Via WaPo
Northeastern and West Coast governors say they’ll coordinate efforts to reopen regional economies
Governors across six states in the northeast, coordinated by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), convened in a public conference call Monday afternoon to discuss a cooperative effort to reopen the region’s economy once the threat from the coronavirus has sufficiently subsided.
Shortly afterward, the governors of Washington, Oregon and California released a statement regarding a separate but similar plan.
Both could be viewed as rebuttals to President Trump, who had asserted in morning tweets that it would be up to him, and not U.S. governors, to decide when to “open up the states,” although that seemed to conflict with White House guidance to follow direction from local and state authorities.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), chairman of the National Governors Association, said Monday that governors will consult with the team at the federal level about reopening. But Hogan added that it will ultimately be up to governors, and not Trump, to decide when to reopen their respective states.
Northeastern governors did not project a clear date for reopening efforts would begin, though Cuomo said the timetable was “weeks.”
Cuomo was joined by Democratic governors Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, John C. Carney Jr. of Delaware and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, who agreed to name health, economic and executive point persons in their respective states to work on the regional plan.
“We do know this, that an economic recovery only occurs on the back of a complete health-care recovery,” Murphy said, noting that “the house is still on fire and we still have to put the fire out.”
Similarly, the Western states’ pact said that “health outcomes and science — not politics” would guide their collaborative decision-making.
The Northeastern governors were in agreement on the necessity of working together given the interconnectedness of the region, particularly among the workforce in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.