Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Slams Washington Republicans for Threatening New Yorkers’ Jobs, Small Businesses and Health Care in the North Country

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul slammed Washington Republicans for threatening the jobs, small businesses and health care of New Yorkers throughout the North Country. Impacts of federal tariffs and dangerous rhetoric have already harmed 66 percent of regional businesses that rely on Canadian tourism — putting one in four of the industry’s jobs at risk. Washington’s senseless trade war has also threatened the region’s vital agriculture industry, which generates more than 8,600 jobs for local residents and over $1 billion in Gross Regional Product. Meanwhile, the federal budget cuts pushed by Republicans threaten to take away health care for 44,000 North Country residents and slash food assistance for nearly 90,000 people throughout the region – including tens of thousands of children.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: Governor’s Hochul speaks on impact of federal immigration policies to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's event remarks are available in audio form here.

AUDIO: Governor’s remarks on impact of federal immigration policies available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you. Thank you. That's why I'm not leaving the North Country. I feel the love. I feel the North Country love and it's amazing. It's so great to be back here.

I don't know if you know this, some of you may have heard the story. I've been coming here since I was a little girl. I know many of your families are generational. And we couldn't afford one of the nice houses, but we always brought a station wagon and a camper pulled behind it and we'd pop it up. And there were eight of us — one camper, one station wagon. I remember a lot of times camping and we couldn't really go into the town because, you know, restaurants were too expensive for us. Even some of the diners. Making the pancakes on the frying pan and it’s pouring out, you had really soggy pancakes over the fire.

But this is a place that, just a place of renewal for me, and I hope those of you who call the North Country your home, whatever part of it, never lose the sense of awe about this extraordinary place on earth that God gave us to protect our natural assets, the great beauty. The charming hamlets, above all the people. The people up here are so hardworking, they're so resilient. People here can handle anything.

Heat waves, bring it on. Forest fires from Quebec, bring it on. Blizzards, bring it on. You're tough here. But I've seen this region grow and evolve, you know, bringing my own children up here too, and. I just want tell you, it's, I'm really so touched by what we've done here and so many more opportunities we have, and I do want to acknowledge a few people have joined us here today, and I mentioned my children, they do have a father, and he happens to be your very first New York State first gentleman because you never had a woman Governor before. So, ladies and gentlemen, my husband, Bill Hochul is here — going on 41 years and so that has been a gift to me. Yes, indeed. Yeah.

We also have Assemblymember Billy Jones, a great, great leader in our state capital. Yay, Billy. I am a little partial to local government officials. I spent 14 years on a town board with a great supervisor, and you have one of the best Jordanna Mallach, I want to thank her for — cross endorsed no opposition. How do you do that? But it must mean you're doing the right thing. And I want to thank you. And I also want to recognize that Mayor Jimmy Williams is here. The Village of Saranac Lake has joined us. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you. And you'll be hearing from the people who were just introduced, our entire speaking program, and I have a little chance to gather with you afterward.

But I was here — been coming here a lot, but on a professional level. I was here in 2014 when I was just running for Lieutenant Governor, becoming Lieutenant Governor, and I was one of the first people to walk through the Hotel Saranac when it was under construction. Who was with me on that day? I have not — I've not warmed up since then. There was no heat in the building. It was the winter time and I literally — were you with me, Billy? Was that the coldest day of the year? And like, and I'm thinking this would be a really quick visit because it is about 30 degrees in here. We went on for an hour, all the nooks and crannies had to show me this — I literally went across the street to the little store and bought some slippers that were really warm and wore them for the rest of the day. So to see the transformation of something that was abandoned and it just kind of was mocking saying, the best days are behind us. That was never the case because people never gave up believing. And that is just a beautiful place and I'm so looking forward to stopping over there later.

And you know, I've mentioned, you know, we announced, I was here when we did the DRI, the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Who was involved in that project? That was, you know, Penn, Penn Dragon Theater funding for that and so many other initiatives. I don’t know who was with me that night. We were literally dancing in the park. Anybody? No, you don't remember this. I’ve got a better memory than all of you. But, and also what we're doing with the historic Trudeau home down the street and, and the work we're doing, that's beautiful, multimillion dollar restoration this weekend and bringing, bringing more visitors here to showcase the incredible history of not just this community, but the entire North Country.

