Transcripts For CSPAN3 House Oversight Virtual Hearing On Coronavirus Essential Workers 20240712

This is live coverage of the hearing on cspan3. The country is returning to work here. Many of us here in washington having this hearing while the spearer pelosi and House Democrats continue to stay at home Holding Virtual hearings. We have got to get back to doing the real live work that the people sent us here to do and i would urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to come back to washington and do what we have been elected to do. And with that, madam chairwoman, i yield back. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now were introduce our witnesses. First we have rita bigot, an essential worker who died from coronavirus. Next is john costa, the International President of the transit union. Next we have anthony mark perone, who is the unit food and commercial Workers Union and with us Bonnie Castillo who is the executive director of National Nurses united and California Nurses Association and the National Nurses organizing committee. We also have clint odum from policy and advocacy and the executive directly of the Washington Bureau of the National Urban league. Last but not least we have avick roy, the president of the foundation for research on equal opportunity. The witnesses will be unmuted so we could swear them in. Please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony youre about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. Yes. Let the record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you. Without objection, your written statements will be made part of the rourke. With that, mrs. Bigot, youre recognized for your testimony. Hi. My name is anita bigot and i work at a Medical College in new york in the Pediatric Administration department and i im here today to tell you about my family and how we lost our guiding line edward on april 9th. Im also here to speak on behalf of what the family left behind, our elected representatives know how important it is that you pass the pandemic heroes compensation act to help the family with essential workers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country that america has been engulfed in this pandemic. First let me tell you about my husband ed. Ed was one of the strongest, kindest, dedicating and loving persons ive ever known. We met in the Brooklyn Hospital center where he was employed until the day he passed away. He was a incredible father and a loving husband and a best friend to anybody that crossed his path. He was just as dedicated to the patients who he served as a patient transporter for over 20 years. Edward wasnt just getting a paycheck, or he loved his job and he, he felt responsible for all of his patients and made sure to give every one of them the same level of care and attention that anyone would want from our family members. He loved to tell jokes and had the biggest smile that would light up the room. He used that gift to make patients feel comfortable as he would taking them to surgery or for tests knowing the anxiety at the moment. He was a loyal coworkers and devoted to the hospital serving as a union delegate. And he believed that everyone deserved to be treated equally and with dignity and providing good patient care at any health care setting. I said he missed his calling, he should have been a lawyer. He loved me an advocate and had a passion for the work that was an example for others. We lost ed on april 9th after he was hospitalized for three weeks. Within a matter of days my husband went to a fever to a ventilator and in the care unit. I will never forget the call that he passed away. Me and my childrens lives have changed forever. Erd was a big presence in our lives. He was our Guiding Light and our protector. He was a devoted pittsburgh steeler fan and he was our rock. I pray that as i make it through the days without him that every morning that passes by and seeing that hes not here. Ed was my partner. Together we were raising a family and billing our life. We worked hard to build our dreams and give our children the things we never had. Not ome have i lost my best friend by the man who worked alongside for me over 20 years to build our american dream. I urge you to pass this bill, not just for us, but for the tens of thousands of other families like us who not only lost their loved ones to this coronavirus and lost loved one who gave so much. And in addition to supporting the family left behind, we could honor here heroes like my husband by doing everything we can to stop the spread of coronavirus. We need to make sure that testing is widely available and much earlier. My husband didnt get tested until he was enough to be put in icu and on a ventilator. We need to make sure that every Health Care Worker gets the access to the personal protective equipment that could help save their lives. Over the last few months so many essential workers have played crucial roles in our Health Care System have gone unacknowledged. Housekeepers and patient transporters like my husband and the best way we as a nation could show our gratitude is to make sure they remain safe and healthy and able to return home to their families that they work so hard for. Our family members made the ultimate sacrifice. Help us honor the memory of protecting the families they left behind so others could fulfill their american dream. Thank you. Thank you so much. We extend our deepest sympathies for your loss. Thank you. Now we have mr. Costa. Youre now recognized for five minutes. Chairman and Ranking Member, thank you for the opportunity to testify on hr 6909, the pandemic heroes compensation act of 2020. The atu strongly supports the critical legislation transit workers need a new program for those that are injured or impacted by the coronavirus. Modelled after the september 11th Victim Compensation fund. This is the Largest Union with over 200,000 members and it is 12 weeks now that this pandemic has been out there and unlike others our members have not had the opportunity to stay home and work from home. Were the workers out there that are moving the economy, keeping the cities going and unfortunately we are the workers that have been acted t have b infected the most with right now are over a thousand at 12 weeks later. Over a thousand confirmed coronavirus cases and 53 members have passed. And our concerns are it is only going to get worse as it reopens because it is obvious were overexposed. The sacrifices they are making to keep front lines moving like weve done before in 9 11 and sandy and katrina. Weve been out there. We know what our jobs are. We know these jobs are hard. We sit there. Our members are assaulted, spit at, are murdered. And now were dealing with an invisible challenge out of here and an enemy we cant see every day. And unfortunately its going to get worse, i believe, before it gets better. The lack of ppe, weve been dealing with many problems trying to get the ppe. We just did a survey 12 weeks later and midst of reopening, 50 of the agencies dont have the proper ppe. The mishandling of this from the getgo from our government and our cdc telling us we did not need masks, that there were certain things we didnt need and later on changed. We as the atu believe we cant count on our government and we need to make demands. So we have made demands of back door boarding, overcrowding, use of stop and the recommendations, unfortunately, the cdc has been ignored and made changes and unfortunately those changes i believe are going to put our members in harms way. So i urge the committee to look at this. It is funny you call us heroes. You call our members heroes. But when we get to the table, were zeros. It is just crazy here. Were in negotiations right now in some areas that see this happening. So i hope you remember our members out there and our fallen and i hope you help us keep our members safe moveing forward as we open the citying that need us out there and bring our cities back. Thank you very much. Thank you so much mr. Costa. Now id like to recognize mr. Perone for five minutes. Thank you. And id like to thank chairwoman mallony as well as you. Your Ranking Member and in front of the committee today, congressman hice and i would like to thank the other members of committee for the opportunity to testify on the experiences that workers in grocery meat packing Food Processing and health care have had to endure during this pandemic. My name is mark perone, im the president of the international union, the ufcw is americas largest retail and food Union Representing 1. 3 million hardworking men and women in the Grocery Stores, meat packing, Food Processing, health care, chemical plants, nonfood retail and senior care facilities. We have members that are republican, democrat, and independents from every state in this nation as well as every congressional district. All across this country, our health care, Food Processing, retail, food workers are risking their health and safety to ensure that the American People are taken care of. Our nations food supply is safe. Grocery store shelves are full and stocked and pharmacies are distributi distributing medication. These essential workers as many of you have called them deserve not only our gratitude but provisions for health and safety and financial security. Would you like to highlight the words of one of our grocery clerks out of ralphs in southern california, in san diego. She said every day we fear that you might catch the virus at work. You fear that you might take that virus home to your family. And we are working longer hours and under very stressful conditions. Our lives are on the line. Let me stress to you how real this issue actually is. Our internal estimates have firmed that 225 of our members have tragically died and over 29,000 have been sick or exposed to covid19 since the beginning. 70 of our packing house members and workers if the u. S. Have died with over 20,000 that have tested positive for covid19. These profound risks that rur members face is one of the reasons that we, the ufcw, supports the legislation to compensate the families of essential workers who die or are hospitalized as a result of covid19. While financial compensation cannot bring back what is lost, it is the least that we must do in order to support the families who have worked so hard to keep us fed and to take care of us. More importantly, it is about recognizing that we will never protect americas food supply unless and until we protect americas food workers. What is making things worse is that some of these essential workers have must endure the insult of having their hero pay and some of us have called hazard pay taken away. Listen to the words of a food worker in lawrenceberg, indiana. We put our lives on the line every single day and worry about taking the virus back home to my grandchildren and my husband and when kroger took away the hero pay it was like a slap in the face. The fact of the matter is our customers dont wear masks and it is putting us in jeopardy every single day. And so as long as the spread of the virus hasnt stopped, neither should the protections of the hero pay that our families so desperately need. In other words, this brave food worker exposed this. While some responsible employers like argyle and safeway have done some things right there are others like amazon and walmart and Union Employers like kroger to put profits over people. While we could all hope that companies do what is right, the brutal reality is that many will not do that until you and our other elected leaders do more. Now i know that legislative issues at times could be framed in a very partisan way. But this is not about being a republican or a democrat, this is about protecting essential workers in retail food, Food Processing, health care, as well as protecting our food supply. And that is why i would ask you to consider the following ensuring that all working people who are sick, who are acted by quarantine orders or who are responsible to take care of children who are, in fact, at home because schools have been closed should have job protections and pay sick leave for a minimum of 14 days. I would also ask that we compel osha to issue enforceable rules specific to koifcovid19, stand if you will, and to date that has not happened. And our members in health care and Food Processing are feeling the consequences from that and enforceable rules that slow line speeds, mandate social distancing and prioritize workers and provide ppe free of charge. Lastly, we must include strong antiretaliation protection to ensure that all workers are protected from being unfairly threatened or fires. For the sake of this country, that i know that we all love, i urge the committee and congress to Work Together to do what is right for these brave workers and i thank you again for your time and i would welcome any questions that you may have. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Now we have miss castillo. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Good morning. And thank you chairman, chairwoman maloney, Ranking Member rice and members of the committee for inviting me to testify today. National nurses united is the Largest Union of registered nurses in the u. S. Our nurses are on the front lines of the covid19 response risking their lives to care for pashs throughout this horrific pandemic. Across the country nurses have been denied the protections they need to prevent exposure to covid19. As a result tens of thousands of Health Care Workers have been infected. As of june 5th, nnu knows of at least 914 Health Care Workers who have died and of which more than 134 have been registered nurses. These deaths could have been prevented if employers had prote protected their workers. Moment the outbreak began hospitals across the country started looking up ppe claiming shortages. Nurses have had to fight Hospital Management to unlock and allow access to ppe supplies. To protect against exposure to aerosol diseases we must be given a respirator, at minimum a n95 but instead nurses have been forced to use surgical masks and even their own bandanas and scarves. They do not provide protection against covid19. But the cdc has sanctioned use through guidance. Hospitals have run out of gloves and gowns. Nurses were forced to wear garbage ppe. They are forced to reuse them. Sometimes for days on end. N95 rz manufactured for single use only. Nurses are at risk of exposure every time they reuse one. Hospitals have begun to use decontamination processes for these masks, even though there is no Scientific Evidence that these methods are safe and effective. Many hospitals require nurses to continue to work after exposure. Some have required asymptomatic nurses to work after testing positive, putting patients and colleagues at risk. Many hospitals failed to communicate suspected or confirmed covid cases, leaving countless workers unaware of potential exposure. There are three main reasons why nurses have not been protected at work. First, there is no osha standard that enforces workplace standards during a pandemic. Second, federal and state efforts to distribute ppe from stockpiles have been ineffective and front line workers have not seen the equipment supposedly delivered. We do not have a National Medical supply chain that is coordinated, transparent or efficient. Third, there is simply not enough stock of respirators and other necessary ppe in the country. And the Trump Administration has refused to increase ppe production in the volumes required. These failures have created a deeply traumatic situation within hospitals across the country and our nurses are dealing with that trauma every single day. Nurses live with the fear that they will become infected and pass it on to their families, friends or patients. Many nurses are isolating away from their families. Some are sleeping in their garages or cars at times when families need comfort, at a time when families need to comfort each other, nurses are deprived of this support. Nurses knew that the pandemic was on its way, way back in january. Why werent the hospitals prepared . Why wasnt the administration or congress prepared . Now as plans on reopening now as plans on reopening in the country are under way, our nurses face increased risk. We could see and are seeing a second wave of infections. It is critical that congress immediately pass legislation that will protect nurses and other front line workers. Nnu applauds chairwoman maloney for introducing hr 6909 which would provide compensation for workers who contact, contract covid covid19 or for our families if we die from the disease. I have personally led online heart breaking vigils for registered nurses who have died, and i know that their families need our support. But we also need congress to take action immediately to prevent those infections and deaths from happening in the first place. Nnu applauds the house for passing the heros act. The bill includes a mandate that osha issue an Emergency Temporary Standard for covid19 as well as provisions that would ensure that defense production act is fully invoked to immediately increase the Domestic Production of respirators and other ppe. It is essential that these provisions are included in any compromised any compromise that is negotiated with the senate. Our country has failed to protect nurses during this pandemic. Without protections, more nurses will continue to die. On behalf of nurses across the country, i urge the members of this committee to ensure that we get the protections we need immediately. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Castillo. Now we have mr. Odom. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. And chairwoman maloney and Ranking Member jordan, thank you for allowing me to testify today on behalf of the National Urban league. One of the nations oldest civil rights organizations and direct services organizations. My long form testimony has already been entered into a record. I would like to say a few remark. I would like to pay tribute today to the africans and their descendants whose labor without compensation built the u. S. Capitol, made possible the statue of freedom that sits atop the capitol dome and made possible the rise of the United States as an economic superpower. I would also like to lift up ms. Breonna taylor, emt from louisville, kentucky, whose life was cut short not by covid but by Police Officers serving a no knock warrant in march. Africanamericans are and have always been among the nations essential workers. Africanamericans and people of color are overrepresented in the essential work force. Their labor feeds, cleans and cares for us. Their labor delivers lifesustaining packages, stocks our Grocery Stores, transports goods and people necessary to bring this economy back from a selfinduced coma. Their labor both keeps us alive and gives us dignity at lifes end. They labor allows millions of nonessential workers to be productive while remaining safe at home with only 1 in 5 africanamericans and 1 and 6 latinex, people able to work from home, essential workers occupy front line jobs that greatly increase their exposure to the virus and dont pay essential work es anywhere near their worth and dont pro1r50id them with without a cure or vaccine, essential workers often must choose between living and making a living. To date, 23,251 black lives have been lost to covid19. By one estimate, 38 of africanAmerican Workers are employed in essential industries. In places like new york city, however, 75 of the essential workers are people of color, including 82 of cleaning services employees. Black women in particular bear the brunt of the essential worker dilemma. Black women are overrepresented in low wage jobs, such as nursing assistants, personal care or home health aids. When compounded with government mandated School Closures and restrictions on movement and a lack of Affordable Access to child care, the stress of running a household for black women is exacerbated. In addition, half of the black households in this country with children are hidden by single women. Of these households, 38 live below the poverty line. When exposed to the coronavirus, blacks are hospitalized at 2. 5 times the rate of whites. And nationally, africanamerican deaths from covid19 are nearly two times greater than would be expected based on their share of the population. Blacks and latinos are more likely to have preexisting Health Conditions such as asthma, Heart Disease and diabetes that makes death from viral infections more likely. With respect to pay, essential workers are paid less than nonessential workers. Essential workers in the food and agriculture industry in particular have the lowest median hourly wage at 13. 12. Africanamericans and other workers of color work for employers many times that do not offer health insurance, as we heard today. Uninsured covid19 medical expenses can decimate familys finances. Testing alone out of network can cost as much as 1,300. While the cost of hospitalization and treatment for more severe cases of covid19 can cost almost 75,000 without insurance. Although workers of color are overrepresented among essential workers, they suffer from the second blow higher Unemployment Rate caused by the pandemic. The cbo explained as follows. Low wage workers and low income families have born the brunt of the economic crisis, in part because the industries hardest hit by the pandemic and social distancing measures disproportionately employ low wage workers. Furthermore, workers who are young, female have less education and are from certain racial or ethnic groups have seen disproportionately large job loss. End of quote. Youve heard from other Witnesses Today about the need for ppe. A good living wage. The need to pass for congress to pass the heros act and pass the heros compensation act which the National Urban league is pleased to endorse. These are all excellent ideas. The pandemic heros compensation act only works however essential workers contract covid19 while employed. The Economic Data suggests that black unemployment hovering near 17 will become more acute over time. Last weeks may employment numbers do not suggest the economy is moving out of the woods. Fiscal policy will the be main driver of Economic Growth in the early stages of recovery. Were still 13 37b9d unemployment. Congress must inject more fiscal stimulus into the economy. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you so much for your testimony. Now i would like to recognize mr. Roy, youre recognized for five minutes. Chairwoman maloney and vice member, thanks for inviting me to speak with you. Chairwoman maloney, i was a constituent of yours when i lived in turtle bay. Im sorry we wont be able to spend more time together and i wish you all the best with your health. The foundation for research on equal opportunity is a nonpartisan think tank that focuses exclusively on ideas that can improve the lives of americans in the bottom half of the economic. On behalf of everyone in my organization, i want to thank all those who risk their health and safety for us everyday. A grateful for the opportunity to hear from the other witnesses here today. I want to focus on two aspects of todays topic. The first is decisions by state governments that endangered vulnerable seniors along with the First Responders who care for them. The second is how to ensure that the tens of millions of americans who have been thrown out of work are no longer left behind. Of the 100,000 plus americans who have died of covid19, the cdc counts 379 deaths among Health Care Personnel and several hundred more each of the occupational categories you discussed today. Each one of these deaths is tragic. And underappreciated part of the story is how many deaths occurred because of people who were sent to the hospital from Nursing Homes. 0. 6 of the u. S. Population living in Nursing Homes or assisted living facilities and yet 42 of all deaths from covid19 have occurred among residents of these facilities. 42 . Some states recognize the threat early on and florida hospitals pressured state officials to let them discharge covid infected patients in nursing home but florida resisted. We drew a line, hard line early on said mary may hue. Im not going to send anyone back to Nursing Homes she told hospital ceos who has the slightest risk of being positive. Lets not have two cases become 20 or 5 become 50 if you dont manage this individual well have far more being transferred back to the hospital. Floridas approach with new york where from march 25th through may 10th Governor Andrew Cuomo forced Nursing Homes to accept covid infected patients despite strenuous objections from nursing home and care givers. They dont have a right to object cuomo said. That is the rule and the regulation and they have to comply with that he said. New jersey and michigan are among the other states with major outbreaks that forced Nursing Homes to accept patients from hospitals. The other big policy mistake that we made in multiple levels of government is imposition of one size fits all economic lockdowns. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of americans have died in recent months not due to the virus but the economic disruption that followed. Not everyone is at risk of equal risk of severe illness or death from covid19 as we discussed, residents of longterm care facilities are by far the greatest risk. As are First Responders. Overall, individuals over 65 account for 81 of u. S. Covid fatalities, those under 35 by contrast only account for 0. 8 . A more targeted policy aimed at protecting the most vulnerable could have saved millions of jobs and thousands of lives and still can. We put forward a detailed plan ka authored by republican and democratic policy experts that shows how to safely reopen workplaces and schools and bring americans back to work. Given the conversation we have been having about Racial Disparities its essential to note thals the workers we have most left behind under economic lockdowns have been minority workers. In late 2019, black unemployment reached its lowest rate in history, 5. 4 . Today that rate is 16. 8 . Hispanic unemployment reached record low of 3. 9 in late 2019. Now its 17. 6 . In my written testimony, i detail how disparities between white and nonwhite and Unemployment Rates have also reached their lowst levels in history prior to the pandemic. The economic lockdown have brought those disparities back to levels last seen in the last great recession. Another way, racial and ethnic disparities are worse. These disparities are due to the fact that blacks and hispanics are more likely than whites to be hourly wage earners and black owned businesses have been hit far harder than white owned business. Recent paper published estimates black owned businesses experienced losses of 41 between february and april versus 32 for hispanic owned businesses and only 17 relatively speaking for white owned companies. Theres much more to say on these topics but let me stop there and i look forward to our discussion today. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Now were going to the question and answer segment of our hearing. Ms. Maloney is not feeling well, so i will now recognize myself for five minutes for questions. This Coronavirus Crisis has really reframed what we consider essential workers. In the past, we only really considered essential workers in peoples minds nurses, doctors, front emergency, firefighters, Police Officers, thats what we envisioned before. But during this crisis, we really did get a better sense that in order to keep people fed, keep people hungry, fed, healthy, make sure that theyre safe, all of a sudden the idea of essential workers has changed, right . At least in the publics mind. The transit worker, the Grocery Store worker, the people in the fields, the people that make sure that your kids are taken care of and that you can go to work, all of a sudden the idea of essential workers has shifted. And thats what i think is something that we need to dig into more. An essential worker is not just the people with the highest degrees, right . Its the people who are making sure that life can continue even if youre locked down because of health reasons, because of a pandemic. And thats what i really do appreciate everybody who is on the panel, everybody who is out on the front lines. Its been an amazing thing to watch. So i just want to say, first, thank you so much to all the essential workers from people in the fields to the people in the emergency rooms. You are making our life easier and better. And thats why since ive been during this pandemic i had town halls through virtual reality, just like were doing right now. I had Facebook Live town halls with nurses from the United Nurse Association of california. Its a nurses union that i worked for before i got elected. United Service Workers west to discus their needs. What were their problems. What were they seeing. A lot came down basically to ppes. That they werent getting the right equipment that allowed them to do their job in a safe way so they wouldnt be worried that theyre going to take back the virus to their loved ones at home and get them sick. I want to just say that they continue to impress all of us with their work. Just for the record, i want to ask a few questions so that we can i know the panelists answered this question. I want to do it in order. Mr. Costa, are you aware of any essential transit workers who have passed away from covid . Yes or no. Yes. Mr. Parone, are you aware of any essential food and commercial workers who have passed away from covid, yes or no. Yes. Ms. Castillo, are you aware of any essential nurses who passed away from covid . Yes. All your workers have been putting their lives on the line. Thats why i want people to recognize is that people have lost their lives. Even if you do not know someone who has lost their life to covid, there are essential workers who have. So and that is impacting not only the families but their coworkers and leaving a hole in the fabric of their communities. Mr. Odom, how would you describe the economic burden on low income workers and essential workers of color during this coronavirus pandemic . I would describe it as a multilayered disaster. Many families of color have one person who is supporting a household. We have among communities of color some of the lowest rates of multiworkers in the same household. So when one household member goes down with covid, or is even under quarantine or just waiting for testing to come back, that person is not making money. And that person cant support their family. And thats a double body blow in addition to the high rates of unemployment that we also see. So, we are both forced to work and are also the first victims of layoffs when layoffs come, as they have. Thank you mr. Odom. Mr. Parone, do commercial workers have death benefits . No, they do not. Ms. Castillo, do nurses have death benefits if they die from coronavirus . No. Mr. Costa do the transit workers have a death benefits if they die from coronavirus . Some do and some dont. So, thats one of the reasons why we need chairwoman maloneys pandemic heros compensation act. It would create a fund to Cover Economic losses of essential workers who become sick or pass away from coronavirus. These are just like somebody who puts their life on the line when they go into a fire or go into a military conflict and they lose their life. There are some death benefits for those individuals. So im in support and i signed up as a cosponsor of the pandemic heros compensation act and i hope that we can pass that as soon as possible. With that, i yield back. And now i would like to recognize mr. Hiest for your questions. You may unmute yourself. Thank you very much, chairman. I appreciate that. Mr. Roy, let me go to you. One of the parts of this whole discussion that at least in my opinion were not talking enough about is the communist party of china. Theres no question they intentionally concealed the severity of covid19 and while doing so they stockpiled a lot of medical supplies, ppes, and a host of things that would have, could have been extremely useful globally. And its alarming to me looking at some stats that we came up with they actually during this time they imported a lot of ppes and different supplies, surgical masks in china went up 278 . Surgical gowns up 72 . Surgical gloves up 32 . In all of these while they were hiding from the world what was taking place, and just how severe this could have gone. We even helped. We sent them some supplies, too. Obviously a lot of these supplies could have been used to help many people who are on the front lines and yet we did not know just how severe this thing was. My first question to you, mr. Roy, would be do you believe that we should act should we take some sort of action to ensure that china is held accountable for what they did . Well, mr. Hice, agree with your assessment of chinas culpability, but i dont know what the tools are. I certainly havent spent enough time thinking about what the tools are that we have to, the leverage we have, to request compensation or other means from china. I know plenty of people in congress and white house have been thinking about that topic. Im glad you are. I just dont have any specific recommendations for you on the topic other than to agree if there is a way to do it, lets do it. Okay. What about on the issue of how china now is involved in some espionage actually even to go after some of our treatments, trying to find our Vaccine Research as we are being told, at least theyre targeting u. S. Universities, pharmaceutical companies, other Health Care Firms in an effort to try to get really secret, sense tiff information that we have, research that we have done related to the virus. Are you aware of that of what theyre doing . I guess beyond that, how harmful is that in our capacity to find vaccines . Well, i have great confidence in the rnd infrastructure of the United States, both in terms of the University Academic sector as well as private pharmaceutical and Bio Technology companies to develop effective treatments and vaccines eventually. One thing we have written a lot at the think tank is that we cannot count on a vaccine being developed in the near term. We can certainly hope for the best, but the fastest vaccine for novel virus in recent history was the ebola virus which took five years to develop. This idea well have a vaccine in 12 to 18 months, lets all hope that can happen, but if were going to bet our entire economy on that, i think that would be a catastrophically mistaken. We have to figure out ways to reopen the economy and encourage rnd innovation at the same time even if a vaccine doesnt immediately come forward and protect our intellectual property if china tries to steal it. Yeah. That protection of intellectual property is really where im going to. There are some companies that believe we will be able to, in fact, get vaccine hopefully early this next year. And its pretty remarkable how rapidly our rnd in this country has moved forward to research and to come up with some treatments that are looking to be extremely helpful with this. But the protection of our intellectual property there is a major issue for me. Im just deeply concerned with what the Espionage Campaign that the chinese are putting forth to steal that and how that Espionage Campaign affects our ability to effectively do research. Well, what the way the patent law works is that the patent clock begins from the time that you file your patent with the u. S. Patent and trademark office. And so, if a Bio Technology company or Academic University has developed some approach to developing a vaccine that they think is worthwhile and they file the Patent Applications accordingly, by the time the chinese get to it the patents will already be on the timeline, on the clock so to speak in the u. S. That will be important. So whats important to say is that for, hey, any people in the bio Tech Community who are watching this hearing, if youve got ip, make sure youre asserting it. Thank you very much. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Hice. Now, ms. Norton is now recognized for your question for five minutes. You may unmute yourself. I hope you can see and hear me. Its not unmuted. I had done it. Youre good. Youre muted again. Im sorry. All right. I want to begin by thanking our chair for this very important hearing and to wish her the very best as she is quarantined. And i certainly want to express my condolences to ms. Bucati in a real sense this hearing is dedicated to her and her loss. I do want to say because it was remarked that we should be meeting in here in the Nations Capital, i do want everyone to know that there is a reason that i think the chair has chosen not to meet in the Nations Capital. If there are hot spots still, this is the hottest spot, the very last to open and its only squeaked open a very little bit. With the mass demonstrations that have occurred here because of the death of george floyd, im not sure when the Nations Capital will be open. So ill depend on the best judgment of the chair. My question is for mr. Costa. This region is the most Public Transportation dependent region in the country. Now, i know i speak for other members who are increasingly dependent on Public Transportation. Whether thats your buses coming and with Climate Change, more and more regions of the country are turning to mass transit of one kind or another. Not to mention Climate Change itself, which is as many which has made which has become central to a bill and may be one of the few bills that will pass this session i am Sub Committee chair of the committee that has just written a new transportation and infrastructure bill which is likely to go to the floor this year. So my question is for mr. Costa, about Public Transportation. With the dependence of the country increasingly on Public Transportation. Not every region is set up to have trains of the kind we have in the Nations Capital. So buses increasingly electric buses are becoming more important. So i would like to know what you are experiencing as the difference between the effects of virus on bus and train drivers at the moment, mr. Costa. The bus drivers are more exposed. Of course, its a smaller vehicle and air flow on it and filtized system needs to be redone. We need to look at that especially on the reopening because the air flow comes from the back so we need to put a better filterized system in there. As far as trains, we are concerned there too with the air flow like in new york they have made some changes there with the filterized systems and the uv systems theyre putting in because lets face it, even though youre in a compartment, you open and shut it with a lot of passengers on and the overcrowding, theres still a concern. So more and more of our exposure we found of course is on bus but even in Maintenance Area early on with the cleaning the buses, we had a lot we had some of our maintenance members pass away also contracting the virus just by cleaning the buses because of because the poor leadership and the ppe that wasnt given or educated to our members. Mr. Costa, it looks like what youre saying whatever decisions are made to reopen are gradual in a gradual way that we ought to look first to transportation to see if the necessary steps have been taken there and i would like to say to the chair of the committee that i believe it would be useful to speak more specifically to our transportation operators about which i have not heard a great deal as we talk about reopening. Because reopening it seems to me cannot occur unless our workers are able to get to work and the testimony i heard today from mr. Costa, does indicate that more needs to be done. Is that the case, mr. Costa . Yes. I am very concerned that i dont have to make any more phone calls Going Forward after 53 of my members have passed, coworkers and friends of mine. Most recently my one from newark, new jersey, new Jersey Transit over the weekend. So there is a big concern. I just hope the industry gets this right. The air flow is a big problem. Were going to have the cares act helped. We kept the service we kept the service on the road which helped us with overcrowding. And now that we open up, we need to be cautious because we are we did experience, i believe, the most that have passed away so far is in the transportation area. So yes, im very concerned with the reopening. And i hope everybody moves slowly and gets input from the transportation unions and operators at the table and not just making determination as they as many of the management people are sitting home unlike us on the road moving the country. Thank you. Ms. Norton, your time has expired. Youre now recognized for questions. Youre recognized for five minutes. You may unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Can you hear me . Words matter. Something that doesnt seem to matter is who is deemed essential. In your bill pandemic compensation act you designate those who can be tapped into the covid19 compensation fund. Who are these essential workers you ask . Our bill designates any individual, employee, or contractor working for a person, business, nonprofit entity or federal state tribal territorial or local government that is determined during the response to the covid19 pandemic to be essential. Based on state, local, tribal or territorial orders or declarations or there equivalent or federal guidance published by the cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency who performed this work outside their place of residence. Im not going to sit through every individual scenario that we could make an argument for someone who is deemed essential. Because honestly, there would never be enough time. My point is, is that who are we able to decide who is and who isnt essential . A job is essential by its very nature. Is it fair to say that someone who works a desk job isnt essential . Who could ask their children if they think food is essential . Food that their parents desk job provides. We should not be in the business of micro managing the economy and determining who is more important. I believe those who work to provide a good life for the family and to help sustain the economy are essential. Not son random list of nonprofit employees that a government bureaucrat determines. Now, just like the Ranking Member, why arent we talking about china . Where is the legislation to hold them accountable . We are discussing legislation that will cost trillions more in taxpayer dollars by sending money to unprecedented amount of people. Why not allow why arent we allowed to even question what is being force fed down our throats . This is the same at the 9 11 compensation fund, even though i support helping folks that were affected by that tragic event, not supporting every aspect of it was met with Harsh Criticism and dismissal. Lets talk about the the real problems in this bill like forcing already struggling businesses to start offering hazard pay. Are you trying to destroy Small Businesses. Honestly because you dont seem to show the slightest bit of empathy for those who take chances to start a business. No real cap on how much special master can spend on. Ive been fighting for years to get compensation to folks in parts of arizona that were affected by Nuclear Regulation radiation from Nuclear Missile testing. But i guess since it wasnt punked by the news all day, everyday for three months they dont deserve it. Well, in march, 19, 2020, more than 600 physicians signed a letter to President Trump stating that, quote, millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight. But they will be called alcoholism. Homelessness. Suicide. Heart attack. Stroke. Or kidney failure. And financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty and abuse. End of quote. What are some of the longterm impacts the economic shutdown will have on our country . I like to ask that mr. Roy that very question. What are some of the longterm impacts that economic shutdown will have on our country . Well, if we have a longterm shutdown, we know from a lot of past experience and evidence that theres a significant effect not just on the economy but on mortality, illness, Public Health, deaths of despair, the number of people who either because they lose their job lose High Quality Health Insurance or because they have lower access to care or because of other things that are going on in their lives or their children. So, theres this is not merely a dichotomy between safety and Public Health on the one hand and economics and money on the other. If tens of millions of people are unemployed for a sustainable period, there are Public Health costs of that, too. That is widely understood in the Public Health community. And going along those same lines, would not our veterans have the same type of outlook and the same type of problems . Certainly especially those who well, for all the same reasons, yes. Short answer yes. Yeah. And my last question to you is that we found that the states in the Public Health aspects were behind the cue ball. There was a lot of misinformation. Some things common sense would actually brought much more forward. Do you think its time to make sure that we hold these many republics, these states and their executives accountable for some of the actions . Yes. In my book, my oral statement i i highlighted the issue of Nursing Homes and how Nursing Homes created a lot of the risks to our First Responders that we have been discussing today. Another thing that i should mention, we mention a lot about Public Transit particularly in new york city, new york city mayor bill de blasio waited until may 6th, may 6th, to disinfect the subways for the first time. And there is evidence, theres research out of m. I. T. That suggests that new york subways were a major affect tor of transmission. We know that the tristate area around new york city is the single largest outbreak in the country and indeed the world. Thank you so much. I yield back. Mr. Gosar, your time is up. Mr. Lynch, youre now recognized for five minutes. You may unmute yourself. Thank you chairman gomez. I appreciate you and chairwoman maloney and the Ranking Member mr. Hice for holding this hearing. First of all, i would like to express my condolences to ms. Baco on the lossed of your husband ed. I want to thank you for your willingness to appear at this virtual hearing and to bring it home in a personal and profound way about what the loss of your husband means to you and your family. I know that i have a lot of folks in my district that have had a similar experience losing a loved one. And just want you to know that im with the chairman gomez and chairman maloney as an original cosponsor of her bill to provide some relief to families in your situation. But i do appreciate your courage in coming forward and taking a tragic situation and trying to help others from suffering the same fate. So we really do appreciate that. I want to talk a little bit about essential workers and the hero pay that they have received. Some have fashioned it as a hero bonus. You know, i had an awful time here in the boston area with my Nursing Homes. Ive had, you know, 20, 30, 40 residents of Nursing Homes pass away. And the situation is so precarious that many employees because they are traditionally low paid, many of them are men and women of color, theyre low benefit jobs, they weighed that balance and said, im not going to put myself at risk, my family at risk, by going to work every single day. For many of them, that hazard pay, that hero pay that was provided from provided for by their employer was the difference for them that, you know, some people we lost about 17 employees at one big nursing home and just put more and more pressure on the others who were able to stay. And that hazard pay wasnt recklessly handed out by faceless bureaucrats. That was actually the management of those businesses that said we need people to respond and to be on the job even under these very difficult situations. So, you know, in our state and i know in many others the governor has identified that we need to secure the supply chain for food. We need to secure the supply chain for health care. You know, i spent a whole lot of time that i shouldnt have been spending trying to get n95 masks from china and other countries to bring to my nurses and my Health Care Workers at my coronavirus hospitals and a bunch of my hospitals in this area, not only for that but First Responders, my police, fire, grocery workers. So, you know, this was really an allhandson deck situation. And i think the idea that ms. Maloney has, shes the lead sponsor, on her heros Pay Initiative is very well focussed on people who are required ed a deemed essential by the president of the United States and by the governors of our states as well. We know the systems that had to be secured. Like ed, those people knew full well the consequences to our society and to the most vulnerable within our society if they didnt show up for work. Their response was heroic. I see it everyday whether its the nurses or my postal works or ups or fedex. The postal worker provides about 90 of the medicines and pharmaceuticals that are taken by our veterans. 