New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
ALBANY, N.Y. — Six Northeast governors will form a working group to come up with a plan to restart the regional economy, they announced on Monday.
Speaking on a conference call, the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island agreed that it was essential to work together in developing plans to reopen businesses, schools and public transportation after weeks on lockdown.
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The announcement came as President Donald Trump asserted on Monday afternoon that he, not the governors, would decide when stay-at-home orders could be lifted. And it coincided with an announcement from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee that they are working on a "shared approach" to restarting the West Coast economy.
“Everyone is very anxious to get out of the house, get back to work, get the economy moving. Everyone agrees with that,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who presided over the conference call from the state Capitol in Albany. “What the art form is going to be here is doing that smartly, and doing that productively, and doing that in a coordinated way, doing that in coordination with the other states that are in the area and doing it as a cooperative effort where we learn from each other and we share information.”
Cuomo said that each state will provide a public health official, an economic development official and the governor’s chief of staff to form the working group, which will begin hashing out the details of a restart program on Tuesday.
New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, with more than 195,000 confirmed cases so far. More than 10,000 people have died in New York. But the number of people hospitalized by Covid-19 has started to plateau out at around 18,000 over the past few days. Original forecasts had indicated more than 100,000 hospital beds could be needed at the peak of the outbreak in New York.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the coordination an “overwhelmingly prudent approach.” Murphy said his state is behind New York and still not at a plateau of hospitalizations, although it has seen a flattening of cases. The state has reported more than 64,000 positive cases and more than 2,400 deaths.
"We do know this, an economic recovery only occurs on the back of a complete health care recovery," Murphy said, adding that "jumping in too early" could result in "unintended consequences which could be grave.”
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said her administration already is conducting a “deep dive, industry by industry” for guidelines to a “new normal,” such as new screening and training for businesses that reopen and the use — or overuse — of touch technologies.
“None of us has ever gone through this before, and I am confident that by working together and sharing our best ideas, we are much more likely to get this right,” she said. “The reality is that this virus doesn’t care about state borders and our response shouldn’t either.”
Cuomo said he did not think the plan would be completely uniform, noting that even within New York there are different circumstances in rural areas compared to the dense environment of New York City and its nearby suburbs.
Cuomo has clashed with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over how long the city's schools will remain closed. The mayor announced that they would stay closed for the rest of the school year, but Cuomo said that’s his decision and one that hasn’t yet been made. He emphasized that on this issue and others, New York must coordinate with other states and not leave key decisions to local governments.
“They all have an opinion, I value all of their opinion but we have one state,” the governor said of local governments. “The state will operate as one and their decisions must fit within that plan or they’re not valid.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said his representatives on the working group are concerned about emotional rebuilding alongside economic initiatives, and they hope the regional pact will model that approach for the rest of the nation.
“I think we’re going to show the people of the United States how you come out from something as devastating as this in a responsible fashion,” he said.
Cuomo was asked about Trump's assertion that only he has the power to re-start the economy.
“He left it to states to close down,” Cuomo responded, saying he’d want to see the federal government’s plan. “If they want to change the model, they can change the model. He is still the president of the United States.”
Cuomo said the states don't have the testing capacity needed and they can’t do it without the federal government. He said he would need clarity on the criteria if the federal government wants to decide when schools should open, whether certain areas should reopen earlier, how transit could be opened if there aren’t enough workers and what he should tell local governments.
Delaware Gov. John Carney said it was up to the states to make these decisions. Raimondo said that governors led the way on closing down the economy and should also lead in reopening safely.
“The governors are the ones who have been showing great leadership in keeping our citizens safe,” she said. “I think it’s only appropriate that we do the same thing now by coming together and showing regional leadership to open the economy.”
Murphy declined to criticize the president’s approach and said it was important to get things right or risk a resurgence of the virus. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said he was concerned about a “false start” if they moved too quickly.
Cuomo said he was open to coordinating with additional neighboring states, such as Massachusetts and Vermont, but added that there was a balance with “the complexity and unwieldiness of coming up with a plan that we can agree on relatively quickly.”
“We need coordination with New Jersey and Connecticut first and foremost because that’s where our workforce comes from,” he said earlier on Monday. “That’s the primary place for coordination.”
Carly Sitrin contributed to this report.
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