Madeleine Dean

As the climate crisis worsens, our farmers, chefs, restaurants, and all those who feed us are hit hardest. Article 1, Section 27 of the PA Constitution guarantees the right to a healthy environment, and it is our responsibility to be stewards. I was fortunate to join Christa Barfield, founder of FarmerJawn, on her beautiful land in Elkins Park; the James Beard Foundation; and culinary leaders for a critical conversation about sustainability, hunger, and the necessary collaboration at every level of agriculture.

Members of Congress should not have to do the work this administration was required — by law — to finish months ago. Survivors of Epstein deserve justice, and Americans deserve the truth. https://t.co/2JvEUXHPfG

I am heartbroken to hear of the death of Philadelphia police officer Shane Seiber in the line of duty today. My thoughts are with his grieving family, as well as the family of another officer who was wounded—I am praying for his recovery. Our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to protect us. I will always stand with them and will never forget the risks they take every day for our safety.

Desperate to escape the consequences of his failed Iran war, Trump is preparing to stab Ukraine in the back and buy diesel from Putin. He's helping fund Russia's war machine, while our allies pay the price. Read more, here: https://t.co/YgxhMMZx4o

Please join me for a Town Hall on October 21 in Abington! RSVP is required. Location details to come ➡️ https://t.co/g5O2cwdKo3 Looking forward to a great discussion! https://t.co/DixDPCFNYL

Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) and Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded a federal investigation into former Bard College President Leon Botstein after reviewing an email in which Botstein asked Jeffrey Epstein about a young woman Epstein was trafficking: “Is [Jane Doe] for me, or are you keeping her for yourself.” The letters — to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, and to Bard Board Chair Brandon Weber and Acting President Jonathan Becker — detail communications concerning a young foreign model and aspiring vocalist whom Epstein sent to Botstein in May 2014. They also question why DOJ exposed her name hundreds of times and released photographs showing her face while redacting Botstein’s email address. “[T]his evidence, and the facts laid out in the Epstein files, surely meet and exceed the federal law enforcement standard for initiating a criminal investigation: the existence of evidence that a crime ‘may have occurred.’ These facts strongly indicate that a crime may have occurred. Yet, you have done nothing, and launched no investigation, about this incident which you and your staff must have known of for at least 18 months. In so doing, you have effectively permitted a potential co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein to stay in a position of power over young students, faculty and staff for an additional year at least,” the lawmakers wrote. Emails and messages reviewed by the Committee show that Epstein groomed the young woman throughout 2014, offering advice and assistance with her education and career in the United States. After meeting Jane Doe in Paris, Epstein directed his assistant, Lesley Groff, to arrange private flights from her home country to destinations including Canada, New York, Florida, New Mexico and his island. A message to Epstein included a photograph of Jane Doe giving a woman, possibly Ghislaine Maxwell, a nude massage. That May, Epstein sent Jane Doe to meet Botstein, ostensibly to assess her musical abilities and provide educational guidance. In an email from his Bard account, Botstein asked whether Jane Doe was “for me”. As he did with other survivors, Epstein relied on Botstein to assuage parental concerns about the sex offender, in this case by requesting orchestra tickets for the young woman’s parents to attend a Bard concert abroad. Epstein also asked Botstein to give them special treatment. The evidence uncovered by the Committee contradicts the July 2025 DOJ–FBI memorandum and numerous follow-up claims by FBI Director Patel and Attorney General Blanche asserting that investigators found no evidence warranting an investigation of Epstein’s uncharged associates. Ranking Member Raskin demanded answers about why DOJ exposed the young woman’s identity while redacting Botstein’s email address, who directed that disparate treatment, and whom they were seeking to protect. Committee staff identified documents that still expose her name and provided the list separately to DOJ for redaction. The letters omit citations to DOJ documents to protect her identity. Separately, more than a dozen whistleblowers have provided Committee staff information about a culture of sexual misconduct at Bard spanning decades. Multiple reports accuse Botstein of groping women and asking sexualized questions during tenure interviews. Whistleblowers described Botstein personally overseeing Title IX adjudications for the majority of his tenure as president and faculty being told that certain individuals accused of abuse were “protected by Botstein.” In a letter to Bard’s leadership, Ranking Member Raskin sought records concerning Epstein’s use of the college to advance his trafficking activities and allegations from more than a dozen whistleblowers about sexual misconduct at Bard, including allegations that Botstein personally engaged in misconduct and intervened in Title IX proceedings to protect offenders. The Bard letter also details allegations involving a senior tenured professor who remains on campus, including that he invited a male student into his bed and supplied alcohol to the point of alcohol poisoning. That allegation appeared in a sworn federal complaint and was corroborated by whistleblower statements. “Ultimately, we understand that your outrageous abandonment of your responsibilities is not about Leon Botstein. It is about protecting another individual who appears frequently in the Epstein files who also may have been a co-conspirator in Jeffrey Epstein’s brutal and sickening sex trafficking operation. And yet you continue to show the world that you would rather let a dozen, even 100, or 1,000 human sex traffickers go free than allow the possibility of an honest investigation of the conduct of one man,” the lawmakers concluded. Read the full letter here. 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. ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), member of the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees, released the following statement on the third anniversary of the October 7th attack: “Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists launched a brutal, barbaric — most inhumane — attack on the people of Israel. Homes, Kibbutzim, and families were burned. Families torn apart. Unspeakable crimes committed against women, children, and seniors. More than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage, including American citizens. The cruelty and brutality of this attack demanded universal, international condemnation and American support for our ally and friend Israel. I have traveled to Israel several times since October 7th, to meet with grieving Israeli families and government leaders. I met twice with Prime Minister Netanyahu, urging him to pursue justice — a just war — not vengeance, to be a partner for peace. Today, thanks to the tireless advocacy from the families and to American leadership, all the living hostages have been reunited with their loved ones. The dead have been returned to be buried with dignity. Around the world, Jewish people just celebrated their first Rosh Hashanah without any hostages held in Hamas’ custody. But the scars of October 7th run deep and are lasting. The families of those who were killed, and those who were taken, will carry that grief for the rest of their lives. We all will. Meanwhile, the region remains in turmoil. Millions of Gazans are still displaced and vulnerable, struggling to find the food, water, medicine, and shelter they need to survive. More than 70,000 innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed and thousands more wounded, so many of them children. and Israeli violations of the ceasefire are alarmingly common. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers continue to encroach on Palestinian land, using violence to injure, kill, and drive out Palestinian families, jeopardizing any chance at peace. We owe it to all those who died, on that day and in the devastating war since, to build a better future. My prayer, and my work as a member of Congress, remains focused on supporting these essential pillars of peace: disarming of Hamas, a durable ceasefire to enable the mass distribution of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza; a safe and secure future for Israel as a democratic home for the Jewish people; self-determination and dignity for the Palestinian people to rebuild their lives and create a democratic, sovereign state of their own; and a commitment by leaders around the world to these principles, that we might truly end the cycle of violence. In this work, I am guided by the Jewish teaching of “Tikkun Olam”— the call to repair the world — and by the Scripture which tells us: blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Today, we remember the suffering of October 7th. Tomorrow, we must continue the work, with mercy and moral clarity, each doing our part to make peace.” 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. ###

Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists launched a brutal, barbaric — most inhumane — attack on the people of Israel. Homes, Kibbutzim, and families were burned. Families torn apart. Unspeakable crimes committed against women, children, and seniors. More than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage, including American citizens. The cruelty and brutality of this attack demanded universal, international condemnation and American support for our ally and friend Israel. I have traveled to Israel several times since October 7th, to meet with grieving Israeli families and government leaders. I met twice with Prime Minister Netanyahu, urging him to pursue justice — a just war — not vengeance, to be a partner for peace. Today, thanks to the tireless advocacy from the families and to American leadership, all the living hostages have been reunited with their loved ones. The dead have been returned to be buried with dignity. Around the world, Jewish people just celebrated their first Rosh Hashanah without any hostages held in Hamas’ custody. But the scars of October 7th run deep and are lasting. The families of those who were killed, and those who were taken, will carry that grief for the rest of their lives. We all will. Meanwhile, the region remains in turmoil. Millions of Gazans are still displaced and vulnerable, struggling to find the food, water, medicine, and shelter they need to survive. More than 70,000 innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed and thousands more wounded, so many of them children. and Israeli violations of the ceasefire are alarmingly common. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers continue to encroach on Palestinian land, using violence to injure, kill, and drive out Palestinian families, jeopardizing any chance at peace. We owe it to all those who died, on that day and in the devastating war since, to build a better future. My prayer, and my work as a member of Congress, remains focused on supporting these essential pillars of peace: disarming of Hamas, a durable ceasefire to enable the mass distribution of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza; a safe and secure future for Israel as a democratic home for the Jewish people; self-determination and dignity for the Palestinian people to rebuild their lives and create a democratic, sovereign state of their own; and a commitment by leaders around the world to these principles, that we might truly end the cycle of violence. In this work, I am guided by the Jewish teaching of “Tikkun Olam”— the call to repair the world — and by the Scripture which tells us: blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Today, we remember the suffering of October 7th. Tomorrow, we must continue the work, with mercy and moral clarity, each doing our part to make peace.

