NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Mayor Eric Adams will head back to Washington, D.C., this week for a series of meetings on the migrant crisis, City Hall said late Monday amid news that the city comptroller revoked the mayor's power to strike emergency deals with contractors providing services for migrants.
Mayoral spokesman Fabien Levy confirmed on X Tuesday night that Adams will return to the nation's capital Thursday, about a month after he abruptly cut short a trip there and returned to New York after the FBI raided his top fundraiser's home in Brooklyn.
"[The mayor] will travel to Washington, DC on Thursday for a series of meetings to once again discuss the needs of NYC and other cities nationwide to manage the asylum seeker crisis," Levy wrote. "This will be at least his 10th trip to DC where he has discussed this issue since last year."
The mayor has been trying to secure federal money to pay for migrant services that are estimated to cost the city $12 billion over three years.
Word of the mayor's upcoming trip came amid news that Comptroller Brad Lander, the city's chief financial officer, had unilaterally revoked emergency powers granted to City Hall in November 2022 that allowed the mayor to quickly push through some $1.4 billion in migrant service contracts without pre-approval from Lander. The curbing of those powers is seen as a major blow for the mayor as the crisis continues unabated.
Lander's office notified City Hall of the revocation last Thursday, according to a letter obtained by the Daily News late Monday. The comptroller's office indicated at least part of the reason for the change was a failure by city agencies to report issues with subcontractors.
Lander's spokesperson Chloe Chik said in a statement to the Daily News that a comptroller review found "extensive failures to report subcontractors despite problems that surfaced with many of them."
"In response, we concluded that the most prudent course for the city’s fiscal health and integrity would be to require City Hall to seek prior approval before using emergency procurement on a case-by-case basis," Chik said.
A spokesman for Adams, Charles Lutvak, responded to the revocation, saying, "the comptroller tying our hands behind our back is unfair to both new arrivals and longtime New Yorkers and will unquestionably slow down every step in the process."
At a town hall in Harlem on Monday night, Adams told a crowd that their anger over the crisis should be vented at the Biden administration, not him.
"Instead of saying, 'Eric, what are you going to do about it,' shouldn't we be asking the national government, who created this problem?" the mayor said. "They’ve turned their backs on our children. I'm not turning our backs on our children."
Adams defended his administration's handling of the crisis, saying it's been left to handle a national issue at the local level.
"There's one thing that's clear—this should not be on our backs, folks," the mayor said. "You're angry and I'm angry. This is costing us $12 billion over three years, $5 billion this fiscal year."
More than 140,000 migrants have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022. The city has opened over 210 emergency shelters in response, including 18 large-scale facilities termed "humanitarian relief centers."