Monday Morning Memo – March 8

The divide on minimum wage could underscore coming fights in the Senate on progressive priorities, including policing reform and voter protection measures. While the Senate worked to pass Biden’s Coronavirus relief bill last week, the House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the most ambitious police reform effort in decades, for the second time on Wednesday (read the most recent proposal here). The sweeping legislation would ban chokeholds and “qualified immunity” for law enforcement and create national standards for policing in a bid to bolster accountability.  House Democrats also passed a sweeping expansion of federal voting rights on Wednesday over unified Republican opposition, opening a new front in a raging national debate about elections aimed at countering G.O.P. attempts to clamp down on ballot access. The 791-page bill, designated H.R. 1 by Democrats to reflect its importance to their agenda, would also eliminate partisan gerrymandering, impose new transparency on dark money used to finance campaigns, tighten government ethics standards, and create a public financing option for Congressional campaigns. Progressives believe it is imperative to pass these two bills—and others—while Democrats control Congress. To do so, they would need to blow up the filibuster and, if you ask Manchin and Sinema (and maybe other senators) the votes are not there to do this. Much more to come on this over the next couple of months.

Back in Albany…

It was another terrible week, and an even worse weekend, for Governor Cuomo. Additional reporting—including new allegations that top Executive Chamber aides edited nursing home reports to remove data regarding deaths, a report alleging a cover up of structural problems with the new Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, and two more sexual harassment allegations from both the Governor’s time in Albany and his time in Washington (not to mention a nationally televised interview with former staffer Charlotte Bennett on CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell)—further rattled New York political circles. Now, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins declared Cuomo “must” resign while Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie offered support for that position, although he was less definitive.  Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris and an increasing number of legislators are joining Stewart-Cousins (15 senators as we went to print). The Albany Times Union and Gannett/USA Today New York State Editorial Boards have also called on the Governor to resign.

Amidst the calls for his resignation, the Governor is resolved to stay on the second floor and—at the very least—serve out his term. “I was elected by the people of the state. I wasn’t elected by politicians. I’m not going to resign because of allegations. The premise of resigning because of allegations is actually anti-democratic and we’ve always done the exact opposite. You know the system is based on due process and the credibility of the allegation,” Cuomo said. “This is not about me and accusations about me. The Attorney General can handle that. This is about doing the people’s business, and this next six months I believe will determine the future trajectory for New York State.” Late on Sunday night, pols from throughout the state reported the Governor was calling around asking them not to issue statements after the Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker’s calls for him to resign. Expect more on this to unfold today and this week.

While this may be an afterthought given the weekends news. . . on Friday, the Senate and Assembly passed bills to scale back the governor’s emergency powers. The bill (which is not as sweeping of a rebuke as legislators say nor is it as much nothing as Cuomo and Republicans claimed), allows the Governor’s COVID-19 directives to stay in effect for 30 days. It prevents Cuomo from issuing any new directives without lawmakers’ approval while also allowing the Governor’s existing directives to be extended and modified. The bill also leaves intact any emergency powers the governor’s office had before the pandemic but provides that the legislature can terminate a state disaster emergency if both Chambers approve a concurrent resolution (read the full text here). During heated debate in Albany Friday, Republicans—and some Democrats—in the Legislature said the scale back does not go far enough. “This is the last good chance we have to reassert ourselves as a legislature,” said Republican Assemblywoman Marjorie Byrnes. 

Amidst the unprecedented chaos, whether or not the budget will be on time remains to be seen. While we watch for Legislative One House Budget Proposals— even before she had called for his resignation Sunday—Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said she has not spoken with the Governor in two weeks—highly unusual for the principals in the budget negotiations for this time of year. Other legislators have expressed concerns about the Executive Chamber’s ability to navigate some of the thornier issues. “Most issues get ironed out at the level of staff and individual legislators and don’t rise to the level of the legislative leadership negotiating directly with the governor. But the issues that get to that level are by definition the toughest. So this kind of difficulty, as long as it is unresolved, can make doing a budget very difficult,” said Assembly Member Dick Gottfried last week. In short, you will want to stay tuned.