And everything from the Wild Center to the Adirondack Museum. I've been to it all. I was actually at the Wild Center. They had me, it was a day, it was thundering and lightning and they had me going up in that little bird nest. It was like, I'm not sure this is very smart, but okay. But also all the grants we've had over $20 million in NYSCA grants. And if you're an arts group, you know about NYSCA, everything from upgrades and new commissions. We believe in it.

Now, we also love our Olympic facilities up here. $725 million for the ORDA facilities because we know what an economic driver that is. Who's been on the Adirondack Rail Trail? I know Lee Key has been. Where's Lee? $13 million, people talked about for a long time. We got it done. So when I say I know this region, I love this region, I mean it, just a strong sense of identity here, a strong sense of community, a strong sense of momentum. But I tell you all this with great love and admiration for this part of our state. But because of that, I had to come here today and tell you why this moment in time is very perilous.

It's dangerous, right now because of the decisions being made in Washington as we speak, that this area is under siege. We're being pulled back by Washington and we cannot have this happen because there's such a vibrant economy here. Our relationship with Canada means everything. It is so important to us. You know the effective tariffs that if you just got the news alert, it was not good. Turn off your cell phones if you want to enjoy the rest of the day. But basically the President just announced that all conversations about trade with Canada are shut down. We're not going to continue any more conversations. So, that's a newsflash. We've got that challenge. The response of the Canadians to the talk of making it a 51st state. That hurts them. They feel betrayed. I met the leaders from the Eastern Canadian Provinces. Met with the leader of Ontario, I met with people from Quebec, I met with New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, I met with all of them with Governors from the Northeast who were trying to say, “What can we do to heal this relationship? It's everything. You're not another country, you're our neighbors. You're our friends. You come here, we go there. We celebrate each other.”

And they said, “There's nothing you can do right now,” because they're so hurt, so wounded. I won't give up on that, but I just want to tell you, today was another setback. And I didn't want you to just hear from me because I can give it the whole list of what's going on with agriculture and our health care system, tourism, I want you to hear from the people who live this every day who aren't sleeping as well tonight or this past few weeks or past few months, knowing that there's programs in place that we benefit from, we want to keep them going; we're not asking for more, just don't give us less. Don't cut us off. So I wanted you to hear directly because I need you mobilized, and I'll get to that a little bit later. But you need to know what's at stake here. And like I said, we'll just start with something like tourism.

People love coming here and during the pandemic, so many people who never left, they think Westchester is the North Country and Upstate. A lot of people from New York City — a large population base — they came up here and explored and they fell in love as well.

People from other states have discovered this area from all over. Tourism is our bread and butter up here. We know how special we are. You've got the breathtaking mountain views and the world class institutions, but tourism powers 20,000 jobs just right here in these small communities, and it's about $1.7 billion in visitor spending. That's a lot of money that we need to keep coming.

But as I mentioned, these new rounds of tariff fights and trade fights, with the Canadians not coming, this is going to continue choking this region. You're going to be able to get easier reservations in the restaurants, but we don't want that. We want them crowded. We want our hotels booked, our streets populated with people who are going to shop. I'm here to shop, but I can't make up for all the Canadians that aren't coming. I'm not going to even try, honey, don't worry. But we're here to say, we're still their friends, we want you to keep coming. But I think this is going to be hurting for a while.

We actually have 400,000 fewer Canadian visitors already this year. This is not even a year. This is just since 2025 compared to the same time last year. The Ogdensburg and Champlain Bridge crossings, they're down nearly 30 percent. Now, Garry Douglas, who is the eternal optimist, and I love him for that, you'll be hearing from him. He says that still means 70 percent are coming. Great perspective, Gary, but I want the 30 percent back. I want to be where we were, right? We didn't do anything. We're just living our lives, working hard, and it's just the policies and decisions that are made elsewhere that have such an effect on all of us.

The North Country Chamber of Commerce says businesses, hospitality are down 20 to 25 percent. It's just the beginning of summer. It's just the beginning. The Malone Golf Club alone, they said they've lost $400,000 in Canadian tourism dollars that they used to count on. I don't know how you pay the bills. I don’t know how you pay your staff, how you keep the lights on. So tourism's taken a hit. We know that, it might get worse before it gets better with the way things are evolving, even just today.

