• Animal Welfare

Nicole is an animal lover and owner of adopted dogs. She has sponsored legislation that would protect those without a voice and worked to improve conditions at animal shelters.

Nicole holds an annual pet adoption event with P.L.U.T.O. Rescue and works to encourage the adoption of pets before they are euthanized. Nicole has sponsored new state laws preventing animal cruelty and sponsored free veterinary care for local pets following Superstorm Sandy.

• Education

Nicole has worked to strengthen parent involvement in our schools and protect vital educational programs, like after-school and community-based Pre-K programs. Her advocacy helped curtail the federal government’s overreach into state and local education decisions and produced significant improvements to Common Core. Nicole wrote a state law responsible for preventing the closure of a local teen intervention center and she has provided a strong voice of opposition to both New York City’s plan to lower admission standards for its specialized high schools and close Gifted and Talented schools.

Nicole also successfully intervened to protect traditional activities like the Father-Daughter Dance and cursive writing education when the New York City sought to eliminate them from our schools. Nicole regularly meets with schoolchildren to promote her anti-littering campaign and encourage a return to discipline and civility in the classroom. Currently, New York City receives nearly $2.5 billion in federal education funding. Nicole will work to ensure that every dollar is spent in the classroom educating students and preparing them for the future, instead of being wasted by the NYC Department of Education’s sprawling bureaucracy.

• Environment

Nicole has been a leader in environmental protection as a member of the State Assembly. She worked to advance state measures to ensure both clean air and clean water and to combat beach erosion. Following Superstorm Sandy, Nicole helped prevent residential development in sensitive area wetlands, wrote a law requiring some neighborhoods destroyed by Sandy to be returned to their natural state and supported a new law requiring state agencies to consider future climate risk due to rising sea levels and storm flooding.

This year, Nicole voted to establish goals for New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and expand the use of renewable energy. As our voice in Congress, Nicole will deliver the federal funding needed to properly maintain Staten Island’s three federal parks.

• Ethics

Nicole has been a leading voice for government reform and transparency. As a member of the State Assembly, Nicole was one of the first to call for the resignation of New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after it was determined that he used taxpayer funds to cover up sexual harassment and abuse by a powerful State Assemblyman and Democratic Party leader.

Nicole also vocally advocated for good government reforms that now disclose every vote taken by members of the State Assembly and she enacted a new state law taking pensions away from elected officials convicted of corruption and betraying the public trust. Unlike Rep. Max Rose, Nicole opposes H.R. 1 which would funnel billions of dollars in taxpayer money to candidates for federal office and, in states and municipalities across the country, led to the abuse of taxpayer money.

• Healthcare

Nicole believes in making comprehensive health care more affordable for children, families and seniors. In the State Assembly, Nicole voted to provide protections to ensure that individuals with pre-existing conditions could purchase health insurance and expand the state’s Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage program to provide lower prescription drug costs for seniors.

Unlike Rep. Max Rose who supports socialized healthcare system that would produce longer wait times and fewer patient choices, Nicole supports efforts to reform and strengthen our system, with an effective safety net to ensure those in need are never denied the care they deserve. Nicole will build on her record in the State Legislature by preventing price gouging by pharmaceutical companies, investing in preventative care — like her vote to promote childhood vaccinations – and ensure that New York hospitals have the resources to both lead the world in medical advancement and deliver lifesaving care.

• Immigration

As the daughter of immigrants, Nicole understands the promise of the American Dream and has advocated for Washington to fix the broken immigration system that has left so many in the shadows. Nicole strongly supports strengthening our border security to help stem the tide of illegal immigration, as well as increased investment in U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Unlike Rep. Max Rose, Nicole opposed the passage of H.R. 6, which would have provided amnesty to more than two million immigrants in the United States illegally and its provisions prohibiting immigration officials from using state and federal gang databases to prevent gang members from accessing this program.

In the New York State Assembly, Nicole has vocally opposed sanctuary city policies and laws providing state tuition assistance and drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. While Nicole successfully led the effort to block legislation allowing illegal immigrants to register to vote in New York State, Rose opposed efforts to stop liberal cities like New York and San Francisco from allowing illegal immigrants to vote in municipal elections. Nicole also sued New York City to prevent the destruction of background documents and other records associated with the IDNYC program, which provides New York City-issued identification cards to undocumented immigrants.

• Job Creation

As the daughter of small business owners who emigrated to this country to build a better life, Nicole has witnessed first-hand the challenges associated with starting a business in New York City. In the State Assembly, Nicole has earned a reputation as an ardent opponent of burdensome regulations, red tape and taxes that make it difficult for businesses to survive and thrive in our communities. A strong supporter of the job-creating power of President Trump’s tax cuts, Nicole also believes in investing more resources in vocational training opportunities, so that those who choose not to attend college can obtain a life skill, earn higher wages and build a career in which they can support themselves and their families.

While Rep. Max Rose joined a partisan effort to undermine President Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, Nicole led the effort in the State Assembly to build public support for the USMCA which will benefit American businesses, workers and consumers. In 2018, New York sent over $17 billion in exports to Canada and Mexico and the USMCA will increase economic activity and job creation in the shipping and container port industry on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn.

