Welcome, everybody. Today our select subcommittee is holding a hybrid hearing where some members will appear in person and others will appear remotely via web x. Since some members are appearing in person let me remind everyone pursuit to the latest guidance from the house of intended physician, all individuals attending this hearing in person must wear a Face Covering. We will allow you to remove them as you see me doing in order to speak. I know a little bit about how your glasses get fogged up and you dont see where youre going. Members who are not wearing a Face Covering are not permitted to remain in the hearing room and will not be recognized to speak. When youre not speaking, we expect for you to have the face mask or we will not recognize you. Let me make a few reminders about hybrid hearings. Those members appearing in person you will be able to see members appearing remotely on the two monitors in front of you. On one monitor you will see all the members appearing remotely at once in what is known as webx view mode. On the other monitor you will see each person speaking during the hearing when they are speaking, including members who are appearing remotely. For those members appearing remotely, you can also see each person speaking during the hearing, whether they are in person or remote as long as you have your webx site to active speaker mode. If you have any questions about this please contact the Committee Staff immediately. Let me remind everyone that the house procedures apply to hybrid hearings. Members appearing in person, visible in the room directly in front of you. For those who are remote, we have a timer that should be visible on your screen when youre in the active speaker mode and you have the timer in. For members appearing remotely, a few other reminders. The house rules require that we see you, so please have your cameras turned on at all times not just when you are speaking. Members who are not recognized should remain muted to minimize background noise and feedback. I will recognize members verbally and members retain the right to seek recognition verbally. In regular order, members will be recognized in seniority order for questions. If youre remote and want to be recognized outside of regular order, you may identify that in several ways. You may use the chat function to send a request. You may send an email to the majority staff. You may unmute your mic to seek recognition. Obviously we do not want people talking over each other so my preference is that members use the chat function or email to facilitate verbal recognition. Committee staff will make sure i am made aware of a request and i will recognize you. We will begin the hearing in just a moment when they tell me they are ready to begin the live stream. Today this committee will ask several simple questions. More than five upon into the coronavirus outbreak, after nearly 130,000 americans have died, why is our country still facing critical shortages in personal protective equipment and testing supplies that we need to fight this virus . Why is it that the greatest nation on earth cannot get a 63 cent mask to everyone who needs one . This committee has heard stories about shortages in critical supplies directly from Frontline Workers. We heard from doctors and nurses who were forced to reuse protective masks designed to be worn just once. Some Health Care Workers resorted to wearing garbage bags to protect themselves because their hospitals did not have enough gowns. That is a disgrace. We also heard about bus drivers and grocery clerks who lost their lives because they had to keep working, but were not given a mask or a pair of gloves to stay safe. We heard from nursing home workers and janitors who feared they might be the next to die. Now some in the Trump Administration would have us believe that these shortages are a thing of the past. They rattle off statistics about the number of supplies delivered, the number of dollars spent, and the number of flights in socalled project air bridge. Here are the facts. The white houses own internal data just released a few weeks ago shows were still facing shortages of tens of millions of n95 masks and gowns and those shortages may persist for months. Health care providers have confirmed this. On june 12th kaiser per nenty reported i, quote, like all Health Care Providers we continue to experience shortages of ppe, including n95 masks. These shortages are getting worse as Coronavirus Infections sky rocket across the country driving up prices and demand for ppe. Serious shortages have been reported in texas and florida and the governor of washington has identified and i, quote, widespread shortages in that state. As infections rise, testing labs around the country are also facing surge in demand. Many have issued dire warnings they are running short of supplies which could cripple our nations ability to conduct coronavirus tests and slow the spread of this virus. I am alarmed that nearly half a year into this crisis, the Administration Still has not adequately addressed the supply shortages. The federal response has been hobbled by at least three critical errors. First, the administration lacks a clear chain of command rather than rely on career officials led by a single official, the president has appointed different officials, agencies and task forces including one led by his soninlaw Jared Kushner to handle this problem. The result has been confusion, delays, and wasted resources. Second, the white house has pressured agencies to favor Certain Companies and the administration has often relied on inexperienced politically connected contractors. A company formed by President Trumps former deputy chief of staff was awarded a 3 Million Contract to provide respirator masks to the navajo nation. The company had been formed just 11 days earlier and it has reportedly delivered the wrong type of masks. Third, rather than take the responsibility for directly purchasing and distributing supplies using the defense production act and other legal authorities the Trump Administration has largely deferred to the private sector. This has forced states, cities and individual hospitals and businesses to compete for scarce resources driving up the crisis. Today, chairman maloney transmitted to this subcommittee a startling memo that lays out just how ineffective this hands off approach is, including the administrations Signature Program project air bridge. The memo shows the administration refused to take responsibility for determining which recipients would receive ppe or how much they could be charged. The memo also shows medical supply companies pleaded with the administration to provide more guidance and to take a more active role in procurement. According to one company, and i, quote, politics has dont in the way of that, end of quote. Thank you chairwoman maloney for sharing the diligent work with us and for entrusting this subcommittee to carry it forward. I can ensure you we intend to get to the bottom of this. As i have said before, the purpose of this committees oversight is not to cast blame for past failures but to make improvements to ensure future success. Today our goal is to better understand why the administration has failed to meet our countrys need for ppe and testing supplies and to seek a commitment from the witnesses to take concrete steps to finally address these shortages. Ill need yield to the Ranking Member for his opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank our three witnesses who will be testifying today. America has been through a lot in these past few months. Weve seen the best in people from our Frontline Workers who have risked their own lives to help the sick to our doctors and nurses who have struggled as well but continue to show up, the innovation from educators, Small Business owners who struggled but worked to make payroll, researchers who are working tirelessly to find a cure. I dont think enough credit has been given to the teams that the three of you represent and the work that youve done to help america respond to this crisis. We faced an unprecedented logistical challenge, a Global Pandemic that hit our shores while china was hoarding needed medical supplies as they were lying to the rest of the world. I had some