The New York Senate on Friday voted to strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of the emergency powers granted to him when the coronavirus pandemic began last March.
The legislation, which lawmakers introduced on Tuesday, passed on party lines, with every Democrat voting in favor and every Republican voting against. The plan rolls back Cuomo’s abilities to issue new pandemic-related orders but allows him to modify existing ones. The legislation, however, will allow the State Assembly to declare an end to Cuomo’s state of emergency.
Republicans argued that, in light of his office’s intentional misreporting of coronavirus nursing home deaths, all of Cuomo’s powers should have been revoked. The full New York State Assembly is expected to pass the legislation as soon as Friday evening.
A TIMELINE OF THE CUOMO NURSING HOME CONTROVERSY
Cuomo claimed during a tense press briefing on Wednesday that he had “worked with the legislature” to come to “an agreement on the bill.” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie disputed that characterization in a statement shortly afterward, calling Cuomo’s claims “misinformation.”
As Cuomo faces his nursing home scandal and sexual harassment allegations, both New York and national political figures within his party have called for his resignation. At a press conference, Cuomo insisted that he would not resign and apologized to his accusers while denying any inappropriate behavior.
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The New York governor was one of the most popular figures early in the pandemic, praised for his forceful leadership expressed in his daily press briefings, which won him an International Emmy Founders Award. But throughout 2020 reports dribbled out of Albany that Cuomo’s office had covered up the death count in nursing homes to bolster his public image.
These uncounted deaths, which were the result of a short-lived policy forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19-positive patients, became the subject of a scandal that blew up early this year. A January report from New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo may have undercounted nursing home deaths by up to 50%.
