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Amazon’s 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.
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’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and companies that operate warehouses could not contract out deliveries to third parties.
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.
Mayor Mamdani endorsed the Delivery Protection Act, known as NYC Council Introduction 518 and sponsored by Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, on Monday with a splashy video. But the bill was first introduced in 2023, and reintroduced in subsequent council sessions. The 2026 version has 35 co-sponsors 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, and included Menin, who was an original co-sponsor.)
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.
Mamdani’s 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. Amazon and Jessica Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Schumer, a former policy director for Tim Kaine when he served as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, has worked at Amazon since 2020, 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.
In New York state lobbying disclosures (which also covers municipal lobbying), Schumer is listed 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.
The lobbying disclosure indicates that Schumer is the longest-serving member of Amazon’s lobbying team. According to sources, she is the lead lobbyist on the legislation. Schumer “has been in meetings with council members, been doing outreach with council members in opposition to the bill,” said one of the sources. “What I’ve heard is that this is by far the most Amazon has ever spent, more than HQ2 lobbying spent, with Jessica Schumer at the helm.” 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. |