experience with these kind of challenges when we went through Hurricane Katrina and while Hurricane Katrina hit a limited area, this pandemic hit this entire country, it hit the entire world at the same time. As you can imagine the incredible challenges that brings with it when youre not just dealing with an isolated crisis, youre dealing with a Global Crisis and you have to respond fast. The incredible work that your teams have done to ramp up production and distribution of ppe as well as testing the equipment thats needed, getting facilities up and running, we owe the men and women of your teams a tremendous debt of gratitude and please let them know how much our country appreciates the work that they did in these trying times. Mr. Chairman, as america gets ready to celebrate our Independence Day on fourth of july, we confront an important moment in the coronavirus pandemic. Weve learned a lot in those lessons have saved lives. As you know, my home state of louisiana and specifically the city of new orleans got hit early in this pandemic. New orleans faced some of the earliest Hospital Capacity scares. The reason that economies were shut down was to flatten the curve and make sure hospitals systems were not overwhelmed. In those darkest days when there was a concern about a shortage of ventilators, i want to personally thank rear admiral polowczyk because i remember speaking with you specifically as well as with fema director gainer about the concerns our state was facing. My governor and i worked together and the Administration Responded and you delivered those needed ventilators to us and i know you did the same for new york and other regions that were concerned they would hit that shortage and fortunately we never did hit that shortage thanks to your quick work. I remember that phone call was on a sunday and you were there and you delivered. Im sorry. Mr. Polowczyk. I appreciate what you did and what your team did to respond so quickly. Please convey that thanks to them. Thank you. It surely helped our state and the city of new orleans be able to respond. I just want to point that out so that people know there was so much done behind the scenes by the administration to respond. Doctors learned how to safely treat patients without necessarily putting them on ventilators. Doctors are not intubating as aggressively as they used to, using a high flow of oxygen because they learned that inbe tu base can do damage to the lungs. How to keep Health Care Workers safe with other treatments. The use of simple blood thinners is saving lives because autopsies showed that patients were getting massive blood clots in the lungs. Steroids and remdesivir is showing tremendous progress. Even as we see a spike in cases in areas of the country the death rate has dropped. Weve learned more about who is most vulnerable and how we can better protect those populations. For example, we know that the policy of prohibiting covid positive patients from returning to Nursing Homes saved lives. In the 45 states where the governors, republican and democrat, followed the guidelines we saw lower death rates. We know that policies that mandated that covid positive patients be returned to the Nursing Homes even if the Nursing Homes werent capable of properly taking care of them turned out to be a death sentence for many season. We havent gotten the answers we deserve to get so we can learn more about that. I would ask the majority if we can join together, not just some of us, all of us, ask the five governors who decided to go against the cms guidelines if they would share those answers with us an with the rest of the country and most importantly, with the families of their victims who are still demanding answers. Were going to continue to press for those answers. The hard lessons, including the lessons we need to keep learning are underscored by the spike in cases in particular areas of the country. The virus continues to spread. Its not an even spread as weve seen. In fact, cases are dropping in many areas of the country. This virus tends to spike in concentrated areas and does so rapidly. Theres a lot we can learn from applying those simple recognitions. What i would say to the young people of america is, youve worked hard and in many cases you had to home school and you had to deal remotely with the ending of your education, maybe not able to start your new career in the world as you were expecting, but as youre experiencing more freedom, the freedom comes with responsibility. Were seeing that spikes are primarily affecting young people and were learning a lot about young people getting together in very crowded areas has actually expedited the spread. We just urge young people to avoid that spread. Learn from the things that were learning. We surely dont want to be sharing it with your parents and grandparents and putting more people at risk. All americans should follow the cdc guidelines that continue to get updated. Wear masks where its possible. Maintain recommended social distancing. We know how important social distancing still is. We all need to do our parts in stopping the spread. Lets recognize how much better prepared we are today. Were currently conducting over 500,000 tests. Weve got a chart back here that shows the dramatic increase this country has done responding to the shortage of tests that we saw back in march where they were almost nonexistent. You saw the president expedite through operation warp speed to push more things, including the defense production act, to increase testing to the point today were conducting over 600,000 tests a day. We still need to keep growing this number, but you can see the dramatic increase to see how the administration has continued to respond. Nobody is letting their foot off the gas, but its important to notice how weve come together even with china hoarding and lying to the world how weve picked up the pace and done more on our own. Mr. Chairman, while some states have experienced rapid spikes that we need to watch closely, all americans need to know the following. One, there is not a single state in this country that has reached Hospital Capacity. That was the main barometer in what states use to close their economies that continues to be the most important barometer to watch as we safely reopen economies. Number two, our doctors have a better understanding about how to treat patients and weve seen that from less use of ventilators, more use of therapies like remdesivir which are showing great promise. Number three, we know how to better protect our most vulnerable populations and we hope as most governors followed the proper guidelines and saved thousands of lives the other governors would follow that lead. Four, we know tremendous progress continues to be made on vaccines and therapies. We need to make sure to get government out of the way. It is shocking that this week as were pushing everybody to find a cure and slow the spread that the Majority Party would bring a bill to the floor this week that according to the council of economic advisers would actually make it harder to find cures for diseases. As were pushing all of government to find a cure, the bill that was brought to the floor of the house this week, which many of us opposed, would actually, according to them, maybe bring 100 fewer drugs to market. Were trying to get more lifesaving drugs to market, not fewer. Hopefully that will not be the trend that continues. Finally, five, the role and responsibility of individual americans to stop the spread is better understood and needs to continue to be followed. As america continues to move forward hopefully schools will start reopening, businesses will continue to reopen, well continue to learn more about how to better protect ourselves as we live with this disease as we confront this disease and this challenge. I look forward to the discussion and look forward to hearing from our witnesses and yield back. I thank the Ranking Member for his statement and yielding back. We now would like to introduce our witnesses. Today, the select subcommittee welcomes rear admiral John Polowczyk, the leader of femas supply Chain Stabilization Task force and the vice director of logistics of the joint chiefs of staff. We also welcome admiral brett giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the department of health and Human Services. And we are pleased to have with us, assistant secretary of defense kevin fahey. I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here today and i would like them to please stand so i may 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 . You may be seated. Let the record show that witnesses answered in the affirmative. Without objection, your written statements will be made part of the record. Rear admiral polowczyk, you are recognized for five minutes for your opening statement. Good morning, chairman clyburn, Ranking Member scalise and distinguished members of the committee. I am rear admiral John Polowczyk vice director for low fwisices and joint staff. