Assembly Republican leader Will Barclay outlines priorities and criticizes climate mandates and public-safety policy

Will Barclay, the Assembly Republican leader, addressed the chamber after the majority's organizational actions and used his remarks to preview his conference's policy agenda and critiques of the majority.

Barclay congratulated members and said Republicans were prepared to work collaboratively on shared priorities, including expanding child tax relief, creating a substitute-teacher database and a construction fund for daycare centers. He said rising affordability problems have driven 630,000 residents to leave the state since 2020 and urged action to reverse that trend.

He criticized state spending increases over the last five years and called for fiscal restraint: "Incoming revenues, good news, are higher than projected, which means tax increases of any kind should be off the table," he said. Barclay attacked certain public-health measures and called to "bring back the mask ban," stating, "We aren't in a pandemic anymore," and pressed for changes in immigration cooperation after referencing a recent subway killing: "tragically, an illegal immigrant recently killed a woman by setting fire to her on the subway," he said, asking what it would take for local agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Barclay also criticized parts of the New York Climate Act as "unworkable" and "unaffordable," and said his conference will introduce proposals aimed at affordability, public safety, education and transparency. He offered to work with the governor and majority where possible but reserved strong criticism for mandates he described as unrealistic.

Barclay's remarks were delivered as part of the Assembly's opening-day speeches and did not propose or vote on specific bills on the floor; several of his statements—especially the account of the subway killing and the exact figures on population loss—will require verification with law-enforcement, public-health and demographic sources.