The Senate was in session briefly yesterday to pass a resolution that will allow members to vote remotely during a declared state of emergency. Today, the Assembly followed suit and passed a similar resolution. These resolutions will allow members of both houses to vote on budget bills without having to be physically present in the chambers. At this time, budget negotiations are still occurring, and there are no bills yet available to vote on. We anticipate that the negotiations will go through the night with a goal of trying to start voting on bills at some point tomorrow. We don’t yet have a clear idea of whether the budget will be done in multiple bills as is usually the case or if the whole budget will be done as one large budget bill.
This morning, the Governor issued an updated executive order that extends New York on PAUSE, and the requirement for nonessential state workers to stay home, until April 15. In this executive order, he also aligned the dates of his previous orders so that everything is on the same timeline. He indicated yesterday that he would be doing this and that the plan is to reexamine the need for the orders every two weeks.
The President yesterday announced that he was extending the federal social distancing order until April 30. The initial order calling for 15 days of social distancing was set to expire today.