\n"); echo(' Thank you, Donna Lieberman, for your generous introduction, but more importantly, thank you for your leadership of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

I and my Assembly Majority colleagues are delighted to welcome the Women's Equality Coalition to our State Capitol.

May I ask the members of the Assembly Majority to come up and join me here at the podium. You know Assembly Members Barbara Lifton, Pat Fahy, Deborah Glick, Nily Rozic, and Shelly Mayer.

They, in addition to our Legislative Women's Caucus led by Assembly Member Michelle Titus, and our Task Force on Women's Issues led by Assembly Member Addie Russell, give women a strong, wise and influential voice in our government.

For years, we have been working in partnership with members of this coalition, fighting for your agenda, and advancing legislation that we crafted with you to address the inequality faced by New York women day after day.

We proudly support the Women's Equality Agenda, each and every point, because it is and always has been, the Assembly Majority's agenda.

With your drive and with your leadership, we believe that this will be the year your equality agenda is signed into law. There are two reasons to be optimistic.

First, we finally have a governor who is putting the full weight of his office behind the Women's Equality Agenda.

Second, history is on our side.

Some of you will remember the cold, dark days of 24-hour drive-through deliveries and drive-through mastectomies. We put an end to those.

Remember when insurance companies refused to cover the costs of mammography screenings, bone density exams, cervical cancer tests, and reproductive services?

We put an end to that, too.

Just as time and pressure transform coal into diamonds, so time and pressure will transform our Women's Equality Agenda into law in 2013.

This must be the year when the law requires that women and men receive equal pay for equal work.

This must be the year when we strengthen orders of protection to shield women from those who threaten their safety.

This must be the year when the law requires that all women receive fairness in housing and in the workplace whether they are victims of domestic violence, pregnant, have children, or are receiving public assistance.

You can be certain of this:

We will always support a woman's right to reproductive health services. We will always support a woman's right to choose.

The Assembly Majority stands with this coalition today and every day.

By working together and by fighting this crucial fight each and every day, we can build a New York for women, a New York where there are no second-class citizens.

We are with you. Thank you for having me here, today.