I am deeply disturbed by the vile antisemitic and anti-Black graffiti spray painted at the Glenside Weldon playground. At a park — where children deserve to feel safe and protected. On the cusp of three years since the horrific attacks against the Jewish community on October 7th, we must always unite against hate and against those who try so hard to divide us.

TWO WEEKS left to register to vote for the 2026 General Election. Use the link in our bio to register to vote by October 19th. https://t.co/qFX4rRmc5n

This weekend I joined Planned Parenthood and Governor Josh Shapiro at a terrific canvass launch in Bucks County. With just under 30 days left until Election Day, we must all do our part to get these tremendous candidates across the finish line. https://t.co/fGZrKbogCA

Today is a Good Day offers resources and support to NICU families across our region — solace during times of great uncertainty. It was a privilege to secure Community Project Funding for their team, and I was glad to visit them in Flourtown to hear how those federal dollars expanded their family advocacy in our local hospitals. Thank you for your big work for our littlest. 💚

The President says we should sit still on AI. Americans and the industry know better. We have the proposals. We have the support across the aisle. We must pass guardrails on AI before it's too late. https://t.co/0qTkYgVI1q

Washington, D.C. – Congresswomen Madeleine Dean (PA-04) and Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) introduced a package of legislation to make American democracy more accessible for people with disabilities. Three bills will address accessibility issues in registering to vote, getting to the polls, running for public office, and serving in local government. The Removing Access Barriers to Running for Elected Office for People with Disabilities Act would ensure people with disabilities do not lose their crucial, life-sustaining federal disability benefits when they campaign for elected office. Specifically, the bill would clarify to federal agencies administering disability benefits that campaigning for an elected office does not disqualify a person from receiving disability benefits. The AID (Accessibility and Inclusion to Diversify) Local Government Leadership Act would provide local governments with an ongoing accommodations fund to ensure current and future elected officials with disabilities have access to needed accommodations to perform their duties. Eligible communities include those that are rural communities, have a population of less than 10,000 people or are communities with a population between 10,000 and 200,000 with a federal poverty rate of 18 percent or higher. The Accessible Voting Act, also co-led by Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08), would support state and local efforts to improve voter accessibility and remove barriers to voting. Specifically, the bill would establish new programs for ensuring voting accessibility, including creating a national resource center on accessible voting and expanding the number of options for casting a ballot in federal elections. “The ability to fully participate in our democracy is central to our American ideals—yet too often people with disabilities face unnecessary barriers to voting and public service,” Rep. Dean said. “This package of legislation will help ensure accessibility in registering to vote, getting to the polls, running for office, and serving in local government. By breaking down these barriers, our communities can be better represented by every voice. I'm thankful to partner with Congresswoman Scanlon to pass these important bills.” “Full participation in government is the bedrock of our democracy, but too often, Americans with disabilities face unnecessary barriers to accessing the ballot box, running for office, and serving in local government,” Rep. Scanlon said. “I'm proud to join Reps. Dean and Raskin in introducing this suite of legislation to support people with disabilities, including many seniors and veterans, by addressing systemic inaccessibility across all aspects of civic life.” “American democracy works best when all citizens can participate and vote, no matter where they’re from, what language they speak or whether they live with a disability,” Rep. Raskin said. “Our Accessible Voting Act strengthens access to the ballot box and addresses a wide range of systemic deficiencies, so no eligible voter is left alone to overcome barriers to casting a ballot.” 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. ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) reintroduced the Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act. The Beyond the Box Act would provide colleges and universities guidance on the removal of criminal and juvenile justice questions from their initial application for admissions. Almost one out of three Americans have some kind of arrest or conviction record that would appear in a criminal background check. Individuals with criminal or juvenile justice involvement experience barriers to educational opportunities, decreased earnings, and increased poverty. One significant barrier that these individuals face is that most colleges and universities ask criminal justice, juvenile justice, and/or school disciplinary questions in their admissions processes. People with felony convictions are forty percent less likely to complete college applications than people without, and the application rejection rates for individuals with felony convictions can be as high as 2.5 times the rate of those without. “Every student deserves the chance to claim their education — and people who have made mistakes in the past and are looking for a fresh start are no exception,” Rep. Dean said. “As a former professor, I have seen firsthand how education can change lives, and we can ensure more Americans are afforded that chance. I am grateful for Senator Schatz’s continued partnership.” The Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act directs the Department of Education to provide guidance on: Whether criminal and juvenile justice questions are necessary in the initial application for admissions; How to create a process to determine when criminal or juvenile justice information can be requested of students for non-admissions purposes; and How colleges and universities that decide to keep criminal and juvenile justice questions can reduce their impact on the admissions process. Congresswoman Dean and Senator Schatz previously introduced this bicameral legislation in 2021 and 2023. Read the text of the bill here. 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. ###

