25 January 2021: NY Lawmakers Getting Tired of Being Jerked Around by Team Cuomo

Albany pol threatens to subpoena Cuomo over nursing home deaths

New York's legislators are getting tired of Governor Cuomo's continued stonewalling in releasing the state's public data on the numbers of COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents. So much so that top leaders in the state assembly are promising to increase the heat on the Cuomo administration's public health officials:

The top Democrat on the state Senate Investigations Committee threatened to subpoena the state Health Department to release the total number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19, because he's tired of their months-long stonewalling.

"It is downright insulting to the co-equal State Legislature that, six months later, DOH is continuing to stonewall us on basic questions," seethed a furious state Sen. Jame Skoufis (D-Newburgh) during an unrelated press conference in Albany Monday.

Skoufis, along with a chorus of bipartisan lawmakers, medical experts and family members, have been demanding that Gov. Cuomo's top health official — DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker — release the accurate number of nursing home residents who died of the deadly disease after getting so sick they had to be transferred to a hospital.

"If the Commissioner fails to provide the long-overdue answers by the time he provides testimony at next week's hearing, I am supportive of taking the next step and compelling the information, but the decision is not a unilateral one and requires support from the conference and leadership," Skoufis declared, noting if the missing numbers are not delivered, he will grill Zucker at next week's health-focused joint budget hearing hosted by the state Senate and Assembly, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 3.

He warned: "The hearing will be an unpleasant and uncomfortable one for Commissioner Zucker if he continues to withhold answers to the Legislature's questions."