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the federal response to the covid pandemic and strategies for future planning. Let me start by offering my condolences to the families and friends who have lost loved ones to this pandemic. On a personal note, let me share that this pandemic hits close to home as it did for Many Americans and for members of this committee. I have two family members working on the health care frontlines my sister is a nurse in westchester and high niemy na nurse in long island. Im cognizant of the needs of Health Care Workers and if theyre being met. On 19 march i was asked to support the management of critical medical supplies needed to combat the pandemic. It was clear that the Global Demand for critical medical supplies could not be met domestically as u. S. Based manufacturing was limited. Upon arrival from the pentagon, i realized the Strategic National stockpile could not address the nations requirements as the bulk of the stockpile was shipped to states leaving essentially no direct federal resources. Our goal since the beginning has been to provide medical supplies to where its needed when its needed. We made a decision to leverage the strengths of both the government and private sector for a whole of america approach, unlike a Natural Disaster such as a hurricane the pandemic was different. The pandemic did not damage the strengths of the commercial medical supply chain. The supply chains businesses and operational, the warehouse intact, the trucks working, their employees had experienced little effects from covid. The supply chain and network that delivered to every hospital, nursing home, First Responder in the country at speed was available to be leveraged in a Public Private partnership. However, the domestic consumption of an array of supplies was far greater than usual and depleted supplies on hand led to a need to expedite shipments from regrettably overseas. This partnership is in line with how the federal government traditionally responds to disaster, locally executed, state managed, federally supported. With the shortage of ppe, acceleration in the commercial market was required because we could not wait for shipments of critical resources. Air bridge was designed to provide federal support to the medical supply chain. Air bridge is about speed from manufacturing sources to points of care. Pass the State Government warehouses and municipalities and to Health Care Workers on the frontlines. Air bridge and the Public Private partnership provided speed to the Frontline Worker and limited the amount of touches in the distribution process. On 29 march the first flight landed in new york with gloves, masks and respirators. 30 april, and essentially a month later project air bridge delivered into the United States nearly 800,000 n respirators, 75,000 surgical masks, 11 million gowns, 2 million thermometers, 650,000 face sheed shields. The supplies would have still been at sea if normal shipping were used. The commercial supply chain was geographically or yen tated based on cdc outbreak data and point of care partnerization. Point of care, then private hospitals and Nursing Homes. A federal fema resource prioritization cell was stood up to manage these priorities this fema cell directed supplies to covid hot spots such as new york, new jersey, chicago, new orleans, detroit. This was a balance across the country feeding hot spots and providing supplies to those that did not have major covid outbreaks. Unfortunately, we were managing shortages nationwide. Using data driven decisions for allocation ensures the right quantities get to the right place at the right time and unprecedented fashion we consolidated Business System data from the six Major Medical distributors into the cloud of fema creating information for the first time using a supply chain tool from d. O. D. We were able to see the Health Care Supply chain from supplier to point of care. By the first week of april we could see held by competing companies for distribution in the u. S. And how the supply chain was filling orders from hospitals and Nursing Homes. Material coming into the network from overseas and further distribution down to the actual point of care in any county across the country. This gave fema the task force unprecedented visibility to where supplies went in the speed of delivery. Fema entered into legal agreements with the commercial supply chain. These agreements allowed the aggregation and use of Business System data at fema to manage the pandemic response. These legal agreements limit the sharing of this business sensitive information. These agreements also require the commercial market provide the material at reasonable prices and provide the government with data on where the material was provided. Looking ahead, we are preparing america to be ready in response beginning with increasing our reserves and expanding domestic capacity. Using the defense production act we are working with industry to increase supplies and pharmaceuticals. This is a task of investments and federal contracting. Dpa cannot be used to force companies to make medical supplies. Each industry expansion effort Takes Research and planning being done at speed we have used the dpa more than ten times across many with high potential with more action. We have more ventilators in the stockpile than before the pandemic thanks to u. S. Production. Precovid the stockpile had less than 18 million n95 masks. Were growing that to 300 million. With the dpa we grew production of n95 masks. The stockpile had no ventilator drugs and were growing to have five in stock with months worth of supply. These efforts are part of a strategy to transform the stockpile, build a wholistic supply Chain Ecosystem capable of being responsive and modernize stockpile with more u. S. Production will enable a continued federal response. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and i look forward to answering questions you may have. Chairman clyburn, Ranking Member scalise, distinguished members of the committee, on march 12th, secretary azar requested that i lead the coordination of covid19 testing efforts within the department of health and Human Services and to be clear, although i am assuming some of my traditional roles as the assistant secretary, i am maintaining my role of coordinating testing, including now the new nih diagnostic program to ensure that innovations are immediately translated into practice. Before i discuss supplies and allocations, we are all concerned about recent data from several states indicating rising infections and now an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths. Even as other states and the great majority of counties are maintaining a low infection burden. Knowing that the outbreak, the current outbreak, is driven by younger adults who are likely asymptomatic and the fact that we are in a much better position today in terms of our ppe supplies, treatments and testing, we can reverse these Current Trends if we work together. First, we must take personal responsibility and be disciplined about our own personal behavior. Maintain physical distancing, wear a Face Covering when you cant physically distance, wash your hands, stay at home if you feel sick. If you have been in close contact with someone infected or in a gathering without appropriate precautions, get tested. Shield the elderly, but also the vulnerable of any age. Follow the guidelines for opening up america again. The criteria are very specific and are as relevant today as