The bill would limit the length of any state of emergency to 30 days at a time and it would require the governor to submit a weekly report to lawmakers about actions taken during the emergency.
Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency in March and has extensive operational control over several aspects of New York State including its economy. Gallivan said it should not be the governor’s decision whether or not to open schools because it is not an imminent problem.
Gallivan said that if lawmakers received a weekly report, there may have been a mitigation of the deaths in nursing homes because there would have been push-back to Cuomo’s directive to return COVID-positive residents to their respective home.
“The purpose of this is not to opine on whether or not the governor made the right decision or wrong decision,” Gallivan said. “This is a discussion about our system, our state constitution, what it was intended to do, and about our system of government.”
The bill has support from at least three other lawmakers, including two democrats in the Assembly. It is unclear if it will have broad support among both parties in Albany.