Congresswoman Madeleine Dean

Congresswoman Dean on the Republican DHS Funding Agreement

Thu, 120 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), member of the House Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on her opposition to Republican funding agreement for DHS, following the GOP 76-day partial government shutdown.

MS NOW | Madeleine Dean on Howard Lutnick Misleading the Public on his Ties to Epstein

Sat, 115 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) joined MS NOW's Velshi to discuss U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick's hearing before the House Appropriations Committee, where he refused to answers her questions on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

CNN | Rep. Dean Questions Sec. Lutnick's Financial Conflicts of Interest

Thu, 113 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) joins CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper to discuss U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's hearing before the House Appropriations Committee — where she pressed him on his misleading the public on past ties to Jeffrey Epstein as well as his family's financial conflicts of interest.

MS NOW | Rep. Dean Questions Sec. Lutnick's Past Ties to Epstein

Thu, 113 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) joins MS NOW's Deadline White House with Nicolle Wallace to recap her questioning of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick's ties to Jeffrey Epstein during his hearing before the House Appropriations Committee.

CNN | Madeleine Dean on the Prospect of Peace in Iran

Mon, 110 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), House Foreign Affairs member, joins CNN News Central to talk about the prospect of peace in Iran — as Vice President Vance is set to restart negotiations in Pakistan and gas prices skyrocket at home.

THE 19th | On Capitol Hill, survivors push for change as Congress confronts its own misconduct

Wed, 105 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

By Grace Panetta

They came to lobby against online sexual abuse and found lawmakers wrestling with abuse within their own ranks.

For four years running, policy experts and survivor advocates with RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence advocacy organization, have come to Capitol Hill for a day of lobbying. This year, their annual advocacy day came amid a reckoning over sexual misconduct in the halls of Congress.

As survivors gathered Monday evening at a hotel in downtown Washington for a panel discussion and to prepare for their advocacy day, news broke that two House members accused of sexual misconduct, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, announced they would resign from Congress amid a bipartisan push to expel them. It represented a swift and stunning fall for both — and underscored the culture of silence surrounding sexual misconduct in Congress.

RAINN staffers, around 40 survivor advocates from over a dozen states and Tay Lautner, a registered nurse, mental health advocate and podcast host, arrived on Capitol Hill the next day as lawmakers grappled with the fallout.

“What a day, what a week,” Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania said in addressing the group at a breakfast Tuesday.

“Two congressmen are out,” she continued. “I am furious. Furious that it takes this long, furious we have a culture that silences those kinds of behaviors, and furious that these women have to come forward in shadow, sometimes for their own protection.”

“I’m here to say with you, we will be change makers,” Dean said in concluding her remarks. “And it’s not just legislation. We must change our culture.”

Gonzales dropped his reelection bid in March after the San Antonio Express-News reported on his inappropriate relationships with staff members, one of whom is now deceased. Swalwell dropped out of the California governor’s race Sunday and later resigned from Congress after the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN released reports days earlier on assault allegations against him. He has apologized for what he said were errors in judgment but has denied all of the accusations of sexual assault, with his lawyer calling them “a calculated and transparent political hit job.”

Scott Berkowitz, RAINN’s president and founder, said in an interview that he was glad to see the resignations but that it shouldn’t have taken so long.

“This stuff has got to stop happening, and when it does happen, we’ve got to do something about it a lot quicker and not wait for victims to come forward to a reporter,” he said. “We’ve just got to change the way things are done here.”

Some survivor advocates said they learned about the Gonzales and Swalwell resignations for the first time at the Tuesday breakfast.

“I heard about that for the first time when they announced it at the front, and I haven’t even had time to check my phone,” said an advocate named Katie. “I think it just speaks to how prevalent this issue is, and how it’s everywhere in every room in every part of the country.” She and other survivors who spoke to The 19th are identified by only their first names to protect their privacy.

“I feel like the last several years have been just reckoning after reckoning,” said Anna, another survivor advocate. “It never ends, and I don’t know that it ever will, because we know that the majority of people who perpetrate these crimes are people we know and people we trust.”

But in what can be a sharply divided political climate, bipartisan coalitions in Congress have mobilized behind survivors.

Two women lawmakers — a Democrat and a Republican — prepared resolutions to expel Gonzales and Swalwell, spurring their resignations. Last year, three Republican women sided with Democrats to compel the release of files connected to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And advocates secured a major victory last spring with the passage of the Take It Down Act, which made distributing nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated explicit deepfakes and so-called revenge porn, a crime.

