News From Our Neighbors

NY & MN AG’s Sue Trump Administration for Unlawful Funding Cuts to Basic Health Program

New York Attorney General Schneiderman and Governor Cuomo announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its abrupt and unlawful cutoff of more than $1 billion in federal funding for New York’s Essential Plan, which provides critical health care to over 700,000 low-income New Yorkers. The Essential Plan, which is New York’s Basic Health Program (BHP), is a state-run health insurance program for low-income New Yorkers created under the Affordable Care Act and primarily funded by the federal government.

The lawsuit, which was filed today by Attorney General Schneiderman and Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, details how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - without adequate justification and in disregard of lawful procedure - withheld legally - required funding owed to New York and Minnesota to operate their BHPs. New York and Minnesota are the only states that operate BHPs, which collectively provide health insurance coverage to over 800,000 residents.

New York’s Essential Plan is extremely successful, with the vast majority of eligible individuals choosing to participate due to the low costs of coverage and generous benefits. Depending on income, some enrollees do not pay any premiums, while others pay at most $20 per month; there is no deductible, and the plan covers preventive care without cost sharing - providing access to critical health care for low-income New Yorkers. Despite New York’s tremendous success in implementing this federally created program, in December 2017 HHS abruptly determined that it would cut off 25 percent of the federal funding owed to New York to operate the Essential Plan - a loss of over $1 billion in mandatory federal funding over just one year. At the same time, and with the same flawed procedures and inadequate justifications, HHS also cut off BHP funding for Minnesota.

While New York and Minnesota submitted proposals to HHS that would restore the states’ funding, HHS failed to respond to those well-supported proposals and instead continued its unlawful and unjustified determination to pay only a portion of the full funding owed.

St. Lawrence County Man Sentenced for Discharging Wastewater into Raquette River

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - Michael J. Ward, 54, of Gouverneur, New York, was sentenced in federal court in Binghamton on Friday, January 26, 2018 to serve a 3 year term of probation, perform 200 hours community service, and pay $1000 fine, after previously pleading guilty to three felony counts of violating the Clean Water Act.

In previously pleading guilty, Ward admitted that between January 2013 and September 2015, while employed as the Technical Director in charge of environmental compliance at the APC Paper Group paper mill in Norfolk, New York, he caused the paper mill to violate its Clean Water Act permit by discharging wastewater containing excessive levels of biochemical oxygen demand (“BOD”) into the Raquette River. He also concealed and falsified data regarding the BOD levels in the mill’s wastewater discharges, thus allowing the mill to violate its Clean Water Act permit on a regular basis. Additionally, he repeatedly falsified monthly reports to the DEC to hide the continuing Clean Water Act violations.

BOD is the amount of dissolved oxygen necessary for microorganisms in the water to break down organic material. BOD levels also provide an index for measuring the effect discharged wastewater will have on the body of fresh water receiving it. In this case, the paper mill’s Clean Water Act permit restricted the amount of BOD that could be discharged through wastewater.

The defendant’s illegal conduct was discovered after APC Paper Group terminated his employment for unrelated reasons in the fall of 2015.

This case was investigated by the United States EPA-CID and the New York State DEC, Division of Law Enforcement and Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigation Unit (BECI), and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Perry.