“The cover-up of nursing home deaths by the Cuomo administration has become national news, and rightfully so. The state attorney general confirmed the administration was under-counting nursing home deaths by up to 50% in a scathing report nearly a month ago. In the time since, the Majority party in both the Assembly and Senate have not allowed the Legislature to hold the governor and his administration officials accountable. Even more importantly, distraught family members of nursing home victims have not received any answers from the governor.

“We have seen the governor continue to pass blame onto everyone but himself. Both the Empire Center and Attorney General Letitia James said his administration was under-counting deaths. In the words of his Secretary, Melissa DeRosa, the administration “froze” out of fear of prosecution from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“What more do my colleagues in the Majority need to see in order to hold the governor accountable? The governor has gone as far as threatening one of their own, Assemblyman Ron Kim. Kim is rightfully calling out his own party leader for the cover-up surrounding nursing homes. In response to this, the governor delivered Kim a threatening phone call in which he threatened to ‘destroy’ his career.

“Some members of the Majority Conference came into this week with tough talk, but we saw no action. The Assembly was in session for a combined two and a half hours this week and only passed six bills. The Majority would not allow our amendment to come to the floor for a vote, the amendment simply calls for revocation of the governor’s emergency powers. This is a call for accountability that mirrors the Senate bill sponsored by Majority Sen. Alessandra Biaggi.

“Our constituents are not being served in good faith due to the continued politicking of this issue. I continue to say the nursing home issue should not be partisan. We lost seniors statewide, all political parties and their families deserve answers from their chief executive, Gov. Cuomo.”