New York Lawmakers Approve Bill to Strip Cuomo Pandemic-Era Powers
(Bloomberg) -- The New York legislature approved a bill to repeal pandemic-era emergency powers afforded to the scandal-plagued Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The measure, which received final passage from the Assembly on Friday evening, revokes temporary powers given to Cuomo in March that allowed him to supersede the legislature, as well as local laws, to issue hundreds of sweeping emergency directives on everything from closing businesses and schools to mandating the use of masks. The governor is expected to sign the measure after saying he helped negotiate it.
The rebuke from lawmakers, where Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers, follows public outcry over sexual-harassment claims by three women against Cuomo and allegations that his administration deliberately covered up Covid-19 deaths of nursing-home residents. In the latest twist, Cuomo’s administration said Thursday that officials had altered a July report of data on the deaths to exclude those who had died outside the facilities. The administration was responding to a New York Times report that said these changes show that the state had a fuller accounting of the deaths at the time, despite resisting requests for that data.
A growing list of state lawmakers, including in his own Democratic party, have called for Cuomo’s resignation. The third-term governor has apologized for making women feel “uncomfortable,” and has acknowledged mistakes in reporting of the nursing-home data, but has refused to step down.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-york-lawmakers-approve-bill-to-strip-cuomo-pandemic-era-powers/ar-BB1ehVyk?ocid=DELLDHP&li=BBnb7Kz