But to advocates, the continued proliferation of tech-enabled sexual abuse and misconduct scandals in Congress shows how little support and resources there are for survivors.

Brooke Nevils, a writer and author of “Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe,” joined the advocacy day to lobby for federal funding for the national sexual assault hotline, which is operated by RAINN and has not received federal funding in years. In writing her book, Nevils found that survivors often don’t have a safe, confidential place to go to process what happened to them, a crucial service the RAINN hotline provides.

“RAINN is the difference between life and death for a lot of these victims,” she said. “It is the only place they can go.”

Nevils knows what it means to come forward about an assault by a powerful person. In 2017, she was a producer at NBC when she reported “Today Show” host Matt Lauer for sexually assaulting her at the Sochi Olympics three years earlier, leading to NBC firing him the next day. Lauer admitted to having extramarital affairs but claimed his interactions with Nevils were consensual and denied abusing or assaulting anyone.

“It’s no secret that people don’t want to think about this. They don’t want to talk about it. We don’t think it’s ever going to happen to us, and so we’d just rather not think about it at all,” she said. “If the events of the past few weeks have made nothing else clear, it should be that it is time for Congress to start thinking about it and doing something about it. And funding this hotline is the bare minimum.”

RAINN was also advocating for a slew of bipartisan bills targeting tech and artificial intelligence-enabled sexual abuse. They include the DEFIANCE Act, which would allow survivors to sue the creators and perpetrators of nonconsensual intimate imagery, and other bipartisan bills seeking to crack down on the proliferation of child sex abuse material, to protect minors from the harms of AI chatbots and protect people’s likeness from being used for AI without their consent.

Quaydaisha, an advocate who has participated in all four annual RAINN advocacy days, said there’s tremendous value in putting a face and a powerful story behind a piece of legislation when lobbying lawmakers and staffers.

“Whatever the subject we’re talking on today, just know that there are really people out here with these stories that have lived it, and they need to know that whatever they do plays a part in our lives,” she said.

First Lady Melania Trump’s support was key to passing the Take It Down Act, but the White House and the Trump administration have broadly opposed and sought to undermine state-level AI regulation.

Berkowitz said RAINN, with its package of bills specifically addressing abuse, sees tech companies as partners and not necessarily adversaries.

“We’re not trying to stop AI, we’re not trying to make these companies into our enemies,” he added. “We’re trying to work with them, partner with them, to make sure that these trillions of dollars are invested in something that not only changes the way we work and live, but also keeps people safe.”

On Tuesday afternoon, advocates joined Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez for a news conference on the STOP CSAM Act, which seeks to bolster protections for survivors of online exploitation and crack down on the proliferation of child sex abuse material. Durbin and Hawley slammed tech platforms, which Durbin likened to the big tobacco companies, for how they said those platforms enable child abuse and exploitation.

Hawley said the moment is about “a simple principle,” that “no amount of profit by the big tech companies justifies destroying the lives of America’s children.”

“You know who has the most money of lobbyists of any group in this Capitol? It’s big tech,” Hawley added.

Monique, a RAINN advocate who spoke at the news conference, is a mental health counselor and professor who works with young people and sees firsthand the harms of technology-enabled abuse, which she said is affecting children at younger and younger ages. “It’s a big problem,” she said.

Tech platforms are nearing a May deadline set by the Take It Down Act, by which they must formalize a process for victims to request that images be taken down within 48 hours. Berkowitz said RAINN met with the Federal Trade Commission, tasked with implementing the law, for an update last week and said he’s “hopeful” they’ll meet the deadline.

“One of the things we’re trying to work on with the platforms now is to take the burden off the victims,” he said.

Nevils said lawmakers also have a chance to pass laws and enact lasting change to take the burden off survivors when it comes to technology-enabled abuse and the culture that enables sexual misconduct by powerful people in Congress.

“Usually, what happens is that victims suffer the consequences of sexual abuse for decades before lawmakers act,” she said. “We saw that with the clergy abuse scandals. We’re seeing that with the Epstein files. And what we saw yesterday, and what we’ve seen with the Take It Down Act, is that victims are not going to allow that to happen this time, and there is a rare opportunity for lawmakers to stand up.”

Congress, she said, “can actually be leaders in preventing this stuff from happening instead of remedying a wrong that has been going on for years.”

See full article here.

CSPAN | Rep. Dean Demands Speaker Johnson Call the House Back to D.C.

Thu, 99 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean stands with fellow House Democrats on the U.S. Capitol steps in support of a War Powers Resolution — and implores Speaker Johnson to call the House back to Washington.