they were when we released them. In addition this week, we are initiating surge testing in multiple communities of highest concern in coordination with state and local officials. To date the nation has performed over 35 million covid19 tests now averaging over 550,000 tests per day. Preliminary data indicate that states far surpassed their testing goals for june. Even without major technical advances i estimate the nation will have the capacity to perform 40 to 50 million tests per month by fall. But with the emerging new techniques like pooling of samples combined with investments in point of care technologies that number could easily be 80 million available per month if they are needed. To get to this point where we have such a rich testing ecosystem, we addressed sequential challenges and implemented a phased approach to meet the testing goals at each stage of the pandemic, especially now during reopening when the need for testing is at its greatest. In march, hhs and fema developed and implemented 41 Community Based drivethrough testing sites in locations prioritized by the cdc in collaboration with state and local partners. These sites have tested nearly 318,000 high risk individuals and served as prototypes that have been duplicated multi fold. Next, we leveraged trusted pharmacies to further expand community testing, especially for minorities and under served. This federal program is now providing testing at 624 locations in 48 states in the district, 70 of which are in communities with moderate to high social vulnerability. This program has tested over 820,000 individuals. Federally qualified Health Centers serve over 29 Million People across the nation. They provide care to one in five of those uninsured. One in five rural americans, one in three in poverty, and 1. 3 million homeless. Again, to assure we reach these most vulnerable among us, 94 of fqhcs offer covid testing. To further fight covid19 among racial and ethnic minorities and vulnerable communities, the office of the assistant secretary, my office, office of minority health, announced Morehouse School of medicine as an awardee of a 40 Million Initiative to create and develop a Strategic National, state, territorial, tribal organizations to deliver covid19 information to communities hardest hit by the pandemic. I would like to close by recognizing my fellow officers in the United States Public Health Service Commission corps, the Uniformed Service that i lead. 4,536 officers have deployed to directly support the pandemic response. Exemplifying the care and compassion that all of us feel for those who have suffered during this pandemic. I thank each and every one of these officers and their families and on their behalf, i want to thank all of you in congress for supporting our Training Needs and the establishment of a Ready Reserve corps to supplement our ranks during inevitable future national emergencies. Thank you so much for the opportunity to provide these remarks. And thank you very much. Assistant secretary fahey. Chairman clyburn, Ranking Member scalise and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on matters related to the department of defenses role in procuring and distributing personal protection equipment, ppe, medical equipment, testing supplies, during the coronavirus pandemic. While covid19 has had an unprecedented impact on the nation, secretary esper has led the department of defense in contributing to the administrations whole of government response. Today i will describe key elements of how the departments acquisition enterprise has utilized existing and new authorities in support of the other federal agencies. This includes our work ensuring an adequate supply of ppe, medical equipment, and testing supplies to control the spread of the virus and protect americans lives. The covid19 pandemic has highlighted critical shortfalls in the medical supply and the ppe supply chain. On march 18th, President Trump invoked the defense production act and in doing so he delegated authority to the secretary of health and Human Services to determine nationwide priorities and allocation of the health and medical resources. Accordingly, we have been having hhs to execute the defense production act authorities. March 27th the president signed the cares act that includes language and resources to mitigate critical shortfalls and to create and expand domestic Industrial Based capability. I would like to thank congress for passing the cares act and all the support youve provided during this National Emergency. To ensure the department could leverage all the resources and support to hhs and fema, my boss, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition sustainment, created the covid19 joint Acquisition Task force or jata. The team has enabled hhs and fema to access the d. O. D. Acquisition workforce, our expertise, our authorities, quickly and effectively. The jata work has evolved. It supports expanding and remen mishing the Strategic National stockpile and working to expand domestic Manufacturing Base for certain items. This line of effort includes procuring critical medical supplies and ppe. I would now like to address more specifically the areas you asked about in your invitation letter. Ppe, medical equipment and test supplies. In the area of ppe, the Defense Logistics Agency, dla, has been instrumental in supporting hhs and fema. Dla has executed over 13,000 contract actions, obligating over 800 million as of june 22 nd. It includes fema Mission Assignments and hhs interagency agreements valued at nearly 2 billion. Doa efforts provide test kits, ventilators, pharmaceutical drugs and ppe to d. O. D. And other government partners to support ongoing efforts to supply nearly 15,000 Nursing Homes with two week supply of ppe and supply 107 million of ppe to the javid center in new york city. We have taken steps from foreign suppliers and successful on the n95 masks. We have executed over 250 million in increased production here in the United States. Our investments will increase production beginning in july with a total monthly increase of 70 million n95 masks by the end of the calendar year to meet the demand of medical community beginning in 2021. Turning to medical equipment, d. O. D. Has played a significant role in providing equipment in areas of need throughout the country. We have helped hhs manage nearly 3 billion worth of contracts to deliver over 22,000 ventilators to the Strategic National stockpile. This enabled hhs to meet critical demands during the peak of the pandemic and posture for the response of any resurgence of covid. We support the longer term stockpile of ventilators. As testing is becoming more of a component to fight against covid the committee determined that we faced a global shortage of nasal swabs. Once we realized we were going to be going to run short, we engaged industry to determine where we could increase capacity. Late april we awarded a contract to expand swab manufacturing by 20 million per month starting next month. We recently awarded an effort to increase test kit capacity by 2 million tests per month starting in december. We are exploring additional proposals for tests of covid19. A strong domestic and Industrial Base is critical to the economic and National Security. Rapidly sourcing procuring and moving be items when transportation quotas are not operating normally is challenging. We have demonstratesed our commitment and willingness to support the interagency requirements in leveraging our expertise to provide immediate and impactful support to the nation. I am incredibly proud of the departments response to the National Emergency and to our dedicated individuals who have worked diligently on behalf of the American People, i look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Were now moving to questions and answers and i am going to recognize myself for five minutes. In june, an internal white house document was released that shows projections of supply and demand for masks, gowns, and other supplies. Admiral polowczyk, your name is on this document. Are you familiar with it . Yes, chairman, i am. Yes, chairman. I am. This document confirms what our committee has been hearing for weeks, that we face serious shortages of personal protective equipment