But let's talk about something that all of us rely on that we cannot live without, literally, and I'm talking about health care. And here's an area, another area, it does not have to be this way. And I'm not giving up hope, but congressional Republicans who are in the majority, backed by Donald Trump, have passed a budget that slashes $13.5 billion from New York's health care system, including $357 million just in the North Country alone. We cannot sustain those cuts, and the State of New York is not going to be able to backfill that. We don't have that much money to be able to do it, and that's what is literally being contemplated now.

Now here's the political fact — and this is not about campaigns and elections, this is stating the truth — every Republican in the New York delegation voted for that plan. But there may be another opportunity to do the right thing. That's where your voices matter.

And so, health insurance coverage: it would take it away from 1.5 million New Yorkers, including 44,000 people in this region who will not have health care. Do you think that means they're going to always be healthy? They'll never get sick? No. They're going to be walking into our hospitals, the ones that are still standing, as their primary care visitors, running up the cost even more. They're still going to need help. People get sick. Little kids need attention. People have babies. What do we do with 44,000 people without health care?

One out of three people living in the North Country rely on Medicaid. Now, you take away that, a lot of people say, “Medicaid's for the poor people, that's not me.” Guess what? It's your parents or grandma and grandpa in the nursing home. It's your kids and your neighbors with disabilities. And you destabilize our communities, you hurt health care, you hurt our hospitals. Even if you're not on Medicaid and you go to a hospital, the lines are going to be a lot longer, the services may not be there because they're going to have to scale back based on these cuts too.

So it affects the entire community. And already many of our hospitals in the North Country are at risk. They operate on razor thin margins, and they serve large Medicaid populations. So, not just for Medicaid patients, remember this, it'll affect everyone.

And then, health care is basic. Food is basic. Now, if you're fortunate to not even know what SNAP stands for, that's great, but a lot of your neighbors rely on SNAP benefits, a federal program that helps people to be able to pay for fresh food and be able to feed their families. It's another safety net that’s threatened by federal cuts.

Nearly 90,000 of your neighbors rely on SNAP benefits. That's extraordinary. A third of them, little kids. I'm New York's first mom Governor. I'm proud of that. But it makes me think — when I think about little kids not getting food or their tummies growling when they're supposed to be in class because they didn't have enough, because programs like this were cut, that just hits me right here and all the parents out there.

And it’s also not just for preventing hunger, it helps support our incredible agricultural community. The most resilient people. The hardest working in the world are our farmers. I was proud to represent one of the most rural communities in the State of New York as a member of Congress, I knew almost every farmer by name.

One county was big in dairy, they had 40,000 cows and 20,000 people. I even knew all the cow's names. I mean this is who I am, I understand the importance of dairy and the crops, and it feeds all of us from here to New York City and around the world it used to feed Canada. But these SNAP programs bring in dollars that they can count on, so they know there's a market for their products.

It keeps dollars in our communities and foods on the table. We lose that, the farmers feel the pain as well. Agriculture is almost 9,000 jobs in the region and contributes $1.1 billion dollars to the economy. See what I'm adding up here, It's starting to be a big effect isn't it? It's so important to us and tariffs are driving up the cost for farmers and everybody.

Let me tell you, just back in February, tariffs had just started. I brought together farmers from particularly the North Country, but mostly upstate. I brought them together in the Capitol and said just tell me what's going on – what are you seeing? One farmer said, “well we used to get part of our fertilizer ingredients that are only made in Canada and Ukraine.”

Those costs went up, the shavings from the wood we had put in our stalls came from Canada. He says, “my costs already in February had gone up $10,000 a month,” he says, “and they're going to get worse.” And then they lost the markets that they had for their products overseas in Canada. So it is so hard for our farmers, any farmers in this room – anybody know a farmer in this room – and this is one of the toughest businesses. Let's hear it for our farmers. Let's hear it for our farmers.

