Pete Grannis Profile Pete Grannis was first elected to the Assembly in 1974 and represents the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. He serves as a full-time legislator.

Mr. Grannis, as chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee since 1992, has authored landmark legislation on behalf of consumers, including New York's precedent-setting Community Rating/Open Enrollment law which revolutionized the way small group and individual health insurance policies are sold in the state. As a result of his work, New York banned health care discrimination in the individual and small group markets on the basis of a person's age, sex, health condition or occupation and, for the first time, provided complete portability of health insurance coverage by closing gaps in the law which had allowed consumers to lose their coverage when they changed jobs or insurers. In 2006, Mr. Grannis negotiated a new law requiring hospitals receiving funding under the state’s $850 million Indigent Care Program to provide discounted care to uninsured patients and rein in the abusive billing and collection practices that have come under fire across the country. Mr. Grannis lives with his family in his district on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and is a graduate of the Loomis School, Rutgers University and the University of Virginia Law School. Prior to entering the Assembly, Mr. Grannis practiced law in New York City and served as Compliance Counsel for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Standing Committee Assignments 2005: Insurance (Chair), Environmental Conservation, Health, Housing, and Ways and Means.

(1) How's the job?

Interesting and very rewarding being in a position where my staff and I can help people with day-to-day problems in dealing with government agencies and helping to shape public policy actions and decisions.

The Island at the Center of the World/ by Russell Shorto, a fascinating story of the forgotten earliest settlement of Manhattan by Dutch colonists from its founding in 1623 until the island was lost to the English in 1664 and its role in shaping the America of today.