Every year, Chuck commits to traveling to all62 counties in New York to meet with constituents.
On April 20, 2015 Schumer pushed for funding needed by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to hire additional federal inspectors to review and approve now-delayed permit applications needed by distilleries, breweries, and wineries to open, expand, and sell their products. Schumer said that TTB inspectors are in charge of auditing and reviewing requests such as bond approvals, production licenses, recipe formulas, product labels, and more that are critical for New York distilleries, breweries, and wineries to open and expand their operations. However, Schumer said the current shortage of federal inspectors means distilleries can wait for hundreds of days to have their requests approved. According to industry data, the licensed beverage industry has grown by 53 percent since 2007, while the number of inspectors has decreased by 10 percent. In New York State alone, since 2012, the number of breweries has increased more than 100% to 207 breweries. The number of distilleries has grown to 87 and wineries to over 400. Schumer said the growth in the industry TTB regulates has stretched the federal agency to its limits and has led to huge backlogs in bond, permit, recipe and labeling applications companies need to get off the grown or expand.