TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey’s staggeringly-high nursing home deaths continued to mount as the Democrat-controlled legislature refused to hold Governor Murphy accountable.
Since May, the state’s official long-term care facility death toll rose from approximately 4,800 to over 7,100 today. Republican legislators had agitated for a comprehensive bipartisan investigation of the Murphy Administration’s handling of nursing homes back in May; the resolution (SR-68) introduced on May 11th has been tabled in the N.J. Senate not one but three times, each time initiated by Democrat Loretta Weinberg.
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“Since May, Senate Republicans have called for a thorough, bipartisan, and transparent investigation into the massive loss of life at our long-term care facilities,” said Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean (R-21) on Monday. “We believe the families and loved ones of victims deserve to hear the truth and to know that those responsible will be held accountable. Current residents deserve to know that the failures that led to thousands of deaths have been thoroughly investigated and understood, and that effective reforms have been developed and implemented to keep them safe. Unfortunately, our repeated calls for the Legislature to form a special committee with subpoena power to perform this legitimate oversight of the executive branch have been ignored.”
SR-68 would establish a “Senate Select Committee on the Executive Branch’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic” to probe the Murphy Administration’s oversight of long-term care facilities including the March 31, 2020 letter telling nursing homes that they couldn’t screen for COVID-19 positive admissions.
“When I first called for a special investigative committee to be formed back in May, I was concerned that the failures that led to thousands of nursing home deaths were going to be swept under the rug to protect Governor Murphy for the tragic mistakes made under his leadership,” said state Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-26) who led the charge to advance the subsequently-tabled resolution. “Four months later, that appears to be exactly what’s happening. Our nursing homes have sustained a far greater loss of life than our nation suffered on 9/11, and another two-thousand LTC residents have died since May while Democrats have stonewalled our efforts to prevent more lives from being lost unnecessarily.”
The Department of Justice is currently in the early stages of probing four states’ handling of the nursing home COVID-19 crisis including New Jersey.
Meanwhile, the minority party GOP has launched an online petition (click here) in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on legislative Democrats to act.