• Military

Nicole strongly supports President Trump’s historic investment in our military, including state-of-the-art new equipment and the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade. As a community leader, Nicole worked with Congress to protect Fort Hamilton. As a member of Congress, she will work to continue this investment and protect the Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn and ensure it never closes.

• Quality of Life

Nicole’s highest priority is protecting the quality-of-life in our neighborhoods. She regularly holds volunteer clean-up events in area parks, brought bike rentals to the boardwalk and sponsors health fairs, breast cancer screenings, CPR training, yoga and other free community events. Nicole also organizes prescription drug collection bins in NYPD precincts throughout the area to remove opioids and other highly-addictive drugs from homes.

Nicole has vocally opposed Mayor de Blasio’s plan to close Rikers Island and build jails across the five boroughs, as well as the establishment of supervised injection centers for addicts in our community.

• Seniors

Nicole has spent her career fighting for seniors on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn. She has worked hard to make Access-A-Ride more convenient and protect state funding for local senior centers. Nicole voted to expand the state EPIC program to supplement out-of-pocket Medicare Part D prescription costs for seniors and she is working to provide more financial assistance to seniors caring for an ill spouse. She also helped lower rents for seniors living on fixed incomes.

As a member of Congress, Nicole’s priority will be strengthening both Medicare and Social Security to ensure seniors receive the full benefits of these programs. In addition, Nicole is committed to fighting price gouging and other predatory practices that increase the cost of prescription medications and she will ensure that New York receives its fair share of federal funding for hospitals, senior housing and other senior services.

• Superstorm Sandy

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy hit the shores of New York, taking lives and devastating neighborhoods. Nicole’s State Assembly district was the hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy. Nicole immediately began delivering food, water and clothing, and organized clean-up efforts. She helped hundreds of families throughout the rebuilding process and earned national praise for her project restoring and returning recovered family photos.

In the State Assembly, Nicole led the effort to secure $151 million in state funding for the East Shore Sea Wall. Nicole also wrote a new state law protecting neighborhoods affected by Superstorm Sandy buy-outs from future development. In Congress, Nicole will continue her efforts to ensure the Sea Wall is constructed with no more delays and harden our region’s defenses against future storms.

• Taxes

Nicole strongly supports President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which is responsible for the unprecedented level of job creation and economic growth achieved during the President’s first term but strongly believes Congress must restore the State and Local Tax (“SALT”) exemption to ease the tax burden on hardworking New York families.

In the State Assembly, Nicole proudly voted against tax increases 336 times and, during her campaign for New York City Mayor, she fought against inequity in city property taxes — leading to the creation of a property tax commission to review the entire system. As a proud fiscal conservative with a record of voting against out-of-control spending increases in Albany, Nicole will be a responsible steward of our federal tax dollars and stand up against the liberal tax-and-spend agenda.

• Transportation

Nicole has been a leading advocate for improved public transportation on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn. She successfully fought to restore local bus service, including continuous x1 express service and the restoration of B37 and S93 and weekend service on S76 and X27, and she has been a leader in the effort to upgrade MTA subway signals to Communication Based Train Control to ease overcrowding and end service delays. Nicole sued the Port Authority to require the transparency that led to a multi-trip discount on the Port Authority’s three Staten Island bridges and also waged the public fight to get Governor Cuomo to reduce the Verrazzano Bridge discount for Staten Island

In Congress, Nicole will work to secure New York’s fair share of federal mass transit funding. Currently, New York only receives 16% of federal mass transit funding, while we have over 30% of total national ridership. These resources would help expand service, ease traffic congestion and improve the system’s state of good repair, which is largely responsible for the 70,000 subway delays each month. Unlike Max Rose, Nicole would ensure any attempt to implement two-way tolling on the Verrazzano Bridge results in the surplus being used to lower the toll for Brooklynites and Staten Islanders, not go to the MTA bottomless money pit.

• Veterans

Nicole believes that we must do more to assist the brave men and women who have honorably served our country. In the State Assembly, Nicole successfully fought to restore funding for peer-to-peer counseling and mental health programs for veterans.

She also led the effort to provide free college tuition to the children of military parents who died or were disabled in the line of duty and passed legislation requiring that a portion of state contracts be awarded to service-disabled veterans.

In Congress, Nicole will build upon this record by working to improve health care for veterans and she will prioritize mental health services to combat homelessness and suicide among veterans. This includes necessary funding for the Brooklyn Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, the VA Medical Center in Sheepshead Bay and the Staten Island Community Clinic, as well as Nicole’s support for President Trump’s reforms to provide veterans with community care.

• Public Safety

Like many, Nicole is concerned about public safety following law changes at the city and state level. She vocally opposed Mayor de Blasio’s plan to close Rikers Island as well as fought the establishment of supervised injection centers for addicts in our community. She supports our law enforcement and has been calling for changes to the state’s new bail law that doesn’t consider criminal history or if an individual is a threat to public safety, and includes serious crimes like homicide, strangulation, assault and drug dealing.^[20]

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