Media

When 10-year-old Owen Burkart steps onto the outdoor roller hockey rink in Lynbrook’s Greis Park, his most challenging opponents isn’t always the other team.

Sometimes it’s the sun.

“The sun is always in my eyes because I play goalie,” Owen said, “and it makes it hard to see the puck.”

WASHINGTON — Long Island Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi voted Wednesday to help defeat a proposal to block U.S. aid for Israel’s military over the next fiscal year.

In doing so, they sided with the top Democrat in the U.S. House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn). But they found themselves split off from dozens of progressives and other Democratic colleagues, reflecting expanding fissures within the party’s base about how to handle U.S. relations with Israel.

Congresswoman Laura Gillen has secured several key priorities and advanced $125 million in water project funding for Long Island in the bipartisan Water Resources Development Act of 2026, the two-year water resources infrastructure investments package.

The package advanced out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a unanimous basis. Rep. Gillen’s priorities included bolstering flood risk management, storm damage prevention and coastal restoration in communities across New York’s 4th Congressional District, including in Freeport, Garden City and Long Beach.