including masks and gowns. For example, page 4 shows demand for n95 masks supply in march, april and may. It also shows that we will need more than 160 million n95 masks in july alone. And the imports will only supply about 130 million masks. That leaves a projected shortfall of about 30 million masks. The document suggest it could be made up by decontaminating and reusing old masks even though the fda, cdc and even the largest mask manufacturer 3m have raised safety concerns about this method. And many workers have refused to it. Admiral, how is it possible that more than five months into this crisis our country is still facing the possible shortage of 30 million n95 masks this month . First, let me put a little context on this. What the supply side does not have because i have no visibility of knowing what states, local municipalities, and private institutions have bought. So i did not i did not add into this the hundreds of millions of masks that i know the state of california has bought or other states for that fact. I did not try to estimate that into my supply calculations. Secondly, for context. The demand bars also represent covid demand, opening america, and then the worstcase scenario of every worker, you know, ive listed there nonhealth care, Janitorial Services. Everybody that thinks they need an n95 mask but may not need an n95 mask. So its a stacked demand chart with worst case estimates, but i did not add in the supply side all those unknown factors that i could not know. Let me thank you for that, but this report also projected shortages indicated projected shortages may be conservative. And let me quote from it. Steadily declining covid hospitalization rates should reduce daily hospital ppe usage. Thats in the report. However, hospitalizations are skyrocketing. They have reached record highs in my home state of south carolina, in texas, in arizona, and many other states. And i just heard late last night or early this morning that there is one jurisdiction where there are 101 over capacity for beds. Now, admiral, do you agree that the surge were now experiencing could very well increase the demand for ppes . The surge of cases and therefore the surge of hospitalizations, again, the demand slides on here consider that weve completely opened up and are conducting all of the premedical covid. And so as states manage their issues and then limit elective surgeries or other surgeries, that ppe would then be able to go for these items. So, yes, im cognizant of the increases. But states are reporting and hospitals are reporting more supplies on hand. And ill address that as we go forward, sir. Well, thank you very much. I see my time has expired. I do have one or two other questions, but im going to lead by example and for now yield to Ranking Member Ranking Member scalise. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ill start with rear admiral, theres been a lot raised about the production act. People say why hasnt it been used, and yet i go back and look back in march, april and may, numbers of examples where President Trump actually did invoke the defense production act to spur more things like ventilators when they were in short supply, trying to get other things brought forward including masks using the defense production act. Are you aware of examples where the defense production act has been invoked by President Trump to move things faster here in production . Yes, sir. So the defense production act as indicated it was first the authorities were given to health and Human Services and fema. And then i believe very shortly after that it was also used to prevent the shipping of medical supplies overseas and then rapidly follow by the usage of purchasing and production ventilators. We have used it multiple times for parts and components for production of ventilators. I brought over from the department of defense acquisition professionals to help, and those 11 different manufactures find pinch points and we use the defense production act in certain investments in filter material and other consumables to relieve supply chain issues so they can make more. Thank you. So it just seems kind of strange you hear some people still saying the defense production act hasnt been used or needs to be used. You just cited multiple examples where it has been used and we see multiple examples where it has been used and continues to be used. Can you testify youve seen uses of the defense production act to help america mete this challenge. Title one which is prioritization and title three which is ramping up production sort of in the middle where we used it a lot. And what i would tell you is that youve seen that immediately in early march we sent our lead, our Senior Executive over to fema to lead the defense production act task force. The other thing ill tell you the Administration Challenges us with that we havent used a lot, one is title seven which is really where we get industry to collaborate, work on things. And ill tell you i think thats going to be invaluable to bring in domestic medical equipment here to the United States. I apologize. I appreciate youve given those examples. I applaud President Trump for invoking the defense production act and using so many other tools hes had available to meet this challenge to increase the production of ventilators, masks, gloves, so many other ppe supplies. As this has come up a lot of this committee hasnt put ofocus on china that needs to be placed not just Holding China accountable but doing more work to bring some of that manufacturing back. As we saw they were hoarding ppe supplies. They were buying them from other countries so once the rest of the world found out there was nothing to purchase. Do you think its in the National Security interest in the United States of america to bring more of that manufacturing of things like ppe back into this country so we are not reliant on china in the future . Sir, yes. The Industrial Base Expansion Efforts Going Forward are the linchpin of what we need to do. Need to make more here, have a larger stockpile and then write contracts to have Ready Reserve as things get issued from a stockpile whether it be state or federal, have the ability to contract forward from a u. S. Manufacturer, thats essentially what were trying to do Going Forward. I appreciate that testimony, and i hope we put more focus on that in this congress. Because congress can surely help expedite and it shouldnt be the administration on their own trying to do more manufacturing here so we can meet that demand even greater even if china lies or manipulates and does the things theyve historically done in the future. I did want to ask you a serious question we have been doing a lot of investigation into Nursing Homes. I know your agency has worked on giving guidance to Nursing Homes all across the country. Most states follow that guidance properly, some states didnt. Have you seen the examples where some states went against the guidelines, have you found out why they went against the guidelines, and did those deviations lead in what were seeing potential deaths that shouldnt have occurred maybe in the thousands of seniors that should have never died if theyd maybe followed the guidelines you all gave . Thank you for the question. And i think i went to right high school, but well let that pass. What youre referring to is something we really need to go back and look at because it is very concerning. The cdc was very clear in order to take care of a covid nursing home patient there needed to be pretty significant mitigation measures that the ability to isolate all the ppe, trained staff, cleaning, et cetera, if you kwnt do those things you should you shouldnt have it. And there happen policies among a few states that said doesnt matter, were going to send you that patient. As long as theyre medically stable you have to take them. I wasnt there. I wasnt that medical director, but thats a really concerning practice because it puts potentially infectious people right into a place where we know that if other residents get it you have a 30 , 40 , 50 mortality. So that is a concerning practice and we certainly need to look at that in retrospect. Mr. Chairman, yield back. I thank the Ranking Member. Before i move onto the members i wish to