U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) held a virtual press conference on March 19 calling for a one-off tax rebate for working families struggling amid job losses due to President Trump’s tariffs.

Gillibrand’s Tariff Refunds for Working Families Act would use the billions of dollars in revenue generated by Trump’s tariffs to provide rebates for families making $180,000 or less.

“Working families are struggling amid higher prices and substantial job losses due to President Trump’s reckless tariffs,” said Gillibrand in a statement. “My Tariff Refunds for Working Families Act would provide American consumers with direct tax rebates, delivering real financial relief to families across New York and putting money back directly into their pockets.”

Single filers making $90,000 or less and head of household filers making $120,000 or less would be provided a tax rebate of $600, said Gillibrand’s office. Joint filers making $180,000 or less would receive a tax rebate of $1,200. People with dependent children would receive an additional rebate of $600 per child.

Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. told the Chronicle via email that it comes as no surprise that the man whose mismanagement of six businesses, including a casino, led to bankruptcy, now has the American economy he leads traveling down the same path.

“Here in Queens and across the nation, Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs do nothing but drive up costs for families and small businesses just trying to get by, worsening our already severe affordability crisis and stifling job creation in our communities,” said Richards. “I would support any measure that will combat the devastating impacts of these tariffs and put money back in the pockets of our neighbors.

“The same goes for efforts to rein in the president’s use of tariffs and to reverse sprawling federal layoffs that have left thousands of dedicated public servants unemployed.”

On March 13, The Pew Research Center said the federal workforce shrank 10.3 percent, or a net of 238,000 workers, in Trump’s first year back in office. The Education Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development had the two steepest job cuts, from 4,300 to 2,500 staff and 4,900 to 370, respectively.

The parent agency of the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, AmeriCorps, the Small Business Administration, the National Science Foundation and the agency that overseas Voice of America and other international broadcasters, were just a few others that experienced cuts, according to the nonpartisan research nonprofit.

Federal white-collar workers, who made up 92.1 percent of the workforce in 2024, were more impacted than blue-collar workers White-collar occupations fell 10.6 percent last year while blue-collar occupations fell 6.7 percent, said the research center. Occupational groups with the largest reductions were those in information and the arts (20.6 percent); accounting and budget (17.3 percent); general administrative, clerical and office (17 percent); business and industry (16.4 percent); and human resources management (15.3 percent).

New York City employs 326,000 people in its creative economy alone, but what was the fastest growing sector for the Big Apple is now shrinking as of early 2025, according to Feb. 9 testimony by Eli Dvorkin, an editorial and policy director at the Center for a Urban Future. He spoke at a City Council Committee hearing on Cultural Affairs led by the agency’s chair, Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-St. Albans).

A December 2025 CUF report said 446 organizations throughout the city lost about $15.7 million in funding awarded in 2024 under the Trump administration.

While white-collar workers may be hit the hardest, blue-collar workers have had job losses in nearly every state, according to a March 17 article shared by Gillibrand’s office, by the Center for American Progress, an independent nonpartisan policy institute.

Under former President Biden, there was an average annual blue-collar jobs gain of 14,000 in New York from December 2021 to 2024, according to an interactive jobs chart by CAP. Blue-collar jobs are in fields such as manufacturing, construction, logging and mining and transportation and warehousing and utility industries. Under Trump, the state lost 23,000 cumulative jobs in that industry from April 2025 to December 2025.

Whether New Yorkers receive a tax rebate or a direct refund, they deserve to feel financial relief, said Gov. Hochul’s office to the Chronicle via email.

A jobs report issued from her office in November said the tariffs costs New Yorkers $4,200 annually and could jeopardize 500,000 trade and manufacturing jobs, reducing business investment in the state.

“The Trump Administration owes New Yorkers $13.5 billion and the governor will continue to put pressure on the federal government to deliver this funding and appreciates partners like Senator Gillibrand joining her in that fight,” said Hochul’s spokesperson.

When it comes to transportation and warehousing jobs in New York City, there was a 3 percent gain in jobs from 93,904 jobs in the third quarter in 2024 to 96,697 in the third quarter in 2025. Manufacturing jobs saw a 3.7 percent decline in the same time frame, from 38,326 jobs to 36,894, said the state Department of Labor via email.

In Queens, there were 0.9 percent fewer transportation and warehousing jobs, falling from 75,623 to 74,913, in the same period. Manufacturing jobs fell 6.9 percent, from 15,565 to 14,488, said the DOL.

The other industries with the biggest job losses in the borough are professional and technical services (-4,409); administrative and waste services (-2,839) and construction (-2,420), said the agency.

Gillibrand helped U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduce the tariff refunds legislation on March 12 and is one of the eight original co-sponsors of the bill, including U.S. Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Christopher Coons (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI).

The bill was sent to the Senate’s Finance Committee the same day. There is no companion bill in the House.

“This common sense legislation would return the billions of dollars that the government has collected via illegal tariffs to hardworking families who need relief,” Gillibrand said. “I am committed to getting it across the finish line.”