90 of the drugs that go to our veterans are handled by letter carriers and postal clerks and mail carriers. So thats a critical essential service. Its not hard to determine who is essential here. Those people that are on the job every single day. So, i applaud ms. Maloneys initiative. I think we can work it out. I think we need to remember and its not hard to remember ed and his commitment. He sounds like a wonderful, wonderful man. And his service was heroic in brooklyn. And i know a lot of his brothers and sisters in the 1199 that do that job every single day. I think its important for us to remember that. Mr. Lynch, your time has expired. Im sorry. I yield back. Thanks for your courtesy and your indulgence, mr. Chairman. I appreciate that. Thank you. Of course. Of course. Now mr. Higgins youre recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank our panelists for appearing virtually with us today. I would like to say at the outset that this 21st Century Technology that were using today or attempting to use i think its good that its tested however. I must say respectfully that i protest to the venue. I believe that this type of technology should be used for congressional business only when the u. S. Is under very serious attack. I said it before that america has been impacted by a virus. We have not been invaded by an army. So i respectfully urge my colleagues across the aisle to encourage speaker p eer pelosi proxy voting and End Committee hearing. The white house is operating in person and yet the peoples house, the house of representatives remains incredibly restricted as we have seen by our efforts today. Forced to use technologies that i believe is best reserved for perhaps never but certainly for much more extreme national emergencies. Ms. Castillo, if i may talk to you for a bit, maam. I have a very high admiration for nurses and doctors, front line medical professionals. And you gave a moving testimony regard i regarding ppe and the lack of proper access to ppe. I thank you for clarifying the difference, maam between the effectiveness of an n95 respirator used for an hour versus a surgical mask used all day or longer. I would like to have my staff reach out to you at a later date. Perhaps you could work with us on some projects that we have regarding ppe in the future. So i ask you, maam, regarding ppe, have you in your career, ms. Castillo, have you ever seen such a massive gha ivive demandt one time from medical professionals across the world . Well, this is the first pandemic. And its a global pandemic. So, no i have not seen this extraordinary need, the numbers are massive. That being said, we anticipated that this pandemic would happen and we had plenty of warning. And so, in january let me ask you about that, if you dont mind, in the interest of time. I greatly respect your testimony as i do your profession. Let me say that nurses and front line medical professionals should have access to all the ppe they need. Gowns, respirators, face shields, gloves, everything they need to get their job done. And your testimony has clarified what i believe to be true as well and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, we conquer, that as a nation we will come out of this initial phase of this pandemic with a stronger infrastructure and a greater distribution of ppe. And i do think its notable that china as a nation and the government leadership purposefully delayed the release of important data and horded began gathering and hoarding ppe from across the world at a time when they were restricting our true knowledge of what was going on. So i would like to be able to work directly with you, maam, my staff, if you would be willing as we address the future needs for ppe. And thank you again for being here and all the panelists. Dr. Roy, if i could ask you for a moment, sir, im particularly concerned if you would address the challenge the seniors in america because of the economic impact. Theres nothing healthy about repossession or unemployment, foreclosures, eviction, stress and depression are known killers. And loneliness is to be counted amongst that factor. And the elders across the country depend upon family interaction on a regular basis. Please, in my remaining few seconds, respond if you would, dr. Roy, about how you feel about what we could do to protect your seniors from this and how theyve been impacted. Well, thank you, sir. And i would say that, you know, as i alluded to in my written testimony and opening remarks we needed to and still need to focus our attention, our energies on reducing the spread of covid19 amongst seniors, particularly vulnerable seniors in congregate facilities like Nursing Homes and assisted living facilities. If we do that, were testing everyone in those facilitiefaci making sure the staff arent going from one place to another place to another place and seeding those other Nursing Homes, we have to rescind these mandates at the state level that force Nursing Homes to accept covid infected patients. Theres a lot to do on that particular policy area. If we can do that, we can restrict and suppress the spread of covid19 in elderly population. Otherwise, their Economic Activity and their social lives, their emotional lives, their family lives will be suppressed for much longer period of time than everybody else. Thank you for that answer. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your indulgence, i yield. Thank you. Mr. Conley, youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Gomez. Ifcare lynn is still on this hearing. We wish yule the best. Hopefully the results come back not positive. I would like to begin on a personal note. I heard mr. Hice and mr. Higgins criticize the decision to hold this hearing pursuant to the rule change in the house virtually. And like them, this is not ideal. I would prefer to be back at the capitol and doing business as usual with my full compliment of staff in the office. But let me say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, please stop making this a political talking point. This is about life and death. This is about people at risk. I lost a good friend of 40 years to covid19 two weeks ago. Two of my staff were diagnosed with it. Ive got friends throughout Northern Virginia who had stay at home and quarantine because theyve been exposed. The chairman of this committee is in quarantine because shes been exposed and is awaiting the results of a test. And not feeling well. Please, can we not once come together and admit that were doing the prudent thing to prevent people from getting sick . To prevent members of congress from becoming vectors of this illness and this virus. Thats the motivation. And to subscribe motivations to me does a disservice to all of us. And i wish we would cease and desist on that line of argument and that political talking point. Mr. Parone. Mr. Parone . Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And let me ask you a question. It may be a little bit leading, but it really struck me what you said about the fact that front line workers in Grocery Stores are feel threatened when customers come in refusing to wear a mask because those Customers Put them at risk and other customers at risk. And all of a sudden it becomes a more menacing environment. I know its a political question, but one of the reasons it seems to me that that is going on in large numbers is because the president of the United States has himself decided that he will not wear a mask and hes done it in a way that comes across as almost defiant and seems to send a signal to a large group of his followers that wearing a mask is a political statement and not wearing a mask is also a political statement. And the Health Consequences kind of get forgotten. Or diminished as a priority. Do you believe, mr. Parone the president of the United States not wearing a mask deliberately contributes to the situation your members find themselves in with respect to noncompliant customers . Congressman, let me say the following i think that it would be more helpful that in situations where he would in the public arena, like when he went to the ford plant, that he would wear a mask, just like everybody else would. I think that would be more helpful. Im hesitant if i could interrupt you, mr. Parone. I think its a little more than it would be helpful. Its actually a requirement in the ford plant. And, for example, when he recently went to maine to a swabproducing facility, because he didnt wear a mask, they had to destroy the swabs he was reviewing because of potential contamination. So thats more than it would be helpful. Thats actually a violation of floor rules in the case of the maine factory actually requiring the destruction of the ppe he was there to look at. Well, congressman, here is what i meant by being helpful. It would be helpful as it relates to the population so i dont necessarily think that it is political, because its not. But this is sciencebased. This is not politicallybased. It doesnt have anything to do with politics. Look, in my members quite honestly are tired of the blame game. Whether or not its the blame game about having a hearing like whether or not its a blame game who is responsible for the problem. Look, we have a virus in this country that is affecting people in a very negative way. Theres no question about it. Its affecting them economically, its affecting them as it relates to their health. Its certainly affecting certain people as it relates to the number of deaths that we have seen over 100,000. You know, and what im coming from at this point in time to represent my members is we need congress in all our leaders in this country to act together to fix the problem that we basically had, or at least the very best. Thank you. Your time has expired. Thank you mr. Gomez. Thank you for your questions. Mr. Massey, you are now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Appreciate you holding this hearing. I believe that congress should show up and do our jobs if the nurses are showing up for work and the Grocery Store workers and the truckers are driving and the farmers are working, i believe we should be there working. Of course, i appreciate that were doing this hearing online and remotely. Its much better than not having any hearings at all, but we know we can do a better job if we were in person. I do think it would be reasonable to tell our staff that they can stay at home, but we should, i believe, be leading the charge here. I am concerned about the workers at the Meat Processing facilities and whether they are getting the appropriate ppe and whether the policies have changed there and then also whats the effect on productivity. And so i would like to ask mr. Perrone just to speak generally maybe for about a minute do you believe that were getting the right equipment, the ppe to the workers at the Meat Processing facilities. Ive heard from the usda early on they told me everything was fine. And i wasnt buying it then. And i believe that these issues are going to be longterm, slowing down the lines or increasing the spacing, may be a reasonable concession to preventing spread in these factories. Can you also tell us, what do you think it is, mr. Perrone about the factory conditions that make them one of the most likely places for somebody to have a covid or to get covid outside of a nursing home. I think one of the reasons is much like president costa mentioned earlier as it relates to the volume of air in the facility because theyre in a Processing Plant and there has to be a high volume airconditioning system in that facility in order to make sure it stays cool enough in there to process the meat. In addition to that, its the humidity in the air at the same time that doesnt allow the virus or the particles because theyre aerosol to evaporate very quickly and ultimately eliminate the problem. Now you asked me about whether or not theres enough ppe inside the facilities. Look, because the conditions are so difficult, we had to do layered ppe that we had conversations with our management teams. Layered ppe meaning shields around the workers, face shields and masks. Because if they just went in there with an np95 mask that ms. Castillo talked about the humidity in the facility would ultimately attach itself to the mask and it would be like those workers were being water boarded. Waterboarded. So is there equipment that would be better in order to better protect them, yeah, you could, you could go to an a100 res operator that might have the respirator pack on the back, much like you see in some of these biological labs that weve seen, that might be better, and then you could actually bring people closer to together if you were concerned about the productivity. Because you do have to have spacing, if you dont have the higher level of ppe. So heres whats going on now. Do i think productivity is being cut down . Yes, i do. I think were probably anywhere from 75 to 80 of our full productivity. Until florida is operating around the same level before, but not the processing locations because of the close proximity that you have to be next to the person next to you. I dont know if that is what youre looking for. I appreciate that. That is what is going on in those plants. Thats an interesting perspective on the masks that even the n95s may not be sufficient in those conditions. I hadnt considered that before. I am a proponent of any time that we wear a mask, as soon as we get the manufacturing pipeline solved, people should be wearing n95 masks instead of homemade masks, because i think its doubtful, the science is doubtful on whether a homemade mask is really going to prevent the wearer from getting the virus, and it may not even be very effective in preventing those exposed to the wearer from getting the virus. So im a proponent of sciencebased and using the masks that are appropriate. Let me just ask mr. Roy a question very quickly. Mr. Roy, im looking at your testimony here, and it really strikes me, a few states have had a really high incident of covid within Nursing Homes per 10,000 longterm care residents. Can you explain why that might be, mr. Roy . Hi, mr. Massey. There are a number of factors and were actually actively researching this and the testimony that i gave to the House Coronavirus Select Committee last week, wint into the analysis, the preliminary analysis, we tried to find correlations between nursing home fatality rates and other indicators such as High Percentage of medicaid patients in nursing home ors a High Percentage of africanamericans, and at the state level at least we didnt find those correlations. We may find more data, now that the cdc has collected data by facility, we can do more granular assessments, so i expect to have some analyses next week on that topic, but broadly speaker there are two factors that stand up in tuively, is one, where the pandemic is the worst, and that is also related to the way a lot of those northeastern states in particular force Nursing Homes and assisted living facilities to accept covidinfected patients being discharged from hospitals. So those appear to be the biggest drivers, but that analysis is still ongoing. My time has expired. Thank you for indulging me, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Now we have ms. Wassermanschultz, you are recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you so much. Make sure my head is in the shot here. Over the last several months, i heard from essential workers that still dont get the ppe that they need to do their jobs safely, and i heard from nurses who are using homemade masks, that they continue to see patients, delivery workers without cleaning supply, sanitize their vehicles. Security workers on the job despite shortages of effective eye wear and for me those stories demonstrate the bravery andselflessness of the American Work force and the Trump Administrations failure of leadership in a time of crisis. The Trump Administrations lack of a coherent response to this pandemic, and failure to invoke the defense production act to provide ppe cost lives. And i chair the subcommittee and i focus whether the v. A. Has an adequate supply of ppe and directing their facilities to distribute sufficient amounts of ppe to keep their work force and veterans safe. Congress provided the v. A. Almost 20 billion in the cares act. And with that money, we expect the v. A. To provide ppe for every person working in and entering Veterans Health Administration Facilities but just yesterday, the Health Official at the v. A. Admitted they might not have enough supplies to withstand a second wave of the virus. My question of ms. Cass steel, you represent an organization of 155,000 nurses including nurses that work at v. A. Facilities host you would describe their access to ppe with your members who are working at the v. A. And also would you say the experience of your members working at the v. A. Facilities is similar to your membership more generally . Well, in the v. A. System, the pp ex has been woefully inadequate and when i talk about ppe, im talking about head to toe ppe, indicts the respirators, the head covering, the shell, the bootys and all of that. All of that has been insufficient and yes it does mirror the private and public sector, the other Hospital Systems as well. Were seeing that throughout, including in the v. A. Where we actually have had to utilize donations, too, to get supplies to our nurses, and we have done that, because we literally have had to fight for every, you know, tooth and nail, for every bit of ppe for our nurses. And im heard about throughout, and i recently heard that dr. Solomon actually announced, went through the numbers, and my own staff have looked at the numbers and if we have a second wave, youre already struggling to keep up with the ppe you need, and then we have a second wave, theres going to be a very significant problem with keeping our workers safe. And so the defense protection act, what do you think about the president s refusal to fully implement the defense production act. It cost lives. We need to fully invoke the production act and we can. One thing i want to say is were dealing with a virus that is novel and were learning more and more about it each day. The ppe is not novel. We know what protects us, that will protect front line workers and what will protect patients and we know how to make it, and so we need to have Domestic Production, and we need enough production. Absolutely. Its grossly irresponsible not to have done that already. Thank you so much. When we think about the shortages of vital supplies for Health Care Workers, sometimes we only tend to think of doctors and nurses but there are so many hospital employees that are not doctors and nurses, they are patient transporters, custodians, medical technicians and they keep the hospital functioning, you, we are talking about people like your husband edward, im so sorry for your loss. Can you describe his access to ppe when he went to work . And do you think that inaccurate access to ppe played a role in infection . Im sorry, sorry, i couldnt make out what you said. You couldnt hear any of what you said . Just part of it. Im sorry. Okay. My question is, because your husband edward was not a doctor, or a nurse like they usually think of, mr. Chairman, if you wouldnt mind adding a little bit, a few seconds to my time so i can reask my question, i would appreciate it. You can ask your question. Thank you so much. So what i referred to, doctors and nurses are usually who are thought of as front line Health Care Workers, but when people like your husband, you know, who provide support to those front line Health Care Workers, also are critical components of the overall delivery of care, can you describe your husbands access to ppe when he went to work . And do you think that the limited