reiterate that which i said at the top of our meeting today. I cant i dont have authority to keep anybody out of this room but i do have authority of who i may recognize to participate in this hearing. I made it very clear that if youre not wearing the mask im not going to recognize you. Now, this is not jim clyburn or anything partisan. I just wanted to read a couple of things here. Ranking member, scalise, you made it very clear at the last meeting you will honor this mask wearing and i think to quote you said its no big deal, i appreciate that. I talked to dr. Green, and i appreciate that. Ive been reading from Kevin Mccarthy who made it very clear and i want to quote him here, wearing a mask is the best opportunity for us to keep this economy open, keep us working, keep us safe and help us as we build towards that vaccine and were in a much stronger position than any other country before. I agree with all of these, and there are others that i wont bother to read. I would hope that we would do our part and im going to reiterate that we are going to honor the wearing of masks because thats what the attending physician has instructed. And he has not made it either or. He made it and social distancing, and wearing a mask. With that i yield to i know we talked about this privately as well. I think weve seen today everybody has been compliant. Is there any suggestion theres not compliance today . Obviously the guidelines have been updated and you saw recent guidelines by the attending physician who did suggest and require masks where in the past they werent mandatory. It was social distancing which cleary is still important, and there was an addition that masks be mandatory, and i think wave seen everybody comply with that. Well, it all depends how you want to qualify that, but to bring a mask in the room, not wear it until we get to the question is not wearing a mask. I made it very clear. If were not speaking, we ought to be wearing a mask. If were not speaking we ought to be wearing a mask. I made that very clear. And, you know, ive been around for a while and i understand i understand it when i feel it. And i see it and i feel it, and i just want you to know that im going to respond to it appropriately. With that i yield to chairwoman. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Im going to direct my first question to rear admiral. You indicated in response to mr. Clyburns question about whether or not your memorandum really was inclusive enough for you to know what the needs are going to be because of this spike were having. You indicated you really didnt know what the states were doing. Is that right . Not essentially, maam. Ive had conversations with all 50 states excuse me, reear admiral, yo did not include in your calculations what the states were doing. No, anytime the states were forthcoming so why dont you know what the states are doing . What is the plan . How should you know what the states are doing . Okay. Ive had several over the last couple of weeks ive had several conversations with every state and all of our territories. With their Health Officials and their Emergency Managers to understand their stockpiling. And i will tell you that 70 of the states have at least 30 to 60, 90 days of supplies on hand. For those that dont have that amount they have at least 30 days. Reclaiming my time. Do you now have a plan by which you absolutely have the information forthcoming to you so that when you tell us about your projections we know that theyre including whatever the federal stockpile is and what the states have . Is there a plan . Yes, maam, there is a plan. And how does the plan work . So were going to have several echelons of supply. First, weve been able to communicate with the states. The states have told us as i just explained their plans, and some states are working towards 90 and, you know, 120 days worth of supply. The National Stockpile with the health of the Defense Logistics Agency is going to grow to three months. Reclaiming my time. Do they have a report they give to you on a regular basis . Every week, every month, every 30 days . How does the plan work . The states at this time are not reporting on that thank you. Thats good. Thats what i understand, and thats why you dont have the projections that include them. You dont have a regular plan. Now, i want to ask how do you work with fema . I am the supply Chain Task Force lead embedded within fema, and so that task force is part of administrator effort of work. Thank you. And so does everyone report to you . Do you report to anyone else . The chain of command, again, i am at fema as the supply Chain Task Force lead. That chain of command leads to a unified command group which is health and Human Services and the fema administrator which then goes to the White House Task force. Thank you. What role does Jared Kushner play in this command . Mr. Kushner plays overall in anything i do. Well, what role does he play that you know about . What does he do . Hes been sent to fema. What is his role at fema . Hes not at fema. Where is he . I believe hes a special advisor to the White House Task force. Is he involved in contracting at all for ppe with any organization, any provider, with any business . Maam, not to my knowledge. He may be put you dont know about it, is that right . Miami, i would highly doubt he has any role in acyousition and contracting. The acquisition and contracting people dont work for me. Who is responsible for contracting with private businesses . The fema administrator owns a Contracting Authority along with honorable fayhy here and i have none of those authorities. Does the competition still exist between the feds and the states for ppe . I understand states have on occasion made contact with International Businesses to get supplies and those supplies on the way have been commandeered by the white house i did not mention fema but i did specifically mention the white house. Do you know anytime ppe that have been commandeered that have been ordered by the states and paid for by the states . Nobody has presented anything to me that was concrete enough other than conjecture . I may i just wrap this up by asking who makes the determination about what states get what from the federal supply . Maam, thats a fema process. And so ill answer to the best of my ability for administrate geonor. That resource prioritization cell uses information from cdc, dr. Birx, the epidemiologists and the request from the states. The resource prioritization cell then takes all that into account and provides supplies to the states. Thank you. The chair now yields to mr. Jordan. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Whats more important . Going to church or protesting . Im a Public Health person. Im not going to say whats more important, but both need to have protection by the guidelines. Democrats dont think that. Democrats think protesting is a lot more important than going to church. Weve got story from governor northam. 16 people go to a church and they get cited. Nothing happens to thousands who protest not social distancing and not wearing a mask. Whats more important . Going to a loved ones funeral or protest something. We absolutely need to be consistent in the way we apply things, and theres obviously some inconsistencies. The First Amendment is the First Amendment not just parts of it, right . Im not a constitutional lawyer. No, but youre an a american citizen. You understand the bill of rights, the constitution has a number of rights. It doesnt just say protesting trumps everything else. Mayor de blasio, when new yorkers had gathered to mourn a in the past ive instructed nypd to proceed immediately to summons them. If you go to someones funeral youre going to get arrested. But you can protest in the streets, not maintain social distancing. Whats more important . Engaging in your livelihood, running your business or protesting . Again, youre having a rhetorical question there. We get your point. I think Public Health practice well, you might get my point but this is my problem. Democrat mayors dont. Mayor garcetti said this. He said he was going to shot off peoples utilities if they tried to reopen their business, unbelievable. Heres what else back in april. He said snitches will be rewarded. Whats