June 25, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 117 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H2429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COVID-19 IN PENNSYLVANIA NURSING HOMES

  (Mr. SMUCKER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask for answers from 
Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Wolf and his administration, answers as to 
why his administration allowed COVID-19 to spread like wildfire in 
Pennsylvania's nursing homes, long-term care and assisted living 
facilities, and answers as to why he required these facilities to admit 
patients who tested positive for COVID-19 but couldn't be quarantined 
from healthy residents.
  Far too many Pennsylvania seniors have died, tragically, to date, 
4,476 from COVID-19. Sixty-eight percent of all deaths in Pennsylvania 
have occurred in these facilities.
  It didn't need to be this way. Forty-five States took a far different 
approach.
  To make matters worse, at the same time as the Pennsylvania 
Department of Health was enforcing this order, the Secretary of Health, 
Dr. Rachel Levine, had her mother removed from a personal care home and 
had her checked into a hotel.
  Now Governor Wolf and his administration are choosing to ignore my 
colleagues who are members of the House of Representatives Select 
Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. The committee sent a letter 
asking for answers to these questions.
  I ask the Governor to address this letter. It is important for the 
residents of Pennsylvania, who deserve an answer.

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