Bill to repeal Cuomo’s emergency executive powers reaches governor’s desk

The New York State Senate and State Assembly passed a bill to repeal Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s expanded emergency executive powers Friday, sending it to the governor’s desk.

The vote split straight down the party line in both chambers, with Republicans saying the legislation does not go far enough to curtail Cuomo’s power. The bill has been delivered to the governor.

“Today, under this new legislation the governor will no longer be able to issue any new directives, period,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. “In light of recent events, however, it is clear that we need to move toward a system of increased oversight, review and verification between the Legislature and the executive branch, and also limit the powers granted to the governor.”

Democrats have a veto-proof majority should Cuomo try to nix it, but the governor said Wednesday during a news conference that he supported the bill.

Sen. Mike Gianaris, who argued the bill as the sponsor on the floor Friday, said Cuomo had lied in his characterization of the bill in the news conference.

“I heard the governor’s press conference and to be clear, the governor lied. There was no agreement between the House and the Legislature and the governor on this bill. It may surprise my colleagues or not that this governor might tell a lie, but that’s in fact what happened. Why would he agree to sign it? I can speculate. I can speculate that he didn’t want to be embarrassed by the fact that the Legislature was repealing his emergency powers and is trying to pretend that he had something to do with it,” Gianaris said.

CNN has reached out to the governor’s office for comment on the passage of the bill.

The Senate and Assembly leaders issued a joint statement Tuesday announcing that they’d reached an agreement on how to curtail the governor’s expanded executive powers they gave him at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The law, originally passed last spring, gave Cuomo the power to issue unilateral directives for the pandemic emergency and was scheduled to expire next month.

Under the new bill, Cuomo must justify to the Legislature the extension or modification of any existing directives every 30 days and the Legislature has the ability to undo the state of emergency.

Controversy over Covid-19 fatalities of New York long-term care residents prompted increasing calls to repeal Cuomo’s expanded executive powers from both sides of the aisle last month.

This story and headline have been updated with the bill passing the full legislature.