The Governor signed an Executive Order extending the declared state disaster emergency due to the healthcare staffing shortage. The original Executive Order was signed on September 27, 2021 and has been extended every thirty days since. The extension will last until October 27, 2022 unless further extended by the Governor.

Governor Announces First Long Island Investment Fund Award

The Governor announced that The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research will receive the first award from the $350 million Long Island Investment Fund. The $10 million grant will be used to construct 40,000 square feet of 26 new state-of-the-art labs to support medical and infectious disease research as well as the hiring of 10 new principal investigators and 60 research employees. This grant complements an additional $30 million in State support previously awarded to the Feinstein Institutes to modernize 20,000 square feet of its Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine.

Governor Hochul said:

Assembly Speaker Announces New Appointment to Ethics Commission

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has announced a replacement nominee for the new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government after one of his first nominations was rejected by a panel of law school deans tasked with reviewing and approving nominations. The Speaker announced that he would be nominating Dolly Caraballo to serve as a commissioner on the new ethics panel. Caraballo is a civil litigator and member of the Latino Judges Foundation Board. She has previously served as a member on the New York City Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary and was nominated by former Chief Judge Judith Kaye to the post. She has also served as the president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association.

A lawsuit was filed by Senator Ortt’s nominee who was also rejected by the panel of law school deans. Gary Lavine, Senator Ortt’s rejected nominee, is seeking a declaratory judgment arguing that giving a “committee of private citizens” power to confirm or veto nominees violates three articles of New York’s constitution, including one reserving that confirmation power for the state Senate.

Governor, Senate Investigations Committee Chair Address Corruption Allegations

The Governor addressed allegations of corruption over a state contract that went to a campaign donor while fielding questions from the press at an event. The Governor maintained that there is no connection between campaign contributions and state contracts. “We had an Omicron surge that others could not have foreseen. My team was directed: leave no stone unturned in terms of finding as many test kits as you can…I would do that all over again. I need to get people protected. We achieved the result we had. But can safeguards be put in place? Yes. I’m always looking to improve, because perception is important to me as well,” she said. “But the reality is no contribution has ever had an effect on any decision we make. Always have been, always will be. We follow the rules.”

The Senate Investigations Committee Chair James Skoufis (D) also responded to the allegations by characterizing them as alarming. “The reports I have read in the Times Union and elsewhere are alarming, and there’s no question about it.” Senator Skoufis however followed by saying that his committee would not be reviewing the reports as it does not investigate criminal matters and therefore is not the proper venue. This comes after pressure from Senate Minority Committee Ranker Tom O’Mara called on Senator Skoufis to investigate the allegations. Minority congressional members are also applying pressure by sending a letter to the Attorney General requesting a review of the contract and committing to investigate should Republicans win a majority in the House this November.