Mikulin Calls on Committees to Subpoena Zucker
Assemblyman John Mikulin (R,C,I-Bethpage) participated in a press conference today calling for members of the state Legislature to sign a petition urging the Assembly committees on Aging, Health and Oversight, Analysis and Investigations to use their subpoena powers to compel testimony from New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard A. Zucker regarding the recent report issued by the state Attorney General’s Office. To date, the commissioner has yet to fully answer simple data questions regarding nursing home deaths, despite numerous attempts by at the AG’s office, state lawmakers, the media and public outcries.
“People want answers, and they deserve them. This administration has talked over and over again about being open and transparent but when it comes to the deaths of tens of thousands of our most vulnerable citizens, they have done nothing but stonewall and cover up the facts,” said Mikulin. “Families are grieving and part of what is making their grief so unbearable is that their government won’t tell them the truth about what happened to their loved ones. It is heartless and cruel. They deserve answers and justice.”
Joining Mikulin and his colleagues from the Assembly Minority Conference today were citizen advocates in support of the measure, including Gelsey Randazzo Markese and Vivian Rivera Zayas. Markese spent months advocating for essential caregiver visits to see her 91-year-old grandmother, who passed away this fall. Zayas is an advocate with Voices for Seniors, which is a statewide grassroots organization for seniors in long-term care facilities.
Any committee could make use of the subpoena powers to compel testimony from Commissioner Zucker at any time. With only seven members on the Assembly Oversight, Analysis and Investigation Committee (five Majority and two Minority members), a majority of just four members would be needed in order to compel the testimony from Commissioner Zucker under Section 62-A of Legislative Law. Meaning, with all Minority members in support of the petition, only two Majority members need to sign the petition in order to invoke the subpoena and get New Yorkers the answers they deserve on nursing home deaths.