Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is slated to appear before Congress on Tuesday in a closed-door interview to answer for the outsize number of nursing home deaths in the Empire State during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic subpoenaed the former governor in March. It set June 11 as the date for testimony after several months of scheduling delays.

The panel’s chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), said in a press statement on Friday that it is “well past time for Cuomo to stop dodging accountability” for his nursing home policy in 2020 that required care facilities to accept COVID-positive patients.

“Not only did the former Governor put the elderly in harm’s way, but he also attempted to cover-up his failures by hiding the true nursing home death rate,” Wenstrup said. 

Cuomo issued an order on March 25, 2020, that prohibited nursing homes from denying readmission or admission on the basis of a positive COVID test. The former governor has publicly argued even after leaving office that the controversial order followed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance at the time.

Evidence obtained during Cuomo’s impeachment inquiry found that the number of nursing home deaths from the New York State Department of Health report was significantly underestimated after having been significantly edited by the governor’s office. 

Initial drafts of the nursing home deaths report counted the figure as 9,844 attributable to the policy instead of the 6,432 that were in the final report.

New York Attorney General Letitia James reported in 2021 that the number of nursing home deaths may have been undercounted by as much as 50%.

Wenstrup said in a press statement that Cuomo’s testimony “is crucial to uncover the circumstances that led to his misguided policies and for ensuring that fatal mistakes never happen again.”

According to a letter sent to Cuomo’s attorney on Friday, the select subcommittee began requesting voluntary testimony from the former governor in May 2023. 

Following months without a response, the subcommittee requested a transcribed interview in February. Cuomo’s attorney eventually responded by attempting to schedule it for August, more than a year after the initial request.

Wenstrup called the scheduling difficulties “unacceptable,” saying that Cuomo’s “strategy from the beginning has been to delay and undermine [the] investigation.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Cuomo resigned as New York governor in 2021 following months of scandal over alleged sexual harassment as well as his controversial COVID policy.

Neither Cuomo’s attorney nor publicist responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.