State lawmakers are expected to pass another temporary spending measure to keep the government running as budget talks enter a second week after politicians ignored an April 1 deadline. .
The state Legislature returned to an unusual Sunday session and passed a bill extending state funding through Thursday.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to repeal Albany on Monday.
“Not only has the budget not been passed yet, but tomorrow was the scheduled parliamentary day. And that makes me question what the priorities of this chamber and this government are,” Ed said. Rep. La (R-Nassau) said this during debate on the extension bill on the floor of Congress.
“The sun is going out for a while. Well, we’re used to passing budgets in the dark in this chamber,” he continued, over audible laughter from the chamber.
The legislative holiday comes as budget talks between leaders of both chambers of Congress and Gov. Kathy Hochul have yet to finalize a budget proposal.
Even Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) initially expressed some displeasure last week at the premise of giving lawmakers a day off work for the eclipse.
“They have to go up to the roof and take a look,” Heastie told reporters.
The state Senate is scheduled to reconvene Sunday night and vote on the budget extension on Monday, but there are no plans to adjourn the session because of the solar eclipse.
Both chambers were already scheduled to adjourn before sunset on Tuesday to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, and could return to parliament as early as Thursday morning to pass a budget bill or another extension. There is a possibility that it will return.
Sunday’s expansion proposal is the third in this year’s budget.
Last year, it required six extensions before it was finally passed on May 2nd.
Hochul and parliamentary leaders met for several hours at the Capitol on Saturday evening, and several more meetings are likely to take place this week.
Last Thursday afternoon, after the members of Congress had left the city, Hochul made an impromptu visit to the press box at the National Diet Building and answered questions from reporters.
There she appeared to suggest that negotiators had nearly resolved some of the more controversial parts of her proposal to cut spending on school aid funds.
