Andrew Cuomo agrees to testify to Congress on controversial 2020 nursing home advisory

NEW YORK (WRGB) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to testify to Congress about his controversial nursing home advisory from the early days of the pandemic.

The March 2020 advisory barred nursing homes from rejecting patients solely on the basis of a COVID-19 diagnosis.

Cuomo has insisted the advisory was consistent with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"Governor Cuomo will be coming appearing before our select subcommittee on the pandemic on June 11," said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio. "This will be a transcribed interview at 10am. This is nine months after we initially started reaching out to the governor to ask him to come and testify in front of us. You cannot lie or it’s prosecuted."

Wenstrup said the panel will also hear from Cuomo’s former secretary and former commissioner of the New York State Department of Health.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi sent the following statement:

"There’s no news here, we agreed to do this months ago. This is pure politics and simple fact remains that this issue has been reviewed three times by the Department of Justice under Trump and Biden, as well as Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney who found no there there. Any real review would focus on the 10 other states with similar policies, red and blue alike.”