MS NOW | Madeleine Dean and Norm Ornstein on Presidential Pardon Reform

Sun, 95 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean and congressional scholar Norm Ornstein join MS Now's Velshi to lay out their support for a constitutional amendment that will reign in Trump's abuse of the presidential pardon.

MS NOW | Congresswoman Dean: "This president is going to be known for rubble."

Sat, 94 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joins MS Now's The Weekend on the search and rescue mission for the U.S. pilot shot down by Iran.

CNN | Madeleine Dean: The President is "Making No Sense"

Fri, 93 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) joins CNN News Central to discuss Trump's incoherent address to the nation, the staggering rise of gas prices, and the firing of AG Pam Bondi.

MS NOW | Madeleine Dean on the Hypocrisy of Trump's "War on Fraud"

Fri, 93 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) joins MS Now's The Briefing to discuss the hypocrisy of Trump's "War on Fraud" as he exploits his presidential pardon power to grant clemency to fraudsters.

THE NEW REPUBLIC | OPED | Trump’s Corrupt Pardons May Well Be the Most Corrupt Thing About Him

Thu, 92 Apr 2026 12:00:00 EST

By Madeleine Dean and Norman Ornstein

Joseph Schwartz had a multistate nursing home empire. Through negligence and fraud, including deaths of patients in his facilities, it unraveled, leaving the families of the victims with nothing. And Schwartz responded by engaging in a massive payroll tax scheme, bilking his employees of $39 million. As ProPublica wrote, “He pleaded guilty last April to failure to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees and failing to file a financial report for his employees’ benefit plan. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison.”

Schwartz’s is only the latest of a series of pardons of fraudsters. Of all the corrupt actions taken in chapter 2 of the Trump presidency, none is more shocking than the misuse of the presidential pardon—not just for personal gain but to reward friends, enrich lobbyist buddies, and make clear that anyone who commits a crime to further Mr. Trump’s interests need not fear prosecution.

Our Constitution does not limit presidential pardons. The Framers debated bestowing this immense power upon one individual, yet ultimately believed that presidential integrity, and the possibility of impeachment, would shield it from corruption. Unfortunately, the Framers did not anticipate a president with no integrity—nor did they anticipate a Congress abandoning its Article 1 authority in service to an unprincipled executive.

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, we must safeguard our democracy and counteract Mr. Trump’s corruption. And we believe the only way to restore the presidential pardon power to its original, merciful purpose is through a constitutional amendment.

Origins of Mercy

The power to issue pardons and grant clemency is not unique to the United States. The concept—originated as the “royal prerogative of mercy” in seventh-century England—allowed British monarchs to commute death sentences and pardon convicted criminals. As the name implies, it was a tool intended for mercy; to alleviate pain, suffering, and injustice.

The power survived America’s colonial era and was eventually codified in the U.S. Constitution. Like their British predecessors, the Framers viewed the pardon power as a strong, necessary check against the judicial branch.

In The Federalist, Number 74, Alexander Hamilton argued that “a single person would be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of the government than a body of men.” Imagining that congressional gridlock would render this power obsolete, the Framers made a calculated decision: Offering grace and mercy to the oppressed was worth the risk that some future president might abuse it (and after all, impeachment was always an option).

Presidential Perversion

Yet here we are. Mr. Trump has spent the last 14 months perverting the presidential pardon in every way imaginable to line his pockets, reward and protect those who commit or might commit crimes on his behalf, and assuage his fragile ego.

The Campaign Legal Center has defined three types of suspect pardons:

Reward pardons, which benefit donors and supporters who break the law on Trump’s behalf;

Corrupt pardons, which excuse public officials who abuse their office as long as they pledge loyalty to Trump and his political agenda; and

Brokered pardons, where deep-pocketed individuals hire well-connected lobbyists or political fixers to secure clemency.

On Trump’s first day back in office—January 20, 2025—he issued a blanket pardon to every one of the 1,500 people charged or convicted over the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

We are two people who love our precious democracy—one as a congressional scholar, and the other as a member of Congress who stood in the House Gallery on January 6 as we braced ourselves for the violence outside the door. We find Trump’s pardons of those who assaulted police officers and were convicted of seditious conspiracy to be the most chilling assault on our democracy.

But Trump was undeterred. He then pardoned Trevor Milton, who had been convicted of fraud having to do with his electric truck startup, Nikola. Milton had been sentenced by a federal judge to four years in prison and ordered to pay $675 million in restitution to those who had been bilked. Just before Milton went to prison, Trump pardoned him and wiped away the payments to the victims. Mr. Milton and his wife contributed $1.8 million to Trump’s political committees.

