Today, The Department of Health and Human Services informed Rep. Dean and other Montgomery County officials that they will be reversing their decision to remove federal funding from the county’s only community based testing site.
"I'm relieved that HHS has reversed its decision which would have closed our community testing site in Montgomery County tomorrow -- we know that in this pandemic the only way we will move forward is to test, find out where the disease is, try to mitigate, slow the spread, and treat earlier -- that's the way we are going to save lives," Rep. Dean said. "I want to thank my wonderful colleagues for signing onto this letter and lending their voices to keeping a community testing site in Montgomery County."
Montgomery County Community College will be hosting the community based testing site going forward and should be operational on Wednesday.
On April 8, 2020, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean wrote a letter to Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Rear Admiral Erica G. Schwartz, Deputy Surgeon General, urging federal support for the COVID-19 community testing site in Montgomery County, PA.
Congresswoman Dean was joined in a bipartisan effort by many in the Pennsylvania delegation including Senator Casey and Reps. Boyle, Evans, Fitzpatrick, and Scanlon.
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Rep. Madeleine Dean is a mother, grandmother, attorney, professor, former four-term member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and U.S. Representative for the Fourth District of Pennsylvania.