Press release:
Assemblyman Steve Hawley joined in a letter with his Assembly Republican colleagues to call on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to demand the Legislature pass legislation to curb Gov. Cuomo’s emergency powers, which have persisted since March.
The governor has used his emergency powers to implement several directives unilaterally, and Hawley believes his emergency authority has been too expansive and lasted too long.
“New Yorkers deserve a return to representative government,” Hawley said. “The problems that have emerged during this pandemic are too complex for one man to handle, and our constituents deserve to have their concerns voiced by the representatives they elected to speak on behalf of their unique districts.
"The Governor failed the people of our state in 2020 with mismanagement of this pandemic which left businesses in countless industries closed and without income for far too long, and we owe it to them to do better and take local factors more strongly into consideration before shutting down local businesses that people rely on to feed their families.”
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Dear Legislative Leaders:
December 15, 2020
As we near the end of 2020 with a new legislative session quickly approaching, members of the Assembly Minority Conference are eager for an immediate return to the principles and processes of representative democracy on which our Constitution and our country were built.
Since March, Governor Cuomo has used his expanded emergency powers to implement, and then extend, numerous directives. We believe this grossly exceeds his executive authority.
As you know, Chapter 23 of the Laws of 2020 authorized a $40 million emergency appropriation for the state to make necessary preparations to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Also included in that legislationwas a measure to add “disease outbreak” to the list of emergencies by which the governor assumedexpanded authorities.
While the law granted the governor the ability to issue emergency directives, it did not empower him with the statutory authority to extend directives for an additional 30 days, which is permitted for the suspensions of laws.
Therefore, we are calling on you to review the legal authority granted to the governor and seek input from legislative colleagues on how to proceed in the best interest of all New Yorkers. At the first possible opportunity – hopefully on the first day of the 2021 Legislative Session, if not sooner – we encourage the passage of legislation such as A.10546, which would limit the governor’s expanded powers anddramatically increase local authority during future emergencies.
This has been a year that none of us will forget. You, and all the members of the Legislature, have worked tirelessly to provide help to so many constituents in crisis. Those efforts will certainly continue as we move into the new session and new calendar.
