being sued for damages, and the Non-Profit Homeland Security Preparedness Study Act, which promoted studies to assess the needs of non-profit institutions such as churches and synogages to maintain safety from terrorism. Lancman's Libel Terrorism Protection Act became a nation-wide model adopted by Congress, and Lancman spoke to the British Parliament about his efforts to combat libel tourism that often originates under Britain's commonly abused libel laws.
Lancman also chairs the New York State Assembly Subcommittee on Workplace Safety. Under his leadership, the committee has issued six substantive reports focusing on public sector workplace safety, emergency preparedness in the theater district, H1N1 risk for healthcare workers, and safe patient handling in nursing homes and hospitals. He also wrote and passed the Juvenile Justice Worker Protection Act, which expanded workplace protections to workers in non-profit juvenile justice facilities. Lancman also advocated for the adoption of panic alert buttons in hotels after the Dominique Strauss-Kahn incident, which was later adopted by the hotel industry and the Hotel and Motel Trades Council in a later contract negotiation.
Some of Lancman's other legislative accomplishments include the Access to Justice in Lending Act, which allowed foreclosed-upon defendants who successfully defended their claim against an improper-foreclosure proceeding to receive attorneys fees to pay their legal expenses, and the Jury Pool Fair Representation Act, which required further study on racial representation in jury pools.
Read more about this topic: Rory Lancman
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