Amazon\u2019s chief lobbyist fighting a delivery worker protection bill in New York City recently endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani is Jessica Schumer, the daughter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), according to public lobbying records and three sources with knowledge of the situation.<\/p>\n
The bill, the Delivery Protection Act, would establish safety, training, and labor standards for delivery drivers in New York. All delivery facilities and service providers would need to be licensed with the city\u2019s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and companies that operate warehouses could not contract out deliveries to third parties.<\/p>\n
More from David Dayen<\/a> | Zachary Groz<\/a><\/p>\n That means Amazon, which subcontracts last-mile package distribution to a network of delivery service providers (DSPs), would instead have to directly employ those workers in New York City, forcing the company to take responsibility for traffic accidents, mandatory quotas that deny workers rest or bathroom breaks, and any other violations of the new standards.<\/p>\n Mayor Mamdani endorsed<\/a> the Delivery Protection Act, known as NYC Council Introduction 518 and sponsored by Councilmember Tiffany Cab\u00e1n, on Monday with a splashy video<\/a>. But the bill was first introduced<\/a> in 2023, and reintroduced in subsequent council sessions. The 2026 version has 35 co-sponsors<\/a> among the 51 members of the council, though council Speaker Julie Menin is not among them. (The 2025 version was up to 41 co-sponsors<\/a>, and included Menin, who was an original co-sponsor.)<\/p>\n For nearly a decade, Amazon has deployed its DSP model around the country, depriving workers of Amazon\u2019s benefits and wage structures.<\/p>\n Amazon has worked hard to stop the bill, which would eliminate its decade-long subcontracting business model, by claiming that it would hurt the small businesses it subcontracts with and intimating that the company would move its warehouses out of New York City if the bill passed. This has thus far kept the council from moving forward.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s endorsement raises the stakes for the bill, and sets up a direct and expensive battle with Amazon. Jessica Schumer is leading that effort, sources tell the Prospect.<\/p>\n Amazon and Jessica Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n SCHUMER, A FORMER POLICY DIRECTOR for Tim Kaine when he served as Hillary Clinton\u2019s running mate in 2016, has worked at Amazon since 2020<\/a>, initially as a senior policy director. In January, she became the head of New York policy and community engagement, a euphemism for an in-house lobbyist.<\/p>\n In New York state lobbying disclosures (which also covers municipal lobbying), Schumer is listed<\/a> as one of four lobbyists working for Amazon at the city council. The Delivery Protection Act is named as one of the bills that Schumer and her fellow lobbyists are working on.<\/p>\n The lobbying disclosure indicates that Schumer is the longest-serving member of Amazon\u2019s lobbying team. According to sources, she is the lead lobbyist on the legislation. Schumer \u201chas been in meetings with council members, been doing outreach with council members in opposition to the bill,\u201d said one of the sources. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve heard is that this is by far the most Amazon has ever spent, more than HQ2 lobbying spent, with Jessica Schumer at the helm.\u201d Another source indicated that Amazon would spend more on lobbying against the bill than any corporation seeking to influence legislation at the council this session.<\/p>\n For nearly a decade<\/a>, Amazon has deployed its DSP model around the country. Delivery workers must wear Amazon uniforms, drive vans with Amazon logos, use Amazon equipment, are assigned routes and package deliveries by Amazon, and work out of Amazon facilities\u2014but they are not classified as Amazon employees. This deprives DSP workers of Amazon\u2019s benefits and wage structures, and makes it harder to seek union rights. The National Labor Relations Board this year determined<\/a> that Amazon was not a joint employer with DSPs, and could not be held accountable for any safety violations or union avoidance at those contractors.<\/p>\n Critics have argued that Amazon\u2019s package requirements force DSP workers to act recklessly, speed through deliveries, and even urinate in bottles to save time. Average pay for DSP drivers is almost half<\/a> that of drivers for UPS. In New Jersey, the state attorney general recently filed an antitrust lawsuit<\/a> against the company for subjecting DSP workers to dangerous and brutal conditions while suppressing their pay. The complaint says that Amazon is abusing monopsony power, as a dominant buyer of delivery worker labor.<\/p>\n Bill supporters say the DSP model has had a pronounced impact in New York City, where traffic injuries have risen<\/a> by significant numbers on the streets surrounding DSP locations, including by around 50 percent near two facilities in Queens. Eleven new last-mile facilities have opened in New York City since 2020.<\/p>\n Amazon has strongly opposed the legislation, arguing in city council testimony<\/a> that dismantling their subcontracting setup would destroy more than 40 small businesses in New York that operate as DSPs, employing roughly 5,000 people. (The bill includes an employee retention clause that in theory would require Amazon to offer to rehire DSP workers.) In the testimony, the company made a veiled threat that it would have to \u201cseriously examine how we could still meet our commitment to New Yorkers\u2014which includes the potential for relocating operations and delivery facilities outside of New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, when the council first heard the bill, Amazon brought in dozens of DSP workers to testify against it, providing them with $70 in Uber vouchers<\/a> so they could make the hearing, according to Streetsblog NYC.<\/p>\n THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME that Sen. Schumer\u2019s family members have spawned controversy in relation to Big Tech legislation. In 2022, when Congress was working on tech regulations, including legislation to prevent tech platforms from \u201cself-preferencing\u201d their own offerings over rivals on their sites, Schumer was criticized<\/a> because his daughters worked at Amazon and Facebook. There were other signs, including that over 80 former Schumer staffers<\/a> were working directly or indirectly for Big Tech companies. Schumer was also raising significant sums for the 2022 midterms from Silicon Valley, just as the bills were being debated.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the self-preferencing bills did not come up for a vote despite the authors claiming they had enough support to pass. Schumer was held responsible<\/a> by many progressives for killing the legislation.<\/p>\n The story about Schumer\u2019s daughters was arguably not as relevant then, since neither of them did any lobbying on federal legislation. At the time, Jessica Schumer was a registered lobbyist in New York state for Amazon. But today, she is working directly to block the delivery worker protection bill in New York City. And as a leader of the Democratic Party nationally and in New York, Sen. Schumer has always had an interest in the nation\u2019s largest city, where his political career got started. His name recognition alone may add significant pressure to local lawmakers, cautious not to upset a national leader with the ability to bring back funding to the city from the federal purse.<\/p>\n