Paul Walczak was similarly sentenced to 18 months for stealing his Florida nursing home employees’ tax payments, and ordered to pay $4.4 million in restitution. He was pardoned, with payments wiped out, just weeks after his mother attended a $1 million-a-person fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

The New York Times noted, “Across both of his terms, Mr. Trump has granted clemency to more than 70 allies, donors, and others convicted in fraud cases. In his second term, Mr. Trump’s pace of pardoning those convicted of fraud has increased. In the first year of his second term, he handed out nearly three dozen pardons and commutations for people accused of fraud.”

Then there are the drug traffickers. Ross Ulbricht, founder of the dark site Silk Road, was convicted in 2015 on multiple charges, including distributing narcotics by means of the internet and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years without the possibility of parole, to be served concurrently. In 2023, according to The New Yorker, the head of the Libertarian Party guaranteed Trump the libertarian vote if he promised to free Ulbricht. Trump, for once, kept his promise: Ulbricht received a full and unconditional pardon in January 2025.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, former president of Honduras, took bribes from drug cartels to facilitate the transport of 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and to protect violent cartel leaders from prison. He was sentenced to 45 years. But after Trump’s buddy Roger Stone contacted the president, Hernandez was pardoned in full.

Republican lobbyists have reveled in Trump’s open-for-business pardon shop, especially after he fired the Justice Department’s career pardon attorney, Liz Oyer, when she refused to recommend a pardon for convicted domestic violence offender Mel Gibson to enable him to get a gun.

Reward pardons? Corrupt pardons? Brokered pardons? The last 15 months of the Trump administration have been replete with these perverse pardons. In Trump’s Washington, there is no place for mercy. Corruption reigns supreme.

Constitutional Reform

Previous presidents have abused the pardon power. But compared to Trump, those were on the level of jaywalking on Fifth Avenue compared with murder. We the People need a constitutional amendment.

Two hundred fifty years later, it is time that we reconvene—perhaps in Philadelphia—a convention of scholars, legislators, lawyers, judges, and citizens to draft a constitutional amendment to reorient and reanchor the presidential pardon power to the qualities of mercy and grace. To find the best language and methods to invalidate pardons done for corrupt and malign purposes—and to make clear that a president cannot pardon himself.

While the path to a constitutional amendment is difficult—requiring passage by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, and ratification by three-fourths of the states—this one should be widely embraced in a bipartisan way.

We call on all members of Congress—Republicans and Democrats. Though we may practice different faiths, we share common values: love of country, belief in justice and the rule of law, and an esteem for mercy. After all, as William Shakespeare so eloquently taught us in The Merchant of Venice, “Earthly power doth then show likest God’s / When mercy seasons justice.”

See our full op-ed here.

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER | Rep. Madeleine Dean visits Philadelphia ICE facility as fight over DHS funding drags on

Tue, 90 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

By Sam Janesch

As Congress spends a two-week break without yet passing a compromise on Homeland Security funding, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean visited the federal detention facility in Center City on Tuesday to do some research on the agency at the center of the fight.

ICE agents have been paid throughout the 46-day shutdown, but most other employees of agencies overseen by the the Department of Homeland Security have gone without pay for the duration.

But Dean (D., Montgomery) discovered Tuesday that the pay disparity also existed within ICE itself.

“What I learned there is something I did not fully understand. We all know about TSA not getting paid. But did you know the support staff [for ICE and other agencies] has not been paid?” Dean said.

“The support staff is often the backbone of any organization, and it’s just completely unthinkable, unconscionable — I think it should be illegal — that these folks are not being paid.”

The four-term lawmaker’s visit came more than six weeks into the Department of Homeland Security shutdown and just days after Congress left Washington for a two-week break without a resolution.

Democrats have remained steadfast in opposing any new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement without reforms to the agency’s tactics, following two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal agents in January and several deaths of detainees, some of which happened under inconclusive circumstances.

Many Republicans have bristled at Democrats’ proposals to ban masking by agents and other reforms. And House GOP leaders have refused to consider a larger DHS budget without the ICE funding.

Dean said her trip to the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center, which she said had 52 immigrant detainees Tuesday morning, was designed for her to learn both about the shutdown’s impacts and the operations of a facility that began holding immigrants in ICE custody only last year.

She said the pay disparity — support staff not being paid while agents continue to be paid to perform law enforcement — struck her as unfair, particularly with funding available through President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and after Trump authorized payment for Transportation Security Administration workers.