access to ppe might have played a role in his death . Yes. I think when it first started, they were giving it to the doctors and nurses first, and the virus started to progress, and then people were taking it more seriously, they gave it, they finally gave it to him, but i think by that time, he was already exposed. But i do think if he had the ppe, he would have had a chance of not contracting it. Thank you. Thank you. And im so sorry for your loss. And thank you for his commitment to caring for people. Mr. Chairman, this is just unconscionable that we have left so many people without protection that they need, and so many lives have been lost as a result. And i appreciate your indulgence. My time is expired. I yield back. Thank you. Now, mr. Growthman, youre recognized for five minutes for questions, you may now unmute yourself. Okay, can you hear me now . Yes. Good. Okay. First of all, for mr. Costa, i would like to thank you you for the anecdote, i was not aware that the subways in new york were not being cleaned, i apologize for the government, and for that and Nursing Homes, it is stunning that people got stuck without such weapons out there so i apologize for that. Secondly i would like to talk to ms. Cass steel. I love nurses, and i think you do a lot more than doctors as far as what is going on in our Health Care System, one of the problems we had here is there was a fantastic overestimate of the number of people who were going to wind up hospitalized, and as the result, two things happened. First of all, a lot of nonessential medical things, which i would consider essential, things like putting a new stent, repairing a valve, were not done, so perhaps people are dying. Theres some evidence, the reason for the uptick in the death rate in this country is things not being done that should be done. That should be done. And secondly, we began to lay off Health Care Workers instead of nurses. I know thats going on in wisconsin. Is that something thats going on nationwide . And what can we do to get these, if its true, what can we do to get these hospital administrators to bring back the nurses to work and open up these hospitals . Well, i know, as a nurse, we always want to, its better to be prepared and to prevent. And so we know what we should have been doing in anticipation of this pandemic, and those that did, certainly, you know, we applaud that. That being said, we do see some hospitals take advantage of this particular moment, and instead of focusing on ensuring that they have adequate protections for workers, theyre looking at things like furloughs, making nurses, cutting down their hours, and or closing essential services, like labor and delivery, in santa clara county, theres a hospital that literally closed down labor and delivery, and so there was a layoff of nurses, and you know, theres certainly mothers that are still needing to deliver and now they have nowhere to go, they have to go many, many miles. So we are fighting back on this as well. Because people arent getting colonoscopies, theyre not getting other screenings for cancer, because the hospitals way overestimated the number of people who would be there. Now i can understand a hospital doing that in march. But you know, as time went on, it had become very apparent that the socalled experts in washington overestimated things, and i just wondered if you are doing what you can to weigh in. Online, if we would have had adequate amounts of ppe, so in other words, that hospitals were required to have sufficient supplies, a stock for example for like a year, then we wouldnt have had, we would have been able to treat all of our patients. So in other words you can tell me if this is true nationwide, i think in wisconsin, the problem is not a lack of ppe, the problem was they were shutting down whole wings, in anticipation of this deluge of patients that never showed up. My understanding is that the shortage of ppe is nationwide, and thats from hearing from nurses where we surveyed nurses across the nations, and had responses from nurses in 50 states. The last question. Using last years masks, for instance. Doctor, one of the things that concerns me is congress has already spent far, far, far too much money on this, and driving the next generation very deeply into debt. And it is kind of an odd thing. Usually you want the next generation to be wealthier than your generation. Were kind of going the opposite way. Were running up the credit card and making sure the next generation is broke. I certainly have a lot of people in my district who are financially harmed because of the covid, and they wish they had their jobs, they dont have their jobs, they wish their businesses were keeping above water, instead theyre maybe going through bankruptcy and wipe out their life savings. I wonder if you could comment on the degree to which we are already throwing money at so many different people, and on the other hand, the people are eventually going to have to pay it back, they may be going under bankruptcy, because of this situation. This is an incredibly big problem, that we write about a lot in our paper on reopening the economy. It is a double whammy, right . The economic destruction from the prolonged lockdown. The fiscal spending, triple whammy. The fiscal spending that congress is putting forward in order to compensate for the economic lockdown. And then the fact that the average Small Business has less than a month of cash on hand. For urban businesses, for minority owned businesses it is more like two weeks of cash on hand so a lot of those businesses have already shut down permanently and every week that goes by, more and more of those smaller businesses are going under permanently, which means that as we read, we cover those, maybe some of the jobs will come back but we will have a much more consolidated economy with a few very large corporations running our economy rather than a more diverse and distributed economy that we all would like. Thank you for your questions. Mr. Sarbanes, you are now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity. And thank the committee for pulling together this very, very important hearing on our front line workers. As we have come to understand, theres this whole unseen work force out there, that doesnt normally get the attention it deserves, but in these circumstances, of course, they are in focus. And i think one of of the big challenges for us as policy makers, in this hearing, and this hearing will help us in this challenge, is to start thinking about how do we continue to see this work force on the other side of the pandemic. We are learning lessons now that we need to carry with us. Now, when we get back to whatever the new normal is, is that going to be a new normal that has the kinds of wages and benefits and workplace protections for this work force that so Many Americans have uncovered and come to know over the last two or three months. Are we going to continue to see that work force on the other side . And i hope the hearings like this help us fortify our commitment to that. So i want to thank you for the hearing. I want to also especially thank ms. Decoat for her testimony. We certainly send our condolences to you, and we thank you for your courage and sharing your story. Its very compelling. And i think it will make a tremendous difference. As we consider these issues Going Forward. I did want to specifically address some questions to mr. Costa, i want to thanks you for your advocacy, on behalf of transit workers across the country, the atu is a very Effective Organization in speaking up for those concerns, and im proud that your International Headquarters is located in marylands third district, which i represent. The front line workers that you represent, are a little bit different, from other front line workers in the sense that they are the folks that transport a lot of those other workers. So in a sense, you intersect with this conversation in two different ways and i want to thank you for what your members do every single day. We know there has been a lot of layoffs, as a result of the pandemic, and we know that, for example, in washington, d. C. , the ridership is down 95 , on the metro, theyre losing 50 million per month during the pandemic. Across the country, we know bus drivers and rail workers are being laid off. Could you speak to that a little bit, what the economic impact, just on your work force is. You talked a lot about the safety issues but if you want to have just these layoffs and cutbacks, i would appreciate it. Yes, thank you for the kind words, yes, we are, our headquarters in your district, thank you. As far as the, the cares act helped a lot, in keeping the buses running and i believe i just said before keeping the overcrowding from happening. Our membership is down about 10 . Weve lost, through furloughs or layoffs at this time due to the pandemic. And as a matter of fact, here, it is not that states are opening up, we are seeing overcrowding starting to happen, and people getting on the bus, which i voice my concerns about that. But about 10 have left. The private sector is looking at, actually theyre taking advantage the wrong way, theyre not doing the right thing, with the cares act money and theyre trying to basically utilize that money to put in their pocket to offset costs for processes, instead of going to they listen to us, and we educated them, on what that bill meant, and by keeping the buses and the workers at work, to keep the economy going, to keep it stronger. Im sure that you are very apprehensive about whats coming as we get closer to july 1st, which is the date by which most states and most municipalities have to balance their budget across the country. As you know, the heroes act is trying to bring significant assistance to state and local governments, in terms of their budgets. Clearly, that will have an impact, a ripple effect, on your workers, so i assume that you are strongly in support of the heroes act in bringing that assistance to bear. The budget crisis, is there, theyre going to need help, and once again, i hope our representatives and our congress and senate does the right thing for the american jobs that are there. And focuses on operating assistance to keep the agencies afloat until we get out of this crisis and bring the cities back, so yes, in the heroes act, as i said before, very few of our members have the insurance policies, and this would help offset the 53 members that i have, and the one in new york that has over 100 members that have passed, due to the covid virus, would help their families and keep, remember our heroes that kept the lines going and keeping our nurses and doctors going, to help our country, and our families stay alive. Thank you very much. Your time has expired. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Comer youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And i appreciate you having this hearing on supporting essential workers. I think theres clearly bipartisan support, to support the essential workers that have been mentioned thus far, the health care front line workers, obviously the people that are involved in processing food, we have seen outbreaks at different Processing Plants that have significantly disrupted the food chain, and we cant have that, so we all support that. But one group of essential workers thats been in the news a lot, in the last few days that really havent been mentioned during this hearing, Law Enforcement personnel. And were very blessed in america to have some of the best and brightest who work in Law Enforcement, and it troubles me deeply to see on the news movements in some of the cities and even references by some of our colleagues, in congress, to defund the police. Of all of the things that ive heard in my three and a half years in congress that i disagree with, and i think isnt very good policy, i think the movement to defund the police is probably the dumbest thing that ive ever heard of, and it bother mese deeply, because we have to have Law Enforcement, especially in times when theres a lot of anxiety, theres a lot of disagreement, we need to maintain law and order, and our Law Enforcement personnel, put their lives on the line every day, so im going to go on record and i hope that every one of my colleagues in congress will go on the record, to say that we strongly support our men and women in Law Enforcement, and certainly, certainly never want to defund the police. So i wanted to get that out there. Next, mr. Chairman, ive been blessed the last two days of my congressional district, ive visited factories that are making ppe, and these are businesses, one was an existing business, that expanded their supply, or their product line, and another is a new business that was formed that went into an abandoned garment factory, and theyre making ppe, and i think thats great. And i think that what we saw happen with china, where they obviously misled the world about the coronavirus, and then they forwarded their ppe to use for themselves at the expense of american hospitals, american nursing home facilities and american Health Care Workers. So i believe there is bipartisan support in congress to ensure that that ppe is manufactured in the United States. Weve got companies in kentucky and all across the south in the United States that are willing and able and currently producing and manufacturing ppe, cap, gowns, masks, gloves, things like that but still competing against china companies. There are still different Government Agencies that are awarding contracts to companies that are manufacturing this ppe in china. I would like to extend an invitation to my colleagues across the aisle, my democratic colleagues to come together, and i would love to work with the majority party, to see that we can do everything in our pablt, to see that this ppe is manufactured in the United States of america, and we dont have to ever depend on china, especially considering all of the wrong doing that they have displayed, because of the covid outbreak. I dont ever want to depend on china for that, for essential ppe again, and i think that is something that needs to be discussed in this hearing, talking about essential workers. My question that i want to ask is to dr. Roy. And it pertains to the, there were proposals in the last bill we voted on and i voted against but it passed the house, would extend the unemployment of 060 a week past the Expiration Date of july 31st, the Congressional Budget Office looked at this and five of six were earning benefits that exceeded the amount they were earning from employment prior to the covid19. My question to you how do the initial Unemployment Benefits shift the incentive from going back to work to staying at home . Mr. Comber, as you know, weve heard many, many, many businesses that said they cant rehire worker, they cant reopen their restaurant or retail store or auto Mechanic Shop because the workers are getting paid much more to stay at home than to work and you cant blame the works because the disparities are so great. So that program was clearly designed very poorly and it is my fervent outlook that we listen to those proprietors as we try to get the economy going again. And i agree with that. Mr. Chairman, i have an oped that was posted by the wall street journal that i would like to submit, for the record. Explaining exactly what dr. Roy just said, and the negative impact it is having on the states that are truly trying to reopen and a lot of the businesses, especially the restaurant industry, that are struggling to stay in existence. Thank you, mr. Comber. Im going to object to it right now because we do have a process of i reserve the right to object, and i do intend to object, in order to man mise the disruptions and to be fair to everybody, we request any exhibits be circulated in advance of the oversite clerks email in the hearing notice. If you have not sent the item yet, we ask that you do so now. We want to ensure that we have seen the copies of all materials before they go into the hearing record so im going to hold off to agreeing until after we ensure that we have received and seen the documents. I thank the member for the request. The member may be assured that his request will be dispensed with before the end of the hearing so if you can email it, well take a look at it. All right. Thank you, sir. Now your time is expired. Ms. Lawrence, youre recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Hello, thank you so much for having this hearing. Just the beginning of this pandemic, communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by large numbers of hospitalizations and deaths. I represent a majority minority district, comprised of 18 cities, including detroit, southfield, pontiac, as one, also as one of the hot spots not only in michigan, but in the country. The africanamerican community, minority community, has been devastated by covid19. Communities of color, as mr. Olden stated, make up a large percentage of workers who are employed in essential industries. These essential workers are on the front line in hospitals, Grocery Stores, Food Processing facilities, and transportation services. My question i would like to direct to you, are there any solutions you would recommend that the federal government take and