At Select Subcommittee Hearing, Democrats Call for Reforms to Protect and Advance the Health and Safety of America’s Nursing Home Residents

Washington, D.C. (May 17, 2023)—Today, Rep. Raul Ruiz, M.D., Ranking Member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, led Select Subcommittee Democrats in prioritizing seniors' health and safety, highlighting the need to develop forward-looking policies to save lives in the event of another public health crisis. During the hearing, Select Subcommittee Democrats stressed the impact of the Trump Administration's nursing home industry deregulation and botched pandemic response that left high-risk residents more vulnerable to infection and death from COVID-19. Select Subcommittee Democrats highlighted the steps President Biden has taken to right these wrongs, enacting policies to improve standards of care for nursing home residents and delivering lifesaving vaccines to at-risk populations across the country.

"As members of this Select Subcommittee, we must develop forward-looking policies that promote transparency and strengthen protections in nursing homes to mitigate current and future threats. We must also look to rehabilitate nursing home systems weakened by the previous Administration's efforts to roll back regulations that established guardrails for quality of care and staffing levels—leaving those facilities under-resourced and underprepared to combat a deadly virus," said Ranking Member Ruiz in his opening statement.

Today's hearing included testimony from Dr. David C. Grabowski, Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, who testified about the importance of results-oriented solutions that better protect nursing home residents and staff from future public health threats.

Select Subcommittee Democrats took a forward-looking approach to pandemic preparedness to prevent harm and save lives in the event of a future public health crisis.

• Congresswoman Debbie Dingell called for the need to develop policies that will aid pandemic prevention in the future: "We were not ready for the pandemic, let alone were our nation's nursing homes ready. And it's troubling because our nation's seniors are important, and they deserve and are entitled to live their senior years in dignity and with respect…We need to understand why what happened, happened so it never happens again."
  
  
• Congressman Robert Garcia advocated for solutions to address staffing shortages in the pandemic that cost American lives in the pandemic: "Staff shortages, which were in place at the time, meant low-quality care, folks seeing more patients, and certainly the spread of infections. We could have absolutely been better prepared. The federal government absolutely under the leadership of President Trump could have done more to prepare us and certainly given guidance to cities and to states."

Select Subcommittee Democrats demonstrated the Biden Administration's decisive action to protect nursing home residents' safety after President Trump's failed pandemic response and nursing home deregulation left seniors more vulnerable to COVID-19.

• Oversight and Accountability Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin demonstrated that the Trump Administration's failed COVID-19 response led to the uncontrolled spread of the COVID-19 virus among vulnerable populations: "The federal government's lethally chaotic response [under President Trump] exacerbated staffing shortages and deprived nursing homes of protective equipment and testing kits that they needed. President Trump pledged to ‘deploy every resource and power that we have to protect older Americans' and yet the last administration failed to nationalize the supply chain and fully utilize FEMA's capabilities to provide adequate PPE, testing, and resources to nursing homes and long-term [care] facilities."

• Congresswoman Debbie Dingell also noted that: "The previous administration oversaw years of rollbacks on federal regulations related to quality of care and infection prevention in nursing homes."
  
  
• Congresswoman Deborah Ross highlighted the Biden Administration's work to protect nursing home residents and reverse course on President Trump's harmful policies: "This administration has also expanded inspection activities and targeted more aggressive enforcement measures for high-risk facilities, supported good-paying nursing home jobs and training, [and] increased industry transparency and accountability. For the first time in nearly 40 years, the Biden Administration will soon update federal staffing standards to ensure higher quality of care for nursing home residents."
  
  
• When asked by Congresswoman Ross about the impact measures taken by the Biden Administration to ensure the safety and security of nursing homes and long-term care facilities would have on improving quality of care, Dr. Grabowski noted: "All three [measures] are incredibly important."

Select Subcommittee Democrats pointed out how Congressional Republicans' Default on America would impose draconian cuts on key programs that protect nursing home residents' health and safety.

• Congresswoman Jill Tokuda called attention to House Republicans' Default on America Act, which would cut key programs that ensure nursing home residents' health and safety: "House Republicans continue to hold America's full faith and credit hostage so that they can push draconian cuts to crucial federal programs that promote the safety of our nation's nursing home and long-term care residents. For example, Republicans' Default on America Act contains a 22% cut to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' State Survey and Certification program. CMS's survey and certification efforts ensure that nursing homes and other health care providers meet federal standards through outcome-based verification activities, including surveys and investigations."
  
  
• In response to questions from Congresswoman Tokuda about the impact these cuts would have on nursing home residents' health and well-being, Dr. Grabowski said: "That would be an absolute disaster… We don't want to make cuts, that's going in the wrong direction."
  
  
• Select Subcommittee Ranking Member Raul Ruiz also called for robust investments in seniors' health to mitigate future public health threats: "Let's make sure we're sufficiently investing in skilled nursing home staff and infection control measures. And let's hold to account those bad actors in the nursing home industry who skirted regulations and fueled the alarming death toll we experienced during the height of the pandemic."

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