Every year, Chuck commits to traveling to all62 counties in New York to meet with constituents.
On June 29th, 2015, Senator Schumer visited Cooperstown Distillery to push for funding needed by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to hire the additional federal inspectors to review and approve expansion, and other permit requests, from distilleries. 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 expand their operations. Schumer said the 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% since 2007. 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.