more important . Admiral, rewarding snitches for ratting out their neighbor who goes to an empty beach or actually having the police stop rioters and looters and big groups destroying National Monuments and protesting, and destroying private property. Which one of those do you think is more important . Let me make a statement that Public Health standards need to be consistently applied and when theyre inconsistently applied theres going to be a lot of frustration no kidding. And we have seen the height of inconsistency from democrat mayors, democrat governors all over this country. What do you think is more important, admiral . The president cutting off travel to china where this pandemic started at an early date or joe biden calling that same action swre xenophobic . Whats more important . Restricting travel from china and then europe was really critical steps for us to slow the infusion of infected individuals into the country. No kidding. Not xenophobic was it, just smart move. I have not seen any xenophobia in any of our discussions democrats here saw way back when the president made a decision everybody criticized. Democrats sure saw it. Probably more important we not give money to an organization that lies to us than to continue to support them. What do you think is more important . Tining to give money to the World Health Organization who slied to us or maybe cutting off money to the World Health Organization, admiral . As the u. S. Representative to the executive board of the World Health Organization its clear that the Organization Needs reforms, and i will work with the administration to try to implement those reforms. How about this one . Whats more important . Requiring Committee Members to wear a mask in a Committee Hearing where theyre 10 feet apart from anyone else or not sending covid positive people back into Nursing Homes . Which is more important . Thats a Public Health determination, and i would say its definitely more important not to send covid positive people no kidding. And especially its more important not to do it for 46 days than to do it for even one day, right . Yes, sir. And its probably important when were dealing the pandemic we actually get the information from the people who engage in that behavior like the governor of the state of new york who for 46 days sent covid positive people back into Nursing Homes. I appreciate the work youre doing. Common sense approach to all of this. Cant let people go to a loved ones funeral but we can join thousands of people in a protest. Mayor garcetti can walk outlet in front of thousands of people, kneel down to them without a mask. But you go to an empty beach he wants someone to snitch you out, rat you out and report you to the government. Maybe hes handing out ribbons and certificates or something for people who rat out their neighbors. I dont know, but i would like some common sense. Id like to consistency about the First Amendment about the constitution when it comes to these democrat mayors and democrat governors around the country. I yield back. As i go to chairman maloney, let me ask you a question. Is covid19 a hoax . No, sir, its not a hoax. Will it disappear miraculously . We will only gain control over covid19 by disciplined public measures and a vaccine. In the interim wearing a mask and social distancing will do our part. We want to stress twaring a mask, physical distancing and hygiene are all Critical Health components. Thank you, very much, sir. And with that i yield. Mr. Chairman i didnt say it wasnt important to social distance or wear a mask. I said whats more important. That policy or sending or not sending people covid positive back into Nursing Homes, and the admiral was more clear. He said the second one is much more important than the first. All of them are important. Thats why were doing it, but the second is more important than the first. And the rank member has been asking for weeks with no help from you or the majority to get that information. Maybe just to clarify i think the question was not wearing a mask versus nursing home but wearing a mask in here when youre 10 feet apart versus a nursing home because i dont want to diminish the importance. Exactly. I thank the admiral for his common sense answer. Yeah, i appreciate that. But i reiterate this is not a hoax. Oh, yeah, i want to bring it up because a republican president said that it is. Okay. I just want you to know youre going to be checked for everything you say in here. So are you. Okay, im going to stick to the science. Im going to stick with the science. All right, i now yield to mr. Maloney. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you to all of our witnesses and their work. Id first like to ask the admiral a straightforward question. Do you believe the Trump Administration provided adequate guidance to the private sector how to procure and distribute ppe to the people in our nation who needed it most . Admiral . Maam, i think you meant me not the admiral. So these legal aagreemegreement we signed with the commercial enterprise allowed us to direct their efforts where the government felt the highest lead was. Thank you. Im sorry, admiral. But according to an investigation that my staff on the Oversight Committee conducted which were releasing today the administration completely and utterly failed to provide the private sector with guidance on ppe during the first three critical months of the Coronavirus Crisis from january all the way through march. We talked to the biggest medical Distribution Companies in the country, and the industry organization. They told us they were pleading with you for guidance on how to prioritize the distribution of ppe and a host of other critical questions. But you were missing in action maam, i dont really mean to interrupt but id like to clarify. Ive only been here since the 19th of march, so i would love to answer that from january to march, but i was only moved from the pentagon on the 19th of march. Okay, well the administration was missing in action. And according to the trade group, quote, folks in the industry saw that things were getting worse and their requests for guidance were increasing week by week, end quote. They told us, quote, everyone was asking the same questions but guidance wasnt coming, end quote. On march 28th the president of the Industries Trade group sent a letter literally begging the administration to, quote, provide the Strategic Direction needed to more effectively target ppe supplies based on greatest need, end quote. So admiral, with all due respect these companies told us you are the administration failed to provide the guidance that they needed. Now i want to move on. Theres another issue thats even more troubling. Admiral, did your agency or anyone else in the Trump Administration ever press u. S. Companies to purchase ppe from a specific state subsidized Chinese Company at exorbitant prices . First, to answer the priority question excuse me me. Im Going Forward because i only have five minutes. Okay, well i hold daily can i ask a point of order, mr. Chairman. The gentle lady from new york literally just accused a rear admiral from the United States military of missing in action. Can he at least be able to defend himself . No one should make a claim to a witness whos a military Service Member to be missing in action. Thats absurd. He ought to have the opportunity to defend himself. I understand. But i thought you said the administration was missing in action. No, she said he was missing in action, but she started by saying he was missing in action. Hes a rear admiral of the United States military. He does not deserve to be talked to that way. And he needs to at least have the ability to defend himself. You sfattated the point of order. I apologize. I respect the military. My father served in the military, my husband and my brother. I respect the military tremendously. I was referring to the administration not being there when the people of this country needed them. So now id like to get back to my questions if i could, mr. Km chairman. Theres always been a firewall between the requiring individual and the person whos actually doing the buying. So i know of no direction, manipulation or pressure of a contracting official to enter into an agreement