As Washington walks away from its responsibilities right here, we will step up and do what's right – and that's why my administration has made record investments in agriculture. $10 million for farm to school meaning the farmers know they can sell to our schools – and we're focusing on making sure that our state agencies and everybody buy more food from New York Farms to keep them strong and healthy. When they succeed our communities succeed.

We're also protecting healthcare, we expanded the essential plan in offering more services. I mentioned 1.5 million New Yorkers who don't have to worry about it. Now compared to the rest of the country, our uninsured rate is only 5 percent, one of the lowest in the nation.

That means when people do get sick, they have an avenue, they have someone who's going to take care of them. They don't have to worry about bankrupting their family because of medical bills ,and something I'm really proud and excited about our last budget. We work so hard, those of you keeping score will know it was a little late.

But guess what happens when it's late, I've got a lot more power okay. So I'm okay with late. Sorry – sorry Billy it's true right, it's true. Okay, I'm fine, I'm seven for seven and everything I said I'm not leaving town without so. But one of them is focusing on people, just everyday families, hardworking New York families and putting more money back in their pockets.

When I gave my State of the State address back in January, I said “your family is my fight.” I'll do everything I can to help you with those bills, utility bills, and mortgage bills, and education bills, and the grocery bills that are so high. I said we're going to figure out a way to do this. So through middle class tax cuts, the largest rate decrease in seventy years, expanding the child tax credit.

So children, families with children under four years old will get a thousand dollars, older kids five hundred dollars – It adds up. We're covering the cost of school, breakfast and lunches – it adds up. And our inflation rebate, what is that I'm going to tell you this because some people criticize this. People criticize us giving money to New Yorkers.

You go figure that one out, because of inflation you paid more for everything. Am I telling you anything you don't know? Everything was higher, but the state of New York got a windfall because we collect sales tax on every purchase. So we raised about an extra $3 billion, and I immediately said that's not our money.

That's money that came from New Yorkers that they weren't expecting to pay. Let's give it back to them so families will be able to get upwards of $300, $400, even more dollars back in their pockets. And if that doesn't seem like a big deal to you, then you're not shopping with the same people I am when I'm walking through the discount grocery stores, with people looking at the price of everything from eggs to diapers, because this means something to people.

So add it all up – everything I just mentioned. $5,000 back in the pockets of New York families, and it's starting right away. That's how we start making the difference.

For adults who are still trying to figure out what they want to do, or they thought about going to college or community college. We have great community colleges up here, thought about it, but it's just too expensive. We have so many industries and I've identified a handful of them. We have vacancies, we have high demand industries and professions where I don't have enough workers.

So healthcare, I need more healthcare workers. I need more people in advanced manufacturing. As we continue to expand, I've got people in the green energy jobs, so people willing to go into those jobs. Adults 25 to 55, we'll pick up the cost of your education at a community college. It'll help fill the seats in our community colleges, but also give people a chance to live up to their full capacity, and get a good paying job and contribute, pay taxes.

So that's something else we're doing for families of people who just struggle and we have 10,000 people signed up for this fall. One woman said “I've always dreamed of going and becoming a nurse, I never had enough money to go to school.” $8,000 for her to cover that cost at community college will change her life forever – and it serves the purpose for us. That's what smart policies are all about.

So New York State – so to my friends here in the North Country, this is a vibrant growing region. I have talked to many businesses who want to come here and I'm going to continue incentivizing them and encourage them. It's part of our identity as a state. I'm proud of that enormously and to every healthcare worker in Saranac Lake or anywhere else, every hotel owner up in this area, every family farmer, every parent that's watching prices climb.

I want you to know this – I have your back, I will always have your back. I will fight for you, I'll make sure that you have what you need to survive. You're not going to be forgotten. But in closing, let me tell you this. I laid out a fairly dark depressing scenario right. I'm just trying to give you a reality check, I really am, because I'm seeing enormous power in this room. Enormous power to affect change and one thing we know, the North Country believes in miracles. 45 years ago, 45 years ago the Miracle on Ice shocked the world.

