Undoing Part GGG of Budget Bill #S.7506-B/A.9506-B
30-D of the Public Health Law: "Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act"

2021 -- FULL IMMUNITY REPEAL

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BACKGROUND --
Part GGG Insertion & Enactment into Budget in 2020 Legislative Session

Partial Repeal in 2020 Legislative Session

I.
 ASSEMBLY BILL -- A.3397
Senate webpage -- introduced January 26, 2021

VIDEO: March 4, 2021 Assembly Session
(transcript, at pp. 42-93)   

Transcript, pp. 55-56:

GOODELL:  "What was the explanation that was given by the Governor for including this in an Article VII Budget Bill?
Because after all, it didn't really deal with the budget, right? It dealt with liability protection for third-parties.
It really didn't have any appropriation or any budgetary significance.
What was the explanation given by Governor Cuomo for including this liability waiver in a Budget Bill?"

KIM:  "Well, their only explanation is that you voted for it, that (unintelligible) members voted.
I did not vote for it, as -- along with many of my colleagues. It actually passed by one vote in our House last year, that particular budget. But so far that has been his public explanation, that it was us, that we voted for this provision, even though he's the one that proposed it and put it into our budget."

KIM:  "...Last year, even the Chair of the Health Committee didn't know.
And I know for a fact that he reads almost every single word of that budget and
he didn't even know that this language was in in the last hour."

p. 73:

LAVINE:  "...doing budgets can be very, very dangerous because the negotiations go on and on and on up until past the 11th hour. I was not aware of this provision being in -- in the budget, and I'm -- I'm not alone in that."

p. 81:
ABINANTI:  "Today we correct that error which was inserted into the budget at the last minute by the Governor of the State of New York. Most of us did not know that that language was being inserted into the budget, and certainly would not have approved it in the broad blanket fashion which it was inserted into the budget."

II.
SENATE BILL -- S.5177
Senate webpage -- introduced February 25, 2021,
referred to Health Committee;
   
VIDEO:   March 16, 2021 meeting of Senate Health Committee
(at 8 mins, 15 secs -- 11 mins, 42 secs)

VIDEO: March 24, 2021 Senate Session
(at 16 mins, 19 secs -- 20 mins, 20 secs)

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PRESS

March 6, 2021
"New York nursing homes granted legal protection, but not blanket immunity"
Politifact (Jill Terreri Ramos)

Kim said the governor snuck the immunity protections into the budget. Kim’s chief of staff, Tony Cao, told us that when Kim inquired about the provision, once he learned about it after the budget vote, he was told by Assembly leadership that the administration fought forcefully for the provision, telling both houses it was non-negotiable. 
Kim’s office also provided a letter from the Greater New York Hospital Association, which hailed the passage of the provision. 'GNYHA drafted and aggressively advocated for this legislation,' President Kenneth Raske wrote to the association’s members. 
We asked the Cuomo administration about the provision, and aides said that the budget, which is voted on by legislators, is the subject of negotiations between the executive chamber and both houses of the State Legislature. 
'It’s an impossibility to ‘sneak’ anything in to the budget — we engage with legislative staff in ongoing negotiations throughout the budget process, those staff must physically sign off on every individual provision before the bill is printed, and every legislator can of course read the language themselves,' said Beth Garvey, special counsel and senior advisor to Cuomo. 
The budget bills run hundreds of pages, and lawmakers typically have only hours from the time they are printed until the vote. The Assembly passed the 2020-21 budget in the wee hours of the morning."
 

April 7, 2021
"Cuomo signs bill repealing COVID-19 liability protections"
New York Post (Jesse O'Neill)

“...I am relieved to see corporate immunity, which was slipped into last year’s budget, fully repealed,”
Bronx State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, one of the bill’s sponsor said in a statement Tuesday night.

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click here for: 
CJA's August 21, 2013 letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo --
"Achieving BOTH a Properly Functioning Legislature & the Public Trust Act (Program Bill #3) --
the Sine Qua Non for 'Government Working' & 'Working for the People'"
-- which was the SOLE enclosure to CJA's March 18, 2020 letter to him --
simultaneously furished to the Legislature
"Your January 21, 2020 address on the Executive Budget -- Part III: 
GOOD NEWS DURING THE CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCY--
You Can Chuck Six of Your Seven 'Article VII Bills' Because They are Unconstitutional. 
Here's why based on analysis of the Court of Appeals' 2004 plurality, concurring,
and dissenting opinions in Pataki v. Assembly/Silver v. Pataki, 4 N.Y3d 75"

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CJA's January 8, 2018 e-mail to Assemblyman Gottfried --
"Assemblyman Gottfried's participation tomorrow as a panelist
in City & State's form on this year's budget priorities"