AI deepfakes are stealing our voices, faces, and identities. The technology is moving fast, but the law hasn't caught up. That’s why Congresswoman Salazar and I introduced the NO FAKES Act — to put the power over your voice and likeness back where it belongs — with you.

I was thrilled to help open the Schuylkill River Trail’s final portion in Montgomery County — adding to its gorgeous, nearly 70-mile stretch. This project is decades in the making, a dream realized for our communities to bike, walk, run, and take in the beauty of our natural resources. Thank you to our state and local leaders for making this possible.

Read the full story here ➡️ https://t.co/5mVEX15hpG

President Trump gave ICE and CBP billions of your tax dollars. They have used those dollars to terrorize our communities, kill immigrants and Americans, and now to tell you what a great job Trump is doing. This is an abuse of power, and Democrats will hold them accountable.

Read more, here: https://t.co/aTYCjwc77I

This administration wants voters to be intimidated because they know they're losing. Don't let the lies and fearmongering win — our elections are free and fair. All voters should feel empowered to use their voice. https://t.co/VlSkw76OSE

The survivors of Jeffrey Epstein deserve justice. While in Dallas, I viewed an exhibit of more than 300 million pages of the Epstein Files. It is a brave and urgent project that aims to uncover the despicable crimes of Epstein and his associates, and to give voice to the women and girls who suffered their abuse. My visit, and the fearless organizers who I met, will stay with me for a long time. We must never stop pursuing justice.

Our veterans represent the very best of us — and I am always eager to learn from their experiences to help guide my work. Thank you to our Veterans Advisory Panel (and the veterans on my team!) for giving their insights on how we can better support veterans as they establish their civilian lives.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Congressman Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) reintroduced the Promoting Reentry through Education in Prisons (PREP) Act to establish an Office of Prison Education within the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to ensure that incarcerated individuals receive the education needed to successfully reenter their communities after completing their sentences. Congresswoman Dean previously introduced this bicameral legislation in 2023, 2021, and 2019. Providing incarcerated individuals with the resources to effectively reintegrate into society upon release can dramatically reduce recidivism. Two-thirds of formerly incarcerated individuals are rearrested within three years; however, incarcerated people who participated in educational programs had a 43 percent lower recidivism rate than those who did not receive such opportunities. The PREP Act would standardize educational opportunities and workforce training across federal and state facilities to support incarcerated individuals as they prepare for reentry. “When someone gets a second change, we must ensure that they have the education, training, and resources to seize it — for themselves, their families, and their communities,” Rep. Dean said. “Education is a powerful tool in helping to reduce recidivism and guide formerly incarcerated individuals as they forge meaningful lives. I’m grateful for Senator Schatz's continued partnership on the PREP Act as we work to ensure success in reentry.” Establishes an Office of Prison Education within the Bureau of Prisons to standardize educational programs across all federal prisons, ensuring that BOP provides educational services for adult literacy, GED, postsecondary, workforce readiness, apprenticeships, career and technical education, and expanded opportunities for individuals with learning disabilities; Establishes the Federal Prison Education Program to create partnerships between federal correctional facilities and education providers to create quality programs that promote successful community reintegration; Trains and assists state and local correctional institutions to provide training and technical assistance to state and local correctional institutions that implement similar education programs; and Notifies veterans of their eligibility to access education benefits and available programs in their federal or state correctional facility. Read the full text of the bill here. 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. ### Permalink: https://dean.house.gov/2026/9/congresswoman-dean-senator-schatz-reintroduce-bill-to-expand-education-opportunities-support-reentry-for-incarcerated-individuals 150 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4731 115 E Glenside Ave, Suite 1 Glenside, PA 19038 Phone: 215-884-4300 Fax: 215-884-3640 1200 E. High Street, Suite 105 Pottstown, PA 19464 Phone: 610-382-1250

With one in four nurses assaulted at work and many leaving the profession, we must do better for those who give us their best when we are at our worst. Kevin Mahoney, Penn Medicine CEO, and I wrote about how we can better protect our healthcare workers. Read our Op-Ed here. ➡️ https://t.co/jnhAiZOWyM