Put all the eyes on our small communities up here and what was happening when a small scrappy team stood up to the entrenched interest of Russia and won. So, I believe in the North Country Miracle too, I really do. If we can harness the power of all your voices, we'd only need to persuade one or two Republican legislators to say please put your district first, please fight for us. Take care of our tourism and our issues about tariffs, and take care of our families, and take care of our farmers and our healthcare. Just be on our side and you don't have to vote for this when it comes back, you don't have to. No one's making you do that, and with that pressure, and that message, saying fight for us because we deserve it.

We put you in office now, please take care of us. We can have the most extraordinary change of events that'll not just help the North Country, but the entire nation. I believe that all of you have the power to win this game, and it's not a hockey game we're talking about. We're talking about life, about life.

Are you with me, as we fight for a North Country miracle, can we get that done, everybody? Let's fight hard to get that done, let's get that change done, I know we can do it, I know we can do it. So thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you everyone. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[...]

Before we close for today, I hope you have a chance to reflect on all the voices you heard from your neighbors. We didn't bring them from other parts of the state. These are the people who live and work among you, an anxious farmer worried about where his workers are going to come from. People in healthcare, not sure how they're going to provide services if Medicaid is cut the way they're talking about it. People in charge of economic tourism and development, hoping that our friends will keep coming here and what that means for our local businesses and will we survive this. This is not a political event, but there is politics at play here and all of us are citizens of a great country where the body politic is all of you.

All of us have a responsibility to stand up and call it out or else it'll be too late. That is the threat we're facing right now, and I'm not one to exaggerate, but we have to stop this bill from happening and these policies have to be stopped – and you have the most powerful voices. You have an influential member of Congress who can do the right thing tomorrow, right.

We can – listen I'm going to give everybody, I have hope. Because I know that when your voices are amplified, when you leave here and you get to everybody in your network and their network and all the ways you influence people. Whether it's social media or sitting at the corner bar, your voices must be lifted up at this moment of time because the rest of the country is counting on us. They want that miracle in the North Country that I've promised them.

That's why I came up here not just because it's a beautiful place, but because of the beautiful people who care. And before I leave, I have to think about again what Mike Murphy talked about when he mentioned what happened to the family in Sackets Harbor. I didn't sleep for two weeks wondering the whereabouts of a third grader and her teenage twin brothers and their mother.

I got a call from the farmer, I'm sure our politics are probably not in alignment, rather certain of that. But he called me with such desperation, literally old McDonald's farm, and he said, “I tried calling our local congresswomen, there's two that represent the county.” Two people could have stepped up and called Washington and said stop this insanity. These are hardworking people.

They've been coming here for years and the dad wasn't there at 6:00 a.m. When ICE agents came blasting through the door bearing guns with their faces covered, they must have been terrorized thinking that someone's going to kill them. Who are these people? Imagine the trauma on a little girl to see that dad's not home because where's dad?

Dad's already out milking the cows at 6:00 a.m. because that's what hardworking immigrants do. He should have to come back and they place this family in a van and keep them there for a long time while they're searching for someone else. They had that person, they could have left this family alone. I'm still so spitting angry when I think about this, and they were taken away.

No one knew where they were and I'll tell you what gave me such hope when this community rose up, everybody rose up. This community, the school superintendent, the principals, the neighbors, the other farmers, and Scott Gray the Assemblymember.

Yeah I know Scott and local county legislators. Billy, others stood up and said “we're not going to tolerate this,” and I got on the phone with Tom Homan. I didn't count on a call like that, It's his hometown, it was his hometown. He knows Sackets Harbor – he knows how tight this community is and I called and said “I want that family brought home, you cannot do this. You said you were going to go after the worst of the worst. You're going after the criminals. The bad people, the drug traffickers, the human traffickers, I'm okay, get rid of them.”

I said this in Congress under grilling for eight solid hours. I said, “I will help you get rid of them. I don't want any person here who's going to violate our laws or hurt other people.”

That's okay, but you didn't say you're going to go after little kids and separate families and leave farmers without their workers. And I spent time in Congress and I introduced a bill, so dairy farmers could get year-round workers legally. I was in the minority of a Republican Congress and they said no. It would've been a simple resolution for our industry, one of the greatest in the country, our dairy industry.

We can't take no anymore for an answer from them. We just can't, we just can't. We have voices, we have power, we have influence and it's time for us to say, “you say yes, or you go.”

Thank you everyone.