put in place to limit the disparity impact that the coronavirus has had on minority essential workers . Thank you for the question. And theryre really quite simpl. When theres a fire, we go to the fire. When there is an emergency, we go to the emergency. In the covid space, we need to know, we need to make sure that we are prioritizing things like testing. We cant put our head in the sand, and just have randomized testing. Weve got to go to where we know the infection, that we can identify those folks, quarantine them, hospitalize them, get things going. Thats one thing on the health front. Weve also got to be able to implement the very rigorous spacing which is needed as well. Both by human means and technological means. So weve got be able to sort of find out where the behavior is. Our economies have been devastated by what i call self induced coma the pandemic has put us in. Weve got to be able to support our businesses. The businesses are the life blood and the biggest employers in our community. We had a very uneven rollout, charitable assistance of the Paycheck Protection Program. Weve had an opportunity now to go back and try to fix that to make sure that minority depository institutions and cities are participating, and it looks like in the second round the average size of the loan is going down and we think that means that maybe those funds are flowing to where they need to be. So on the health front, lets go to where the disease is. On the business front, lets support these businesses. Weve had a rejection rate of Something Like only one out of ten, two out of ten people of color who applied for p pchltd p even ppp on that regard. Mr. Olden, i thank you for that. I want to take this moment, were struggling in america right now with the race discriminations and the, Race Relations and the history of discrimination in our country that so many things have been exposed during this covid epidemic that we have lived through, first of all, health care disparity, second of all the small disdisparity for small and minority businesses, the lack of access to capital that we actually legislated for. The unintended consequence was that it would not go to these minority and Small Businesses. And then lastly, i wanted to talk about the ppe. The essential workers, it is unbelievable that they were made to go to work. I mean it was required. You essential. So you show up every day and then adapt to some of these corporations, now to provide ppe, so the fal fact that the federal governments has to give funding to ensure that our workers were getting the money. To everyone who lost their lives during this pandemic, i just wanted to take this moment and say that my humble condolences to everyone, in the black community, devastated with so much grief and people are wondering why there is such an outpouring, it has been layer upon layer upon layer. My last question i have at this time, i want to ask about the ppe requirement. Do you estimate that the ppe requirement will be intact for the remainder of 2020 . And if so, what recommendations do you have for congress to help the administration and their members, with this expense. I want you it know that i have introduced the. Ppe tax credit act and what it, it would give us a 25,000 tax credit for Small Businesses and nonprofits to provide the personal protective equipment. So im looking for anyone that can give me a comment on how, do you have any recommendations for congress on how to meet this ppe requirement, as we reopen . Ms. Lawrence, your time is expired but they can answer the question. I think it has been said before that the defense production act is a real key here. It has not been used very aggressively. It has been used very sparingly. Weve got to be able to get our production capability up to meet the need. And we cant really do it just based on the grace of these companies. Weve got to pay them to do the work. But weve got to use that tool in the tool kit. Just like we did for Food Processing employee, right . We need our food and we need our protection. Both are equally wise areas. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Lawrence. Mr. Perone would also like to answer that question, ms. Lawrence. I agree with mr. Olden as well, we definitely need to add ppe to the defense production ac act. It became very apparent to us that what was happening was that ppe was going to the highest bidder and i do believe that we need to provide ppe to our Health Care Workers and our First Responders first. However, because of that, it was being very difficult to be obtained. I know that ive got one large Major Corporation that is discussing eliminating masks, and providing masks for its workers, and theyve got over 400,000 workers, and if its happening, at a Major Corporation, a fortune 50 company, i gar uarantee you that is happening in Smaller Companies that we havent talked about. So thank you. Thank you. Any other panelists want to make an answer the question before we go on to the next . I would like to say something. All right. This is john costa. And yes, i think it was shameful that our government dropped the ball, did not, this president did not enact the defense production act. And after all that, in this country, that it wont on the front lines for the nurses and doctor, and i believe we could have saved many, many more lives. When this happened, in our communities, we did our own, we took care of our own, and what should happen here, we should take care of our own, we need to go forward and take care of our own and make sure we produce it here, and put people to work here, and protect yourself 0. Shameful that this president , this administration, let so many people die by the fact of not having the protection that we needed and then later on said that we needed it. Thank you, mr. Costa. Any other panelists . No. Thank you so much for, ms. Lawrence, for your questions. Now we have mr. Gibbs. You are recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First of all, i want to thank the essential workers for all of their work during these times, as we try to get back it normal. And i want to share my condolences for your loss. And i wanted to mention quickly, the project air bridge, the project air bridge to get people over here from asia and elsewhere around the world and the Paycheck Protection Program, pretty much unanimous that it is comped, that it saved a lot of jobs and a lot of businesses and its a very good program. I think, mr. Chairman, we needs to have a hearing about the role of china in their hoarding of ppe and also masks. Targeting our universities and pharmaceutical companies. And probably, during this hearing, we saw this summer the vaccines, that is Going Forward there. I do want to talk about ms. Stella and in her written testimony she talks about reusing single use ppe is a dangerous practice and increased exposure and so on. And she goes on to say decontamination of disposal respirator has not been shown to be safe or effective and can deviate the respirator. As some of you know, here in ohio, they were asked during the obama administration, 2014, to work on the, when there was a shortage of masks for ebola, they did the research and it was Peer Reviewed, and scientists and technology for the firm, and they published safe and effective n95 masks. The world eight largest independent Nonprofit Research and Development Organization that has tackled hard challenges over the years using science and technology. Well respected. It has been tested, mostly by independent areas, cdc, massachusetts general hospital, tests show the gradations of the masks and so on. So i just wanted to say that i dont agree with ms. Stellas statement that it is an indication of disposal respiration. And as also fema has done work in awarding contract to keep everybody save. And mr. Chairman, i will in the for the record, circulated about from fema, on behalf of patel, the respirator documents illustrated the method using the proven vaporized hydroxide process to kill the bacteria, sars and covid192 in masks so i want to make that clear. So if you want to respond, if you could respond. Mr. Gibbs, thank you for following the rules. Without objection, so ordered, submitting your documents for the record. Go ahead, ms. Stella . Je. So there has not been Scientific Evidence enough to ensure that decontamination processes are safe or effective. In fact, when weve received the masks back after they dont contamination process, including patel, often the straps are loosened, the mask itself is deformed, so that the integrity of the material has been disrupted. And nurses are also complaining of headaches, and smelling sort of a chemical smell. So our concern is that one, this is an unethical practice to use our Health Care Work force, and nurses, and Health Care Workers as sort of guinea pigs to experiment essentially with these masks. We, you know, as i have said before, what we need to do is fully invoke the defense production act, to manufacture the kwaets amounts of ppe that we all need. Certainly the front line workers and all workers, and we need this for all, for all of us. For the protection of all of us. I think theres no doubt. And looking at the shortage and the crisis going on in the past couple of months that this was going on, and obviously, maybe there are some issues. But we will have to question the research that was done in that. So im out of time. Thank you. Mr. Gibb, thank you so much. Ms. Sphere, youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Let me also extend to our chair woman my deepest good wishes for hopefully a negative test result, and a very speedy recovery. And to ms. Bakati, i too was a widow, so i know exactly what youre going through, and you have my deepest sympathy, and a huge hug. I hope that we can provide you some relief. Our chair woman, i have introduced legislation to compensate those who have passed from this virus, and those who have been sickened by it, as essential workers. Hr6955 is the essential worker pandemic compensation act. It is a companion to the chairs bill, in that it provides kind of immediate benefits that are taxfree, that are not going to require those who are impacted to seek or obtain legal representation. It is patterned after the police, the Public Safety officers benefit and Education Assistance act. And it provides those who have succumbed to the virus, as essential workers, a lump sum of 365,000 and the educational benefits to their spouse, and children, of a fouryear education. For those who have become sickened by this, an amount that is equal to half that. So because i consulted with ken pfeiffer, who has been the expert on the 9 11 compensation program, his focus is to keep it simple, and make sure that those who have lower incomes are not treated differently. And this particular bill treats everyone the same. So i want to thank both mr. Costa, mr. Perone, for endorsing the legislation. And i would like to say, your comment on your essential worker, who said that the recalling of the heroes pay was a slap in the face. This is an effort to give them a kiss on the cheek. So i hope that we are committed both as republicans and democrats to forge forward a plan that is going to treat people equally, that will be taxfree, and that we will not encumber them by requiring them to have legal representation as well. To ms. Castillo, i am deeply concerned about our ability, moving forward, to have the proper ppe in place. Ive been told that fema plans to ramp up the supply of both gowns and n95s, only to the extent that we continue to reuse those ppe. And i cant imagine that that is going to be appropriate over the long term. And we have no manufacturing whatsoever of rubber gloves. So for a country that could put plan and shift into manufacturing, in short order, during world war ii, by using the defense production act, and were still trying to find a means by which were going to manufacture gloves, which we dont do, or swabs, which, until very recently, we havent done. To me, it makes no sense. Im concerned that we dont have an idea of how much ppe we will need for essential workers. In the next wave. So my question to you is has your organization tried to come up with a figure to reflect what it would be for nursing . Well, what we know, we couldnt agree with you more, we know that reuse will result, will result in more infections. And nurses and front line workers falling ill and then out of the work force. So you know, we know that even what is being produced right now to the extent that it is, that we havent felt it on the front lines even if you take just the estimate, it is 52 billion, it is, and we dont see that, we havent seen that kind of production happening, anywhere. But we, what we do know is that with, you know, really, what we need is for congress to act fully and vote, the defense production act, to produce adequate amounts of ppe. So you know, we are, as i said before, we, you know, are insisting that we have what we need, the nivzs, in o, the n95s hospital, in the facilitates and literally fighting tooth and nail, and some cases bringing them home and they are not exactly the grade of the mask that we would prefer, but were actually having to rely on donations. And in this country, we know that we can do better. And we have to do better. This is about the future. And we have to be learning from this experience, but were not out of this pandemic. This pandemic is ongoing. And with reopening, we know that we expect to see further surges. And we have, and so this is, there is no better time, than now, to actually start production of ppe, respirators, along with all of the other ppe, the others i mentioned before, the head to toe coverings, are so essential as well. Your time has expired. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you so much. Now, mr. Roy, youre recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Well, i appreciate. That and by mr. Roy, as indicated the gentleman from texas on the committee, as opposed to our witness, mr. Roy, my fellow alternate, were delighted to have here as a witness, ive been confused multiple times here already. Stop, wait, im on now. But glad to join you all. Appreciate it. I appreciate you joining us. I actually have a few questions for you. I appreciate all of the work youve been doing. Preop has done an exceptional job getting a lot of the important data and information that needs to be known by the American People about whats going on. And just correct me if im wrong, am my general terms, you have specific numbers, that if im looking at the discount for new jersey, that has been obviously very impacted badly by the virus, that over 50 of the people who have unfortunately passed away are in assisted nursing facilities or Nursing Homes. Is that a roughly accurate statement . It is more than roughly accurate. It is based on the reporting of the data that we have. It is very accurate. More than half of the degs outside of new york state have occurred in Nursing Homes or and i share your confusion by the way when your name was called. Amen. Well, in all truth, roughly 42 , right, ivan when you the burden in new york, and accounts for the folks 65 and old, is that correct . Thats correct. And all of deal tails are in my rin testimony. And pointing it out, i think we saw a report and i dont want to have anybody accuse of me drawing the analogy between the flu and the virus but there was ang important data point, children, steer to 18 and for the most part, if i saw the data, correct my memry, dangerousness of the flu, it was three or four times for kids ages zero to 18. Is that what im rough ry lerring that correctly . The order of magnitude is great irso the article youre referring to which is on our web site preop. Org, is called estimating the risk of death from covid versus influenza by age and that report compares the relative risk of dieing from influenza or covid based on your age, assuming that 150,000 people eventually die of covid19 this year. And one that shows your age, 5 to 14, seven times more likely to die of influenza than covid19 and one to four, 20 times more likely to die of flu than covid19. Or reverse, youre 1 20 as likely to i dont of covid19. So the risk is very low of severe illness and death in children. It is very important that we study this, to figure out what we have to do as a society. And i happen to have, that is tragically bad, that we as a society have clamped down on our society so much, that we are denying people their livelihoods, and ability to go to work and cant have cancer screenings and suicide rates going up and the impact of opioid addiction, and what could be happening, your inability to get Mental Health care, because we have reacted so much. And for people 65 and under, obviously for children, when we close down the schools, or the data would suggest that that makes no sense, rationale, to close down our schools, my concern is that we look at this the right way, to zero in on the actual problem, which is when people are sick, in tight quarters, meat packing plants, et cetera, or if youre in a nursing home or assisted living facility. Thats where the vast majority of the true danger has occurred from hospitalizations and in terms of people who have unfortunately passed away. It is raetly