House grills former N.Y. governor over COVID policies

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives’ committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Republican lawmakers probed his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on his policies on nursing homes. Between the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and July 2021, New York’s nursing homes and adult care facilities recorded 17,400 COVID-related fatalities, according to the Long-Term Care Community Coalition.

Both Republicans and Democrats questioned Cuomo over the state’s limitations on testing, on whether the state’s reporting was accurate, and whether administrative miscoordination had led to unhelpful standards. Also, lawmakers from both parties grilled Cuomo on what efforts, if any, he had made to verify his guidelines were effective and in line with the emerging research.

Republicans took particular aim at a March 25, 2020, directive of the governor’s office that allowed people diagnosed with COVID to be admitted to the facilities.

“The March 25 directive ordered that ‘no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,’” one committee report detailed. The directive went on to state that nursing homes were “prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested from COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission,” according to the report.

How tense did the hearing get? In a heated exchange, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., demanded that the former governor address families attending the committee meeting who lost family members in nursing homes.

“I want you to turn around and apologize,” Stafanik said. “Will you do that?”

Cuomo defended his record, claiming his actions were consistent with guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Cuomo was governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. He resigned when a number of workplace harassment allegations surfaced following an investigation led by State Attorney General Letitia James.

Why bring Cuomo to testify two years after the fact? Since winning the majority in January of 2023, House Republicans have used committee power to probe the decision-making of Democratic leaders in the Biden administration and elsewhere.

Dig deeper: Read about the lead-up to Cuomo’s resignation in 2021.