Assemblyman Joseph Angelino (R,C,I-Norwich), who is the ranking Minority Member on the Assembly Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation, is calling for a public hearing in response to Attorney General Letitia James’ report “New York State’s Nursing Home Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which found the Department of Health (DOH) had grossly underreported nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent. The assemblyman outlined his case for an investigation in a letter to Chairman John T. McDonald, III and other sitting Democrats on the committee.

“New Yorkers are heartbroken by the loss of nearly 13,000 nursing home residents and are truly fed up with the great lengths this administration has gone through to obscure the truth of the matter,” said Angelino. “What is being reported to the public by the governor and the DOH is proving to be unreliable, so much so that the Assembly must use its subpoena power to thoroughly investigate this great tragedy in our state. Our job is to provide oversight, we have an obligation to look into this.”

Angelino and other Minority members of the committee are calling for a hearing and for the use of subpoena power to call Dr. Howard A. Zucker, commissioner of DOH, to testify as well as compel the department to provide all data on nursing home deaths, communications from DOH and other parties relating to the craft, implement and override of the department’s March 25, 2020 directive.

A copy of the letter is attached.