A day after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s appearance in front of a congressional committee and three months after the state’s taxpayer-funded report largely blamed Cuomo for a top-down approach to handling the pandemic, his appearance on Capitol Hill is renewing widespread criticism of the Olson Group's COVID-19 report as inadequate.

Among the most prominent voices is state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who stressed to Spectrum News 1 that those who lost loved ones deserve better.

“It hurt the credibility of the notion that New York state was going to take an independent review,” he said of the report.

DiNapoli slammed it as being short on substance and too reliant on what he called “testimonials,” not hard data.

“It really was, at best, a surface examination and left as many questions unanswered as answered,” he said.

DiNapoli is insistent that the state needs to go back to the drawing board and the legislature needs to launch a bipartisan commission with subpoena power.

“There are a couple of legislative proposals out there, and I hope when the legislature is back in session, those will be given very serious consideration,” he said.

Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas sponsors one of those proposals, and says subpoena power is a must. She stressed the lack of such power is one of the key flaws of the Olson Report.

“People had to voluntarily participate in the surveys and the interviews,” she said.

She explained that the commission would focus on the broader pandemic response and recommendations for future readiness, but also would look into Cuomo’s controversial nursing home directive and questions surrounding the counting of nursing home-related deaths.

The bipartisan commission would be made up of 16 members, eight appointed by the governor, eight by the legislature, and must include individuals with health care expertise.

“We can take a fresh look at this in a bipartisan manner that takes the politics out of the issue and looks at it as the public health emergency that it was,” Gonzalez-Rojas said.

Both Gonzalez-Rojas and Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at right-leaning think tank Empire Center, stress the need for the state Health Department to also have a degree of involvement. Gonzalez-Rojas said the bill proposes that come in the form of non-voting members. 

“Ultimately, it is the health department that is going to make these policies work,” Hammond explained.

A supporter of the bill, he argued that New Yorkers’ trust in state government depends on it.

“We need to rebuild it, and one way to rebuild it is some very honest soul searching on the part of state government,” he said.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to the Olson Group for comment, but it is under a non-disclosure agreement with the state, and directed us to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office. Spectrum News 1 also reached out to Hochul’s office in regard to a the congressional subpoena that was issued Tuesday for nursing home-related documents.

“Governor Hochul is committed to transparency and immediately released additional COVID-19 nursing home death data the day she took office,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “As the Subcommittee acknowledges, this Administration has already provided 373,999 pages of documents in three separate productions. While today's request for more documents is surprising, given the Subcommittee's previous comments expressing appreciation for the State’s prompt and extensive cooperation, we fully intend to comply with the law in this matter. The Governor will review all legislation that passes both houses.”

A representative for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not respond to a request for comment.