Republican New York Representative Elise Stefanik is calling for an “independent investigation” into Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home policies.

Congresswoman Stefanik said Tuesday that an investigation is necessary after reports suggested that her state was undercounting the number of COVID-19-related deaths in assisted living facilities.

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New York leads the country in nursing home deaths, with over 5,000 reported.

Stefanik told Fox News‘ “Fox & Friends“ on Tuesday, “New York has mismanaged how we have approached and how we’ve protected our seniors in our nursing homes. We knew, going into this, that our most vulnerable are our seniors and particularly in those assisted living facilities, whether they’re senior living facilities or nursing homes.”

Cuomo originally required nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, but the governor reversed that policy in early May.

“New York, when compared to other states, took a number of negative actions that cost over 5,000 lives,” Stefanik said. “They also didn’t fully tell the public how many seniors’ deaths there were coming from nursing homes. So that reporting data, they didn’t count the hospital deaths when there was a positive case that was transmitted because of the senior nursing home.”

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Stefanik also said that she does not believe a fair investigation will happen if directed by current Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James. “I’ve heard from families who are still grieving for loss of their loved ones and they deserve answers,” Stefanik said. “And it’s not just Republicans who are calling for this independent investigation. It’s Democrats as well.”

“It cannot be conducted by New York’s attorney general either,” she added. “It needs to be an independent investigation.”

“I’m calling for the Department of HHS to conduct this independent investigation, but I think it needs to come from the federal government,” Stefanik finished.

This piece originally appeared in ThePoliticalInsider.com and is used by permission.

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