critically important that we get it right. If i remember correctly i saw a data point just yesterday that 41 of blackowned businesses have closed over the last three months, as a result of our, of the virus and reaction to the virus. Thats horrible. And weve got to do a good job of getting our businessing back up and running. This is why i was proud to get the ppe flexibility act, with my good friend dean phillips from minnesota, a bipartisan bill, because we need these businesses to be able to get back up and running but understanding the data is critical it. That mr. Roy, could you comment on those points . Particularly from a preop stand oint . Yes, so we discussed the blackowned business data, minority owned business data in or testimony and i will put it this way, mr. Roy, simply, if youre focused on covid and everything and anyone, youre focused on no one and thats why our First Responders have been put in danger. Instead of focusing on the at risk locations like Long Term Health care facilities we were focused on harassing people when they got together with their relatives or attending the funeral of their parents this. Level of micro management where you couldnt go to the Home Depot Gardening Department or you could go to the home depot lawn care apartment and we took our eyes off the ball and it has endangered our First Responders. Your time has expired. Ms. Prescott you are recognized for five minutes. You may now unmute yourself. Good afternoon, and thank you to all of the testifiers and thank you, mr. Chairman, you look good in that seat. Thank you for all the work that you all do, and i wanted to ask some questions regarding communities dependent on essential workers to function. Throughout this pandemic, many of us, im sure all of us here, have had the privilege of isolating at home, safe and in the comfort of our families. Social distancing and staying at home have allowed us to flatten the curve of the infections and that way hospitals potential overflow and give our Health Care Workers the greater chance of success for fighting this virus and treating patients. We have been able to do this because individuals work in Grocery Stores and they continue to stock our Grocery Store, continue to be stocked with food, our transit systems continue to function, our Health Care Workers take care of us, when we fall in, for all of these folks, staying at home simply is not an option. Mr. Perone, can you briefly describe the role that your workers have had in maintaining Food Supplies . Yes, they have of course been there stocking the shelves, dealing with customers coming in and out, there has been in fact some disruption in the food supply, not because that we are short in food, but because our system is set up on an efficiency basis, first in first out, and because everybody was at home, it changed how the system functioned. And so whether or not were talking about some of the packing houses or whether or not were talking about the retail food stores, those workers did in fact keep the food supply coming, and quite honestly, i think it led to more stability in our society, because of it. Because if we had seen massive short annual shortages, i do think that people would have responded very differently to what was at play. Absolutely. I agree with you, about, i cant even imagine the fear and the concern that would happen in this country if people believed that they werent able to get food. So thank you for that. Mr. Costa, can you explain your organizations representing our nations transit worker, how would a sudden halt in all Public Transportation impact the ability to fight the virus on the front lines . The halt of the, repeat that, please . If we, if you didnt have your workers to go out on the front lines as they do, in Public Transportation, and you tell us some of the ways that you believe that would have impacted our ability to fight the virus, in this country. Well, you know, many of our riders dont make a lot of money. Many of them are the janitors that clean the hospitals. Many of them need to go to Grocery Stores. Many of them need to go to dialysis and hospitals for treatment as far as the, you know, the power transit and motility initiative we have. So if we were to completely shut down, people would not do well. Thank you. And thank you to your workers for everything they do. Ms. Castillo, would you agree that the nations death toll would be far higher without the nurses providing the lion share of patient care . Yes, absolutely. Thats correct. And the nurses must also work closely with patient transporters, like mrs. Beccos late husband edward. How essential are people like edward in helping hospitals function properly and efficiency. It is absolutely essential. We work as a team. In the hospital, in the clinics, there is a team, and that team consists of nurses, doctors, obviously assistants, you know, supplies pharmaceutical techs. We have a whole team when it comes to the hospital, every single day, and as you mentioned, they dont have a choice, theyre not given the choice to shelter at home and take care of their families. Their schedules have remained the same. And including the utilization of Public Transportation every single day for some, have to utilize that Public Transportation to get to work. Thank you. Mr. Parone. I also sit on the Agriculture Committee counselor, your time has expired. Oh, has it . Yes, time flies when youre having fun. Sorry. Thank you. And thank you to all of the testifiers and thanks for the work youre doing. Thanks ms. Plaskett. Ms. Miller, youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, vice chairman. Gomez and chairman maloney, i hope you are healthy. We want you to be healthy. And thank you for Ranking Member hice. I want to thank all of you witnesses for being here today. I especially want to express my deepest sympathy. The loss that you are experiencing is heartbreaking, and my prayers are for you and your family during this trying time. Youre very brave to be here today. Our front line workers have been the heroes of this Public Health emergency. And for that, our country is eternally grateful our doctors and nurses have provided care for our sickest patients and sought cares for the coronavirus. Those in our Grocery Stores and Delivery Services and ensured everyone can get their food and goods in a safe manner. We have also seen those in manufacturing work around the clock to make sure that medical equipment and the ppes are there to provide not only for america but for other people around the world. During this pandemic we have seen American Workers and businesses rise to the occasion and to create new and innovative solutions. One company in my district had more than 40 employees agree to live at the plant for a month to make materials for respiratory masks. They worked around the clock, and they deserve our deepest respect. Now that we have effectively flattened the curve, we must look forward to safely reopening our economy and returning to normalcy. In west virginia, weve already started. I want us to continue on the great economic success that we have seen prior to this pandemic and put america back to work. Ms. Castillo, i appreciate all the hard work that our nurses have taken on during this pandemic. You are the heart and soul of our medical society. I understand that the nurses would rather have made would rather have new n95 masks instead of just the decontaminated masks. I think everybody can agree that the best mask is a new mask. However, we continue to have a shortage of the new n95 masks as we work to ramp up our own production. As you are aware that after the Ebola Outbreak in 2014, the fda partnered with a trusted Nonprofit Organization to conduct research for just such a circumstance, a national pandemic, where there was a shortage of n95 masks. The research that was conducted over multiple years was Peer Reviewed and published. It was this foresight by the fda that allowed for the proven safety contamination of these n95 masks until the domestic supply chain can catch up with the demand for these masks in these unprecedented times. The research was published in 2016. Decontamination has made it so Health Care Workers dont have to wear scarves or bandanas or other homemade items instead of wearing the clean n95 masks. Would you agree that until we have an adequate form of ppe, these provide the best solution to protecting Health Care Workers . No, no. We are experiencing many problems with these masks including as i said before where the integrity of the mask, it doesnt even conform or you dont get that tight seal. And we know without that tight seal that you dont have protection. And then we are also experiencing the headaches. And so we dont believe that it is safe or effective, and we have looked at some of those studies that theyve done. And in seeing some of these studies, theyve just done it on a flat piece rather than a sort of threedimensional piece, mask for instance, specifically on the mask. And also with the stanford study, this study tested the dry heat and hot water vapor on e. Coli and not on covid19. And also there was a duke study recently, and that was to evaluate the did not evaluate the layers within the n95 filter. So, you know, we have found that its insufficient. And we know what we okay. So, what that means in production. So, if we actually did invoke fully the defense production act i need to take my time back, and i hope you can give those reports so that we can correct the problem. Yes, yes. I can provide those studies. Dr. Roy, around the nation we have seen many states opening up and getting the economies back online and putting people back to work. What are some of the successes that you have seen with the reopening . Are we seeing local economies recover without a sharp spike in cases . Yes, ms. Miller, thats correct. We have not seen a sharp spike in cases. And i would point in particular to florida which i never really fully locked down, instead locked down in south florida, targeted Nursing Homes like weve talked about. I think of all the states and we can praise and criticize various states florida has done the best job of targeting the higher risk populations but having a light touch with the normal parts of the economy. Ms. Miller dont forget west virginia. Thank you very much, i yield back. Now, ms. Presley, youre recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Chair. You know, while the term essential worker is a new term for some, it is important to remember that the workers we are talking about today have always been essential although we have usually treated them as if they are disposable. But i also want to just say that they are essential not only for the important utility role that they play in society, this is not only about their labor, this is about their very lives and they matter. They have always been the backbone for their families, for our communities and our economy. But for too long these same workers have not had the basic rights and protections they deserve. The covid19 pandemic has unveiled many of these deeply entrenched inequities and were witnessing the deadly consequences in real time. Before covid hit many families didnt have savings to cover 400 emergency expense, which this pandemic has pushed those already on the margins further. Many of these economic inequities have been exacerbated by stagnant wages, unequal access to benefits like paid days and sick days, and the economic stability of families. Before this unprecedented global Public Health crisis, only 19 of workers had access to paid family leave and sick day protections. Many of the workers lacking these protections were among the same workers pleading for ppe and other equipment to protect themselves and their families from the virus. Many of the hardest hit communities in the commonwealth of massachusetts in the 7th which i represent, vibrant in Diverse Communities like chelsea, where 60 of residents are lacking access and half are immigrants. Chelsea continues to be the biggest hot spot in massachusetts. So, as the commonwealth and other states are beginning the process of reopening, we must center our central workers who so often reside in these hardest hit communities. These workers and communities continue to bear the brunt of this pandemic and will be disproportionately impacted if we see a potential second wave. Mr. La cody, sympathy is not enough. Thanks for your husbands contributions and the role he played in your family are not enough. The only thing that is the just thing in this moment is for us to pass this legislation. Your familys story is a story of thousands of families mourning the loss of a precious loved one. It is why we have to change course in the policy making and center the most vulnerable as we begin to lay the groundwork for recovery. So, thank you so much for taking time away from your family to be here today to advocate, to save lives, and for ensuring that all our essential workers have the support, ppe, hazard pay, emergency pay, family pay, and sick days so they can remain safe and healthy. This crisis has unveiled many of the entrenched inequities. The United States is the most industrialized nation. How has this contributed to the economic challenges facing essential workers who are disproportionately people of color and women. Only one in five black women can afford to work from home. Only one in five latinas can afford to work from home. How is this playing out . Its creating a crisis. First of all, let me thank you for your leadership on insisting the cdc identify the demographic of people who have been tested. This is a huge equity issue. We will not get our arms around the problem until we know where the disease is. Its not a matter to say anybody who wants a test can get it. We need to go in the communities where we know it exists and identify it and root it out. Family leave, this is the problem i identified in my opening remark, especially women of color who are on the front lines of this disease. Not only are they having to go into work, but theyre having to deal with the fact their children may be at home during the school closure. They are disproportionately leaving their house holds. So, the income that they make or dont make is the entire economic livelihood of that family. So, leave is an indispensable part of this equation. And we need to do more. I called for in my opening testimony for more fiscal stimulus. Leave is definitely in that category, fiscal stimulus. Thank you. And on the point you made about the human cost, the human toll of this, which has not been discussed at nearly the length it needs to. There was a peer review studied published in nature earlier this week. It talked about the effect of the stayathome orders. Nearly 5 Million People confirm cases avoid coronavirus because of the stayathome measures. Some 60 million americans have birded the coronavirus because of these measures. You can take aim and criticize the decision to open early, to not come back soon enough. But what cannot be denied is there are millions of americans today who do not have the coronavirus because front line workers went out there to work to give those of us who are nonessential workers the ability to stay at home and work. Thats right. Thats right. Thank you. Your time is up. Oh, is that my time . Yes. Flies by in these instance. Great job. Thank you so much. Mr. Green. Youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you. I want to thank all the workers on the front lines particularly Health Care Workers. As an e. R. Physician my heart is with you and your family. I know this is a trying time. But at least for the medical personnel, i know the challenge. And while its what we signed up for, that doesnt lessen the challenge. I want to thank you for being here today and extend my deepest sympathies for your loss. And of course we are wishing our madam chair a return to great health as soon as possible. Id like to thank our nurse witness today, new england journal of medicine said surgical masks provide limited to no additional protection in the nonhealth care setting. And in consideration of this and the fact that the senates been working for weeks with not a single infection, we can go back to work here in person. We know that our work will be better. The product we provide the country will be better. I want to begin by saying it is disingenuous to say that youre for workers and then not reopen the economy or drag your feet in reopening. I wish my colleagues across the aisle would see as essential the workers in the country whose taxes will pay for the trillions of dollars this is going to cost us. We need to be working. The headline yesterday was coronavirus obliterated best africanamerican job market on record and, quote, reopening the economy is the best thing we can do including and especially minorities. We just had a coronavirus select subcommittee last week on covid19 Racial Disparities. As a physician, i mentioned why black americans have been hit hard. But the government imposed shutdown, those jobs will be harder and harder to regain the longer the shutdown lasts. The states have begun to reopen. In tennessee, many restaurants, retail stores, gyms have all been open under social distancing guidelines for weeks now. In fact today i flew through charlotte, north carolinas airport, the place was packed, shoulder to shoulder in places and all was well. Americans are ready to go. Last week i visited a distillery in Hurricane Mills tennessee that recently resumed operations. They altered normal operations to make Hand Sanitizer free of charge to the neighbors and First Responders. To defeat this virus, we have to let them reopen and lead the way toward recovery across the nation. There are many things this committee can do right now to help reverse the damage caused by the shutdown. And here are three suggestions. First, we should permanently repeal the roughly 400 regulations that have been suspended during the crisis. I cosponsored congressmans roy regulatory repeal act that would do just that. If the regulations werent needed during the crisis, why do we need them at all . We must give the nations businesses the freedom and flexibility to bounce back. Second, we should examine the federal governments bureaucratic health care laws. All of my colleagues here know our rural hospitals are struggling and this pandemic has only exacerbated their challenge. Thats week i visited a hospital in waverly to discuss these challenges. If we dont cut the red tape and let the hospitals serve the communities, we will see long term consequences. Finally, we must confront beijing and hold them accountable for the spread of the virus in the first place. The Chinese Communist part hid the severity of the coronavirus, crushed whistleblowers, denied offers of u. S. Aide, allowed the coronavirus to spread and covertly horded ppe. The leadership of china is taking china from a friend of america to an adversary of america and we should hold them accountable. The house should vote on House Resolution 6903, the Bring American Companies Home act. This bill incentivizes American Companies to move back and covers moving costs. In medicine, do no harm. Keeping the economy closed continues to harm millions of americans. Its time to not just reopen the economy but take proactive steps to reverse the damage. This is where our Oversight Committee can lead and i ask madam chair lets lead on that. Lets get americans back to work, open businesses and save jobs and lives. