Every year, Chuck commits to traveling to all62 counties in New York to meet with constituents.
\nOn November 27,2013 Schumer unveiled a two-pronged plan to boost business, and particularly hard cider sales, at Wayne County's DeFisher Fruit Farm. First, Schumer urged the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to expeditiously approve a pending permit application to allow DeFisher to open a new apple cidery production and bottling operation, at its one year old Apple County Spirits distillery. The DeFisher family, who grow apples, pears, peaches, and cherries, opened a an apple vodka distillery in late 2012 to make vodka from their apples as an additional crop-based revenue source, and they need this new federal permit approved soon in order to begin a new hard apple cider production line as planned in early 2014.\n\nSecond, Schumer pushed his legislation to allow existing hard apple cider producers to expand their business or for apple and pear growers, like the DeFishers, to add this increasingly popular craft beverage to their product line. Schumer will explain that the alcohol content of hard cider fluctuates greatly due to sugar content, and current law often forces it to be taxed at a higher rate, preventing it from being labeled as hard cider. Schumer will therefore fight for his proposal, the CIDER Act (Cider, Investment & Development through Excise Tax Reduction Act), to reform the definition for hard apple and pear cider in the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) that would increase their allowed alcohol by volume from 7 percent to 8.5 percent, encompassing significantly more hard cider products and allowing them to be labeled and taxed like hard cider, rather than wine