FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Becky Miller

RMiller@NYGOP.org

518.462.2601

Albany, NY – Jan. 20…New York’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-WFP), who has refused to say whether she read her own legislation that could drive thousands of information-industry jobs out of New York and forever damage Internet-based industry here, needs to come clean to New Yorkers on why she sponsored a bill so damaging to Empire State job growth, the New York Republican State Committee today said. The Internet industry is one of New York’s fastest growing job sectors

The job-killing Gillibrand legislation called the “Protect IP Act” (PIPA) would fundamentally change the make-up of the Internet and give government bureaucrats the authority to block public access to thousands of websites — the way China, Iran, and North Korea do. Ms. Gillibrand’s bill – which even she is now opposing – is being loudly panned by the founders and employees of Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, PayPal, Firefox, Ebay, Craig’s List, Wikipedia, The Huffington Post, and Netscape, among others.

Hollywood entertainment bigwigs were the bill’s major proponents.

“There are only three possible explanations for Senator Gillibrand’s sponsorship of this anti-New York legislation,” New York State Republican Chairman Ed Cox said. “One: Ms. Gillibrand didn’t read the legislation before co-sponsoring it. Two: She read the bill and didn’t understand it. Or three: She understood the bill, but decided to support Hollywood’s interests over the interests of her own state.” (Senator Gillibrand has received more than $610,000 from the Hollywood/entertainment industry in the past year.)

Chairman Cox posed three questions to Senator Gillibrand, which he says she must answer in the interest of government transparency – something the Senator has repeatedly called for herself:

1. Did you read the PIPA legislation before sponsoring it?

2. If you read it, why did you sponsor it when it was clearly damaging to NY?

3. Did you discuss the legislation with any contributors before sponsoring it?

“New York State is ranked the worst state in America for business growth, and misguided bills like this one show exactly how we’ve gotten into this mess,” Chairman Cox continued. “It would be instructive for all of us to learn the thinking behind Ms. Gillibrand’s sponsorship of this debacle.”