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you so much. First, i just want to acknowledge that our witness had to leave. I just want to thank her for her testimony. If you have questions, you can submit them for the record. Ms. Tlaib, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the panelists for being here. I want to always center on people in my district and those directly impacted. So, i want to share this photo of jason hargrove, a detroit bus driver, posted a video on his facebook where he expressed his frustrations about the unsafe conditions on the bus including passengers coughing. He posted that video of himself wearing the mask, as you saw, on his bus with the captions i cant stay home, im on the road for you. Just 11 days after posting his video, this 50yearold father of six died of complications of covid19. Mr. Hargroves Story Highlights the dangers our transit employees are facing and other front line workers as you all have been hearing. I want to ask, when i hear mr. Hargroves story, the first thing i want to do is start protecting people right away and try to adjust that. But when you hear some of my colleagues and some of the rhetoric coming out about opening up the economy, what do you hear first . What is the first thing youre thinking about when people ignore mr. Hargroves story and so many transit workers on the ground when you hear people we have to open up the economy. Yes, i think of hargrove. He was a hero. He brought the transportation workers to the front in this pandemic to light about how our government failed us, did not protect us. Thats my fear of how many more hargroves are we going to be faced with if we open without having been prepared. Im listening to somebody tell me one thing, but im understanding as these states are opening up and nobodys using ppe, i dont know, i watch the news too and i read the news. It seems like theres more people getting sick. And it is right now im from jersey and im in maryland right now. Its 90 degrees. All week, its been its not, like, february anymore. But, you know, we need to move slowly, and we have to be very cautious because our operators, as i said earlier, over 1,000 are still infected that we know of. Many are quarantined. If theyre the buses, theyre spreading it to our front line, our Grocery Store workers that are on these buses, our front line doctors and nurses that are on these buses. Are wie doing the right thing . Thats right. Thank you, i really appreciate it. Theres so much uncertainty now, i feel, around covid than ever before. I want to turn to you, you know, according to your organization, at least 68 grocery workers have died from coronavirus and over 10,000 have been infected. As of may 20th, 2020. You know, i know krogers here in michigan fought they fought so hard just for basic masks. And they were able to get that and 2 hazard pay. Are you familiar that many of your workers on the ground here in michigan were actually threatened after some changes regarding reopening the economy, that krogers was actually attempting to repeal the 2 but also retroactively do it, asking the essential workers, the grocery workers, for that money back . Are you aware of that . Im very much aware of it, and quite frankly we went postal about it. And kroger reversed their position. Just so that you understand, presently right now, i recorded earlier today that we had 225 members in the past. As of yesterday, its now 227. Ill get numbers again tomorrow. And retail food, weve had 80 that have passed away just in retail food, and weve had, you know, over 5,800 that have been exposed. 3,700 that have had positive diagnosis. So, let me say the following as it relates to, you know, ppe. In fact, somebody mentioned it a little bit earlier about cloth masks versus np95 masks or n95 masks. It is critical if youre going to be protected that you have the mask, the n95 mask. You may protect somebody else if you have a cloth mask on, but youre not going to be protected if you dont have an n95. I agree. Oh, i agree. So, i think that we need to ec are niez recognize and it is my understanding that some of the Major Corporations in this country have said theyre going to do away with masks thats right. That are at that level. So, im very concerned. Thank you. Just for the record, yes krogers repealed it. They called it heros pay. For some reason a month later our neighbors that worked in Grocery Stores all of a sudden werent heroes anymore. I know you fought hard and repealed it. I want it on the congressional record that krogers company tried to retroactively remove the pay for folks that put their lives on the risk to get grocerys on peoples tables. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your questions. Mr. Keller, you have five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. [ inaudible ]. Mr. Keller, we cant were having technical difficulties. We cant see you. Or hear you. I can see you now but cant hear you. You must be in the scif. Well, lets do this. Mr. Keller ms. Porter. Were going to go to ms. Porter and come back to you mr. Keller. So, ms. Porter. Ms. Porter, youre now recognized youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to thank you for your work to keep our patients safe and healthy in california in particular, and please let your members know how much i appreciate the risk that you all are taking every day to care for your families. The gentleman from ohio, discussed patel in his questioning and i wanted to follow up on that. Starting with in your statement ms. Ka tee ycastillo that colle information on workplace protections testing and covid19 infections among nurses. What kinds of ppe do nurses need to do their jobs every day . As i had mentioned before, ppe starts with headtotoe coverings. So, its important to understand that we dont want one square inch or piece of clothing exposed. So, in addition to the respirator which is the n95 is minimal. There are higher levels of protection. Respirators, the n100s, the papers in particular are very effective. We need the head coverings, the shields, the cover alls, the gloves. And are you having to reuse that ppe . We are having yes. In some cases we are. What kind of risks does it create when we reuse ppe . So, we are especially being asked to reuse the n95s. And anyone that has tried to put an n95 on will recognize that it has you have to be very careful in terms of what is called donning or putting it on or dogting, taking it off so that you dont touch the outside or that the outside doesnt touch any other surface. So, in doing in reuse, any time you are putting it on or taking it off in between uses, you have a risk of exposure. And that exposure can be transmitted to subs kweequent patients. Studies on how often these n95s are being decontaminated, socalled decontamination. How often is that happening . Well, we have we do know that there are employers that are using this method. Some have abandoned it because they found that it is not effective and that it is actually resulting in deformed and deficient masks. But those but its clear that some are continuing to do that. And what we found in our studies is that we did a survey of nurses across the nation and found that close to 30 , 28 of those respondents were asked to reuse a decontaminated mask. So, ive heard these concerns before and thank you for raising them. And on may 26, i wrote to the fda commissioner, to stephen hahn, i sent this letter. Mr. Chairman, i would move to put this letter in the record. Its been sent to the Committee Pursuant to the rules previously. Thank you for following the rules. Without objection, so ordered. With that letter to the fda commissioner, i was alarmed about what we were hearing from nurses about the patel system. And as of april 12th, there were 426 california hospitals using patels socalled decontamination system including 32 hospitals in orange county. Millions of taxpayer dollars and the lives of an untold number of Health Care Workers are at risk if this decontamination doesnt perform as expected. So, what motivation might the administration have for allowing this patel system to decontaminate masks and more masks than it can safely handle . Right, it was a huge award that was awarded to patel, 415 million nobid contract. And what we have seen is decisions are being made based on inadequate planning and supplies. And instead of planning to enshe ensure that we are able to get the supplies, the ppe, theyre utilizing this method which is unproven and wont protect and this is not uncommon for us to see the fact that they subscribe to these i just want to ask you one last question as my time expires. Sure, sure. Wouldnt the best solution here be to get you and your fellow nurses new n95 masks and to stop reuse . We need to invoke the defense production act, and we need to start immediately producing domestically ppe, adequate amounts of respirators and gloves and gowns, all of the ppe that we need now and for the future. Your time has expired. Thank you. Mr. Keller, youre now recognized for five minutes for questions. You may now unmute yourself. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Well try take two on this one. Again, i want to thank everybody for attending todays meeting. I would first like to start by expressing the gratitude to our frontline Health Care Workers, hospital staff, ems, firefighters, police, and other First Responders. Our grocers, truck drivers, custodians, factory workers, farmers, ranchers, and many others who have been showing up to work and keeping our essential activities going. Their efforts during this unprecedented emergency have been nothing short of heroic. Thanks to these workers and businesses as well as the leadership of President Trump, our supply chain has endured this pandemic, weve flattened the curve, and every american who needed a ventilator has gotten one. At the same time, im disappointed that the speaker has not asked the house to return to washington for business. If workers are not showing up to work, congress should do the same. Moving forward, the economic stimulus is a job. The Paycheck Protection Program appears to be functioning as intended and helping businesses and workers weather this pandemic. In order to build on the promising may jobs report that was just unveiled, we need to reopen economies and get more people back to work. Governor tom wolf has unilaterally kept many pennsylvania businesses closed, forcing some to go out of business permanently, we have proven to parts of pennsylvania, parts that are open, that this can be done swiftly and safely by trusting our communities to follow proper hygienic and social distancing guidelines. Having said all that, i do have a question for dr. Roy. Dr. Roy, again, and all the panelists, thank you for participating. But dr. Roy, with your expertise, you know, looking at the bureau of labor statistics recent may jobs report, it found that the u. S. Nonfarm Payroll Employment increased by 2. 5 million jobs last month, many of which include jobs in leisure and hospitality. I think somewhere around half were in hospitality and food service. If we continue to safely our economy, can we expect to see more promising job numbers Going Forward . I hope so. I hope and expect so, yes, sir. Yeah, i would also think that, you know, as we talk about what groups of individuals have been hit hardest by this, the fact that the Hospitality Industry is seeing most of this, that we would see more people getting back to work maybe that needs the jobs and have been unable to work for so long. Mr. Keller, in my written testimony and i talked about this in my Opening Statement as well the data is quite strong on this point that minority workers, disproportionately hourly wage workers, the disparity between white and nonwhite employment has widen substantially because of the lockdowns. If we want to narrow those disparities, we should reopen the economy. Getting business reopened is only part of the challenge. There are countless students whose education will be interrupted by this pandemic, many of whom reside in rural areas and may not have easy access to online learning. What are some strategies we can use to keep these students engaged in moving forward improving their skill set and joining the work force. Mr. Keller, im so glad you brought that up. That was something i want to address in my testimony but it was getting too long. This is an important point not just for the children whose education and disproportionately minority children by the way, whose education has been suspended or retarded because of the lockdowns but also their parents. If youre a single mom and youre a pharmacist and you want to go to work, you may not be able to because going to work means leaving your child unattended. There are a lot of children who depend on the School Lunch Program at low income schools for nutrition. There are all sorts of aspects to what Public Schools in particular are doing to help lowincome communities Going Forward. And the closure of schools is not justified by what we know about covid19. Disease does not affect children. It can affect elderly janitor staff that work at schools, and we need to protect them. But children can go to school safely. And if we monitor the atrisk populations teaching and caring for those children and schools, we can do that. Were seeing that in europe and texas and florida. Schools that are reopening are doing okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. I see no other speakers. Before we adjourn, i would like to recognize myself to submit for the record two additional statements from groups who represent countless essential workers across our nation. These documents have been distributed to members and staff in advance of todays hearing. Without objection i would like to enter into the record the following documents. A statement by derek johnson, president and ceo of the naacp regarding todays hearing and express support for the heros compensation act. Without objection. So ordered. In addition, a statement for the record by the American Federation of Government Employees regarding todays hearing. Without objection, so ordered. I would also like to thank our witnesses for testifying today. Thank you for testifying today. I know that this is an issue that we all area about across the country. Essential workers are not democrats or republicans or independents. Theyre Americans First and foremost. And i believe that there can be common will to find solutions to these problems. Although our solutions might not be the same on both sides of the aisle, i know theres a common commitment. Without objection, all members will have five ledgislative day in which to submit additional questions for the witnesses which will be forwarded to the witnesses. I ask the witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able. This hearing is now adjourned. American history tv beginning at 8 00 eastern, pults zer prize winning author ron chernow recalls the life of ulysses s. Grant. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan3