New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's pandemic emergency powers are due to expire at midnight, and as of Tuesday afternoon there was still no deal in place to extend them.
The recently re-elected governor, in an MSNBC interview, said his team was still negotiating with the legislature on a deal to somehow extend those powers, which have given Murphy wide latitude to control the pandemic via executive order.
The governor indicated that he hoped to have something to announce later in the evening; his pre-recorded State of the State address is due to be delivered at 5 p.m.
Asked what would happen if no deal was struck, in terms of who would then have control over things like masking and other mandates, Murphy said he didn't even want to consider the question.
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"I'm confident enough that we're going to have a good statewide solution," he said instead.
