1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

New York should build a stronger, permanent partnership with New Jersey and Connecticut through a standing Tri-State agenda that treats our shared challenges as regional priorities—not separate state problems. Our states are connected by one economy, major transportation networks, housing pressures, environmental risks, and millions of people who cross state lines every day to work, receive care, study, and visit family. A more active partnership could coordinate climate resilience, clean-energy development, disaster preparedness, affordable housing, tenant protections, and dependable transit and infrastructure. It could also strengthen public safety while respecting civil liberties, establish shared data-privacy and cybersecurity standards, and create joint consumer- and financial-protection tools to fight fraud, identity theft, and corporate efforts to exploit tax loopholes or play states against one another. The Tri-State region could also coordinate public-health preparedness, Medicaid administration, prescription-drug purchasing, and access to affordable care, while seriously studying legally and financially viable options for broader regional public coverage. Shared work on childcare, education, workforce development, and cost-of-living relief would help working families stay and succeed here. Most importantly, this partnership would give New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut a practical way to counterbalance a federal government when its policies undermine the Tri-State area or the values and goals that bind us together. When federal action weakens environmental safeguards, threatens health-care access, neglects infrastructure, erodes privacy, favors corporate loopholes, or makes the region less affordable, our states should be prepared to act collectively. By coordinating policy, resources, enforcement, and advocacy, the Tri-State area can protect its residents, preserve its economic strength, and provide a model of capable regional leadership.