After months of deceiving 20 million New Yorkers, former-Gov. Andrew Cuomo left office in disgrace. Among his many failures, Cuomo and his aides purposely hid the true impact of COVID-19 from the public in order to save face, sell books, and preserve his own public profile. This deceptive act hindered our ability to accurately assess and fight the pandemic and learn how to prevent future ones.

 In one of her first official acts as governor, Kathy Hochul publicly amended the state’s COVID-19 death count and acknowledged that 12,000 more individuals died as a result of the virus. According to the Empire Center, using the CDC’s death-toll numbers as recently adjusted by Gov. Hochul, New York state’s COVID mortality rate is once again the highest in the nation. Based on death-certificate data submitted to the CDC, nearly 55,400 New Yorkers have died of the coronavirus, painting a grossly, far-more grim picture than the one painted by Andrew Cuomo and his administration.

 While Gov. Hochul’s decision to release the new figures is both symbolically and practically important, she must go one step further to right the wrongs of the previous administration. Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who was complicit in the prolonged cover-up of New York’s failed pandemic response, must be removed from his position immediately. If we are on the cusp of another surge due to the delta variant, why should we put our faith in Commissioner Zucker?

 Simply stated, New Yorkers must be able to trust their public-health officials. This is true in all instances, but at a time when their every move impacts the health and safety of millions of residents, that trust must be unshakable. As infection rates increase nationwide due to the delta variant, as our children return to their classrooms, and as getting people vaccinated continues to be a priority, credibility and integrity are paramount for the Department of Health. If Dr. Zucker remains in place, though, it will be nearly impossible for New Yorkers to regain the confidence of the state health department and those handling the COVID-19 response. 

 For months, when New Yorkers needed it the most, the Cuomo Administration chose to serve themselves before serving the public interest. The severity of COVID-19’s impact was downplayed, and people were forced to make decisions based on incorrect and misleading information rooted in the lies of an administration desperate to show the world a picture of New York that did not exist. There is an enormous amount of work to be done to remedy this, and I sincerely hope Gov. Hochul is willing to do what is necessary to restore New Yorkers’ faith in those tasked with ensuring their safety and well-being.        

William (Will) A. Barclay, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact Barclay at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us.

Most Americans alive 20 years asgo remember where they were on Sept. 11, 2001. They remember the airplane hijackings, the attacks, and the collapse of the Twin Towers. They remember the nearly 3,000 who perished. 

 As our nation refocuses on that searing event, it will be tempting to pay attention to the lessons we have learned in the decades since when it comes to dealing with foreign threats and to homeland security. These are, of course, crucial. But in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we also learned some important lessons about Congress and how it works, and about the benefits to the country of a truly bipartisan approach to difficult issues.

 I say this because I was honored to serve as the vice chair of the 9/11 Commission, along with former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean. Over 18 months, we reviewed more than 2.5 million pages of documents and conducted 1,200 interviews. We sought to be independent, impartial, thorough, and non-partisan, and joined our Commission colleagues, equal in number from both sides of the aisle, in issuing a bipartisan, unanimous report. 

 During that inquiry we learned many lessons that are still valid today. We learned, for instance, that there is a thirst for accountability in this country. Americans expect their country to work and they’re disappointed when it does not. They react negatively when bureaucrats say, “Trust us.” This is why we pursued our inquiry in an open manner, not behind closed doors — transparency helped the public gain confidence in our work.

 We also learned the necessity of pursuing consensus. Without a unanimous report, our effort would have failed. Bipartisanship in national security, we found, is essential.

 There’s no question that the specifics the commission recommended — a director of national intelligence, to pull together the work of the country’s 16 intelligence agencies, and a National Counter Terrorism Center whose analysts work together to connect the dots and prevent future attacks — have made a difference. Though there have been lapses, intelligence and law enforcement have disrupted scores of plots. Our aircraft and borders are more secure. Our military eliminated the leadership of Al Qaeda and ISIS and decimated their capabilities. The institutions created after 9/11 have made us safer. 

 Yet the challenges ahead are many — and, notably, many of them involve Congress. A major unfinished recommendation from the 9/11 Commission is changing how Capitol Hill works. Because the commission recommended the creation of powerful executive-branch institutions, it also recommended powerful congressional committees to serve as watchdogs. Instead, DHS still reports to dozens of oversight committees. Agency leaders spend precious time before them and receive muddled guidance. When everybody is in charge, nobody is in charge. 

 The challenge of domestic terrorism also requires strong government powers checked by rigorous oversight. The Justice Department and the FBI must lead the effort against domestic terrorism, carefully monitored by watchdogs — above all, Congress and the courts.

The U.S. has also fallen short in addressing the upstream causes of terrorism. Our military and intelligence services are superb at finding, tracking, and eliminating terrorists. Yet it is easier to destroy threats than to rebuild societies. Prevention is less costly than military intervention, but it requires time and patient effort.

 Looking beyond the report, the threat to our information networks demands focused congressional action. Ransomware and cyberattacks are with us daily. These threats to our security and prosperity are urgent. No one wants to read some future commission report about our collective “failure of imagination” to address the cyber threat when its dangers have been in plain sight for years.

Perhaps most notably, the most important lesson of the 9/11 Commission involved the absolute and central importance of bipartisanship. None of what followed its report would have been possible without it. We cannot address our country’s problems unless we work together.

The experience of the 9/11 Commission and the nation’s experience rallying together after the attacks shows that this is not a pipe dream — though it will be up to Americans and their leaders to determine whether it becomes reality. I’m optimistic that our system of self-government can rise to meet the challenges before us — but it will take the kind of bipartisan determination that the 9/11 attacks awakened.

Lee Hamilton, 90, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.