Trump approved the TSA payments last week as unpaid employees increasingly called out of work, disrupting airport operations and leading to ICE agents being deployed to assume some of their duties.

Dean said the decisions made about who to pay and not pay, along with House Republicans’ move last week to reject a compromise plan proposed by the Senate, were “an utter failure to govern.”

House Republican leaders changed their position Wednesday, announcing plans to pass the Senate bill in the coming days as backlash grew during the congressional recess amid the ongoing shutdown.

Spokespeople for DHS and ICE did not respond to questions from The Inquirer about which types of federal employees are receiving paychecks during the budget impasse.

Though the Trump administration has occasionally blocked members of Congress — including two from Pennsylvania last year — from entering ICE detention facilities, Dean said she did not have a problem getting access on Tuesday. However, she criticized the current policy that requires a week’s notice.

Democratic lawmakers have fought in court against the advance-notice policies. The policies have been used, for instance, to block lawmakers looking to visit a facility in Minneapolis after an ICE officer fatally shot U.S. citizen Renee Good, sparking a wave of public backlash.

The arrest of nine religious leaders protesting at the Philadelphia detention center on Monday was part of a series of demonstrations after the events in Minneapolis.

“We should have been able to walk right in,” Dean said after giving notice for her Tuesday visit. “We have a responsibility as the appropriators to take a look at these places without any prior approval.”

Dean described the staff at the Philadelphia facility as cooperative even as they did not answer all of her questions and declined to let her speak with any of the immigrants who were detained there Tuesday morning.

The questions she said she entered with — about how long the detainees had been there and whether they had criminal records beyond their immigration status — were left unanswered.

Dean said she also did not get clarity on how many came from her district, which covers most of Montgomery County and part of Berks County, or about the circumstances around the death of a detainee in January. That detainee, 46-year-old Parady La, was a Cambodian immigrant who ICE said was treated for drug withdrawal and died after being transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

La’s family and groups including the ACLU of Pennsylvania have sought more information. Dean said Tuesday she was unable to learn anything more after speaking with the staff.

Dean described the conditions at the facility, which also still operates as a federal jail, as “heavy-duty, serious prison” — similar but also different from a much larger detention facility in Texas that she visited earlier in March.

The facility in Dilley, Texas, holds up to 2,400 people, and Dean has highlighted it as a cautionary exhibit of what could be coming if the Trump administration succeeds in its plans to turn two warehouses — in Berks and Schuylkill counties — into similarly large detention facilities.

“It was incredibly inhumane and grotesque,” Dean said. “We saw children whose medical needs were being neglected.”

Dean said that while at the Texas facility she spoke to several detainees who had severe medical issues. An educational area set up for the detained children also appeared to be unused, she said.

“It was an absolute sham, a joke,” she said. “I’ll do everything in my power to get these centers shut down.”

See full article here.

MS NOW | Congresswoman Dean on the GOP Government Shutdown

Sun, 88 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), of the House Appropriations Committee, joins MS Now's Alex Witt Reports to discuss Speaker Johnson's feckless leadership that has perpetuated the government shutdown.

Madeleine Dean: "The Republican Majority is feckless."

Thu, 85 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), member of the House Appropriations Committee, joins MS Now's The Weeknight to discuss the President's feckless conducting of the war with Iran and the GOP's inability to pass a funding bill for TSA.

Rep. Dean on Trump's War of Choice with Iran

Sat, 80 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joins MS NOW's Velshi to share her concerns over President Trump's erratic decision-making in his war of choice with Iran.

Madeleine Dean: War Powers Resolution is "Critically Important"

Sun, 74 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joins CNN Newsroom to discuss the latest in the War with Iran – and the need to vote again on the War Powers Resolution despite Republicans voting against it.

CSPAN | Rep. Dean Conducts Oversight on Dilley Detention Center: "Simply Un-American."

Mon, 68 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Alongside fellow House Democrats, Congresswoman Madeleine conducted an oversights visit of the Dilley detention center in Texas where Dilley detention center where hundreds of children and families are facing harsh, inhumane conditions.

Dean, Lee Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Improve Law Enforcement Investigations of Child Exploitation

Mon, 68 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Rep. Madeleine Dean introduced the Safe Cloud Storage Act to help law enforcement agencies modernize how they securely store and process digital evidence related to child sexual exploitation investigations.

CNN | Rep. Dean on Trump's Latest Rhetoric on Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela

Sat, 66 Mar 2026 12:00:00 EST

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joins CNN's The Brief With Jim Sciutto for latest on Trump's latest rhetoric on Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.