This resolution just passed in the NY Assembly

amother

Wed, Apr 01 2020, 11:21 am

https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?de.....GLAMA

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.....VDTO:

Quote:

Assembly Resolution No. 854

BY: M. of A. Peoples-Stokes

ADOPTING special temporary procedures during a
declared state or national state of emergency

WHEREAS, The Rules of the Assembly were adopted on January 9, 2019,
and, as last amended on January 13, 2020, remain in full force and
effect, except that the current declared state or national emergency
require such Assembly, in the exercise of its constitutional power and
prerogative, to implement special temporary procedures permitting the
consideration of legislation in an expedited fashion to meet the urgent
needs of the people of the State of New York while confronting rapidly
changing circumstances and public health concerns and directives; be it
hereby

RESOLVED, That, notwithstanding the provisions of section 2 of Rule
V of the Assembly Rules, during a period of declared state or national
state of emergency, in the event a slow roll call is not requested, the
yeas and nays on the final passage of a bill or any other question
before the House shall be taken by a fast roll call and a member
desiring to vote in the negative on such a roll call shall do so by
entering a negative vote through the electronic voting system or in such
other manner as may be prescribed by the Speaker. All other members
shall be recorded in the affirmative. On such a roll call the Clerk of
the Assembly shall call the names of the members who are recorded in the
negative; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That, notwithstanding the provisions of
subdivision b of section 6 of Rule V of the Assembly Rules, during a
period of declared state or national state of emergency, no member shall
speak more than once on any bill or amendment, without leave of the
House and no member shall speak for more than fifteen minutes at a time;
and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That during a period of declared state or national
state of emergency, the bar of the House may be extended, at the
discretion of the Speaker, to allow for members to be in attendance in
any proceeding of the House by remote means including teleconference or
videoconference and such members shall be continuously recorded in
attendance by the Clerk of the Assembly for the purposes of a quorum;
and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That any member in attendance as permitted during
a period of declared state or national state of emergency may submit
requests for recognition to the presiding officer by electronic means
including the submission of questions for debate, which shall be
presented as part of the debate within the respective member's allocated
time; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That no technical failure on the part of an
individual member or a group of members that breaks their remote
connection to the proceedings shall invalidate any action taken by a
majority of the Assembly.

In short, during a state of emergency, if a member isn't present, his vote is automatically entered as a Yes vote and if a member wants to vote No he needs to actually vote No. I think this is another example of major overreach by Speaker Carl Heastie who wants absent votes to count in his favor when passing laws. Not a single Republican voted Yes on this resolution and only one Democrat voted No.

Fox

Wed, Apr 01 2020, 1:09 pm

The more I read, the more convinced I am that NY is especially vulnerable not just because of population density, ports of entry, or even people defying recommendations for isolation or quarantine.

While those are all factors, NYC has gutted its health care resources over the last two decades -- mostly because of inadequate state Medicaid reimbursements. There are 20,000 fewer hospital beds today than in 2000.

Here's a quick read from 2013: NBC New York

Note this particular quote from a health care policy analyst is especially prescient:

Quote:

We may look back in 10 years and say, "How could we not have seen this coming?"

It appears that both political parties in NY share the blame in assuming there would be no unintended consequences from their ongoing efforts to kill the goose that laid golden eggs. This kind of resolution is just more of the same. Surely NYers realize by now the costs of allowing the government such sweeping powers.