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Senate Finance Committee Chair John A. DeFrancisco and Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chair Herman D. Farrell, Jr. today announced the Joint Legislative Budget Hearings will continue on Tuesday, February 8, with Environmental Conservation.

During this hearing, government officials and leaders of New York's environmental organizations will have an opportunity to address the Assembly and Senate fiscal committees.

These joint legislative hearings will continue through March 3, 2011 and are available for live viewing on the Senate and Assembly websites and the Legislative Channel (available on cable systems throughout the state), but will be preempted when the houses are in session. At the conclusion of legislative deliberations, live televised coverage of the hearings will resume.

Among those scheduled to testify are: the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Joe Martens, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation Acting Commissioner Andy Beers, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Acting Commissioner Darrell Aubertine, and NYSERDA President and CEO Francis J. Murray, Jr.

Also scheduled to testify are: Audubon of New York Executive Director Albert Caccese and Director Sean Mahar, New York Farm Bureau Director Julie Suarez, Nature Conservancy Director Jessica Ottney, and Environmental Advocates of New York Director Allison Jenkins.