Democrats who run the state legislature privately hoodwinked Wednesday for a plan to remove the emergency powers granted to Gov. Andrew Andrew Como to address the coronovirus epidemic.
According to a report released last month by the state’s attorney general, the move is related to Cuomo’s COVID-19 nursing home scandal, in which residents die less than 50 percent.
“We need to remove the Governor’s emergency powers immediately,” Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Tarrytown) said after the virtual meeting.
But Abinanti said more time is needed to refine an acceptable proposal. The Legislature has evaded many critics to accuse them of subtle management of Cuomo’s business and activity of houses of worship.
“Once closed, it is not appropriate for the Legislature to determine,” he said.
Emergency powers ending on April 30 allow Cuomo to issue emergency executive orders that suspend existing laws to address the epidemic. The Legislature last March approved a law granting the governor extraordinary powers.
Assemblyman Yu-Line Nieu (D-Manhattan) said, “The governor never needed emergency powers. His emergency powers were already widespread. “
Support in the Legislature to curb Cuomo’s COVID-19 powers has skyrocketed in the wake of The Post’s recent revelation that top Cuomo ally Melissa DeRosa admitted her administration privately for months, killed by COVID-19 Hidden from the total number of nursing home residents and other information. Lawmakers and the public fear that federal prosecutors will use it “against us”.
The post’s scoop – based on an audiotape obtained from a private meeting – has caused uproar, including bringing or preventing impeachment against Cuomo and an investigation by the FBI and the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office.
Assembly Speaker Karl Hetti (D-Bronx) and Democratic leadership are also preparing a package of bills to oversee and account for nursing homes.
The Democratic-led Senate on Monday passed a series of bills to strengthen disclosure of patient safety and nursing home reports and ratings.
The governor proposed his own nursing home reform measures last week in light of the scandal, including security violations and increased penalties for staffing level requirements.
Cuomo said last week that emergency powers “have nothing to do with nursing homes.”
Cuomo spokesman Jack Stern said on Tuesday, “Right off the bat, I will remind everyone that under the current situation, the legislature can overturn any function of government through a simple majority resolution.”
The Legislature has not repealed or rescinded any of Cuomo’s hundreds of epidemic-era directives.
The governor first came under fire under a March 25, 2020 directive to the controversial state health department, forcing nursing homes to take leave from hospitals to cure coronovirus patients to check if they were infected. Huh.
Cuomo canceled the policy on May 10, without acknowledging that it was a mistake and that state health commissioner Howard Zucker defended the policy last week as COVID-19 gave about hospitals with patients The concerns raised were justified.
More than 13,600 nursing home residents were killed by COVID-19, state data shows – just a few weeks before the Cuomo administration reported more than 5,000. When death is included in other long-term care-assisted people and survival facilities, the death toll is above 15,000.
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