For more than a year, New York state lawmakers and family members have tried to get an independent review of what went wrong in nursing homes during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A bill authorizing the review advanced this week in the state Senate — a sign Republican state Sen. Jim Tedisco said it's a good one for its chances. But lawmakers are also racing against the clock with the legislative session scheduled to end on June 2. 

"I do think it has a chance to pass because we have Democrats and Republicans willing to go against their leadership," Tedisco said. 

The bill would create an independent inquiry into nursing home policy leading up to and during the pandemic. Thousands of residents died as the virus spread in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The concern, in part, is to find ways of potentially avoiding future deaths as the pandemic continues. 

At the same time, it could provide a measure of closure for family members who lost loved ones. 

"We're seeing this particular virus have an uptick and then go down and then avert to different areas and different levels of problems for individuals," Tedisco said. "We don't know what's going to happen in the future."

The bill was proposed after a controversial policy requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive residents, and after the former Cuomo administration was found to have under counted the number of residents who died by thousands of people. Democratic state Assemblyman Ron Kim has been calling for greater oversight of the facilities. 

"If you don't have a full count, these families will never have justice for their loved ones and we won't have a government we can trust going forward if we don't have accountability," Kim said. 

The Queens Democrat on Wednesday morning circulated a letter to his colleagues seeking support for the measure in the state Assembly with the hopes of it passing in the chamber in the coming weeks. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul has pledged to boost transparency and met early on with family members of those who died. 

"I'd like to be optimistic," Kim said. "I'd like her to come back and be truthful where she's falling short, so at least we know she's well intentioned. But we haven't had that level of communication in a couple months."