Cuomo queried by Congress on COVID; This Week in New York History

The ex-governor finds himself back in Washington, D.C. — but not in a good way

Good afternoon — it’s Tuesday, and National Corn on the Cob Day.

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024

TODAY’S CAPCON:

• Why Cuomo testified before a House committee Tuesday and how we got here.

• You’ll soon be able to grow your own weed if that’s your thing.

• How much did the state pay agency workers in overtime last year? Find out.

• This Week in New York History

⛈️ Tonight’s Weather: Albany: Partly cloudy, mid-50s. New York City: Partly cloudy, mid-60s. (National Weather Service)

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➡️ What CapCon will look like after session

🖋️ What should we be looking into? Let me know.

I’ve been thinking for the past few weeks about what this newsletter will look and feel like after session. We’ve now reached that point … and I still haven’t made up my mind.

Here are a few things you can expect:

• I’ll still be tracking any bills filed every day to see if any are of interest.

• I’ll also be watching regulatory actions from agencies, who propose rules all year.

• You couldn’t pay me to stop tracking litigation and other court news.

• I’ll bring what top newsmakers say on any given day as long as I can either be there or stream it.

• And plenty of election news in what’s expected to be a hectic year.

What else should I write about? Let me know by replying to this email.

— Dan

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(Richard Drew/Associated Press)

🔥 Cuomo takes the hot seat in D.C., with cold reception expected

🗣️ The former governor testified before a House subcommittee about a policy his administration implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first few weeks of the health crisis, former Gov. Andrew CUOMO was asked about how the virus could impact residents at nursing homes.

• That question came from Josefa Velasquez, who worked for the media outlet THE CITY at the time. (She’s now with WNYC.)

That’s when Cuomo made his now well-known remark that if COVID-19 entered nursing homes, it would spread “like fire through dry grass.”

I remember this time clearly because I was one of the dozen or so reporters who attended those briefings every day from early March to June four years ago.

Nursing homes were not on the minds of many at that point. We still thought at that point the virus was caught primarily through physical contact.

• That’s how the hand sanitizer manufactured by incarcerated people in New York was born.

But as the end of March 2020 approached, nursing homes became a larger part of the pandemic’s challenges. 

• Velasquez and her colleagues reported a few days later on how those facilities weren’t prepared for the virus.

That wasn’t the Cuomo administration’s top priority at the time, but it was up there.

The top priorities were hospital beds and ventilators. New York didn’t have enough of either to handle the number of patients expected based on the infection rate.

Cuomo took several actions to help free up hospital space.

• He required hospitals to increase capacity, canceled elective surgeries, opened temporary hospitals and more.

But one of those actions is still being examined today, and is the reason Cuomo was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to testify before a subcommittee in Congress.

When asked what he wanted to get out of the closed-door testimony Tuesday, Cuomo said vindication.