Legislature Curbs Cuomo's Power as Calls for Resignation Grow

The state Legislature voted on Friday to limit the emergency powers granted to Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the start of the COVID-19 crisis as he faces new developments on two controversies: claims of sexual harassment and his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.

Many of the current rules and restrictions enacted by Cuomo, like the mask mandate and the state's vaccine rollout, will remain in place under the measure. 

But, moving forward, the Legislature will review those regulations every 30 days and Cuomo will not be allowed to issue any new directives. He'll be able to amend existing directives with permission from lawmakers.

Republicans, who are in the minority in both houses, said the bill doesn't go far enough.  Cuomo’s current authority, they said, was set to sunset on April 30, but the new measure will extend the governor’s emergency powers beyond that date, albeit in a more limited way.

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Andy Lanza, R-Staten Island, said rules that restrict nearly every aspect of New Yorkers’ lives will continue indefinitely.

“Everything that matters, concerning the pandemic, all the things that are bothering people,” Lanza said, referring to uncertainties about whether children will be able to participate in sports, to limitations placed on barbershops.

“He continues to have the same unilateral power on all these matters that he has enjoyed under the old bill,” Lanza said.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, D-Queens, said many of Cuomo's directives need to stay in place while the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

“This is still a public health crisis that we’re in, that’s why there are very few of us in this chamber and we are all wearing masks,” Gianaris said. “Maybe some of my colleagues prefer that this all go away, and we could become Texas”.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ended his state's mas mandate and business-related restrictions this week.

“That’s not what the people of this state want,” Gianaris said. “We are being responsible.”    

Cuomo, on Wednesday, had said he negotiated the bill with the Legislature and agreed to its terms, causing Republicans to pan the measure as a “backroom deal."  Gianaris said Cuomo was not involved.

“The governor lied,” Gianaris said. “There was no agreement.”

Two scandals involving the governor also continued to evolve Friday.

Charlotte Bennett, one of the women who've accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, appeared Thursday and Friday on CBS, where she said she felt the 63-year-old governor was grooming her to be a potential sex partner. That culminated in a private meeting in his office last June.

“He asked me if age difference mattered,” Bennett said. “He also explained that he was fine with anyone over 22.”

Bennett, who is 25, was asked during the interview what she was thinking while Cuomo asked those questions.

“I thought, he’s trying to sleep with me,” Bennett said.

Cuomo, on Wednesday, apologized if his actions were harmful to anyone, saying he did not intend for them to be.

“I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable,” Cuomo said. “It was unintentional.”

Bennett, in the CBS interview, said she did not misinterpret the governor’s intentions.

“I understood him loud and clear,” Bennett said. “ It just didn’t go the way he planned.”  

Meanwhile, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported more evidence of Cuomo’s top aides covering up the number of nursing home residents who died of the coronavirus in hospitals. 

The hospital death numbers have been a subject of controversy. They were withheld by the Cuomo Administration for months, until the state Attorney General's Office, in January, found an undercount in the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19. 

According to the new reports, top aides for Cuomo removed the number of nursing home residents who died in hospitals from a public report issued last June.

In a statement, a spokesman for the state Health Department said the numbers were removed because they could not yet be accurately verified.  

The news led more members of Cuomo’s own party to call for his resignation Friday.

Senate Aging Committee Chair Rachel May, a Democrat,  said she was “angered beyond measure” over the reports.

“Well, I was furious,” May said. “To discover that they had [the numbers] all along and were deliberately withholding them takes it to a whole other level” .

May said if the reports are true, then everyone involved in “lying” to the public and the Legislature must resign immediately, including Cuomo.