with any company. Thank you. But not one but several of them told us that the Trump Administration pushed them to buy ppe for weeks for one particular Chinese Company called byd, which is heavily subsidized by the Chinese Government. One company told us that hhs press them to buy ppe from byd at, quote, a price that was fairly high, end quote. Another company told us that they, quote, made the decision to decline purchasing from byd because of the high price and very uncertain supply chain, end quote. Were these companies lying, admiral . Maam, as the head of the supply Chain Task Force i did no business with byd because they were not proven, and, two, i cant speak to the price but they did not have a proven track record or were not fda approved. Its also the same company that i think the state of california took lots of risks and bought a lot of masks from, but i know of no forcing of anybody to go do business with byd. Admiral the gentle ladys time has expired. May i ask for an additional second. I have a minute and i have a very important point to make and there was a lot of disruption. Okay, i recognize the young lady. Theres way too much reliance on these chinese rather than a public, private partnership to procure necessary ppe, end quote. And i believe this shows clearly the need for us to produce more p, e he ppe here in the United States. And i i believe this could be a partisan issue. Thats why im introducing a bill to require 10 of the ppe in the National Stockpile to be produced domestically. This still is a good First Step Towards promoting a stronger Manufacturing Base for critical medical equipment. Thank you to the panelists, my colleagues, mr. Chairman and i yield back. Thank you, gentlelady for yielding back. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank our Witnesses Today for their service to our country and all the hard work you put in to get our country back up and running here and protect our citizens from this deadly virus. Admiral, ill follow up on the questions here with regards to supply chain. Its been really your job at this point i guess. What do you see as the percentage of ppe that is now being produced in this country versus previously . Its going to range byproduct. N95 masks i think as mr. Fayhy mentioned as we go through the summer and fall will be almost really holistically domestic reliant. And further on down where were trying to do some effort and potential actions is nitrile gloves. We essentially make zero nitrile gloves in the United States, and i think were working hard to ramp up that production, but thats going each product line has a different dimension. Thank you. I think this next question may be for you, but in the acquisition of these other ppe did you see hoarding going on by china . There appears to be some evidence to that effect. Did you see that yourself . I did not personally see it but i had heard it was going on early in the process. And i know through hhs that we put things in place to make sure we check the supply that was coming from china. Okay, i know my state. We wound up with about 48,000 faulty masks that came from china. Did you see a lot of other faulty ppe that came from china as a result of i dont know why whether theyre just incompetent or whether theyre trying to undermine the safety of our citizens but apparently there was a lot of that. Did you see a lot of that as well . Frankly, if i could take that for honorable fayhy. I was extremely worried about the quality of material coming from overseas so what specifically we did before anything was procured we used the department of state and embassies to go visit care houses, visit places we hadnt done business with before. And a lot of times we found out there wasnt anything there, so we didnt make any of those procurements. And we had a contract with laboratories to do inspections for us. So we did not procure anything because there were reports of very faulty material coming from china. Good. One of the things thats going on is operation warp speed which is to develop a vaccine. I think an important part of not only developing a vaccine but getting it distributed. We dont know for sure it will, but if it is developed and made available to our citizens we need to get it out as quickly as possible. Are you working on plans to supplement operation warp speeds development with plans for distribution as well . Yes, sir, congressman. I am not personally involved in that, but of course as the assistant secretary i have good knowledge of that. Theres truly a comprehensive program to not only develop a vaccine, to secure hundreds of millions of needles, which the supply chain is involved with as well as distributing that, and i want everybody to understand, too, that the distribution of the vaccine will indeed depend on the vaccines characteristics. We hope it can be distributed to the most vulnerable, those in high need, but we have to wait for the trials to come out to understand where it works, how it works most effectively, but theres a comprehensive program led by general perna and as well as dr. Swally recognized one of the forward Vaccine Developers in the world. On recording of deaths of the covid situation there are reports and ive been talking to medical professionals as well as i think theres evidence even the governor of colorado found out theres been misreporting of deaths of people who may have been involved for instance in an auto accident but had covid in their system and that death is reported as a covid death and the hospitals get paid for more for a covid death than an auto accident. Is there a truth to that, or hows this work . So the cdc that gathers the statistics is completely dependent upon the reports of the local coroners which are also dependent on the reports of the attending physician who lests the causes of death. So the federal government is dependent on the locals, but, yes, there appears to be some misincentives to over code. We hear antidotal versions of that, but i cant give you an estimate whether thats 2 , 5 , 10 , but it is something that has to be done down to the local level all the way down to the physician. Its impossible for the cdc to go back and investigate that individually. Im from missouri, but my youngest daughter lives in denver, colorado, and in discussing with her and seeing news reports to this effect the governor of colorado has all of his covid deaths reviewed i think around the end of may, first part of june and found that 12 of them were misrepresented. Thats a pretty significant number, i think thats something that hhs needs to look into to make sure that the numbers and the data were getting is accurate. That a is ridiculous statement and a ridiculous part of our data that needs to be cleaned up, so i would certainly hope you would take a look at that and see if we can get something fixed. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you for yielding back. The chair now recognizes mrs. Vasquez. Thank you very much. I want to respond briefly to the claims that nursing home deaths were caused by the action of a few governors. That is simply false. The facts are clear. During this crisis americans have died in Nursing Homes in every state in the continent of the usa. And many states such as florida more than half of the deaths from coronavirus occurred in Nursing Homes. In ohio an estimated 7 in 10 coronavirus death s were in Nursing Homes. For my state, new york, i grieve for every new yorker who lost their lives in this crisis but im incredibly proud of our response. Our state followed the guidance at every step in the process including at Nursing Homes. Cms guidance on march 13th, 2020, allowed Nursing Homes to accept covid19 patients. Question, when should a nursing home accept a resident who was diagnosed with covid19 from a hospital . Here is the answer put out my cms. A nursing home cannot accept a resident diagnosed with covid19 as long as the facility can follow cdc guidance. Our state wuss following guidance put out by this administration, which were often changing daily. What we lacked, however, was strong federal support personal protective equipment into Nursing Homes quickly to prevent the spread of the virus. In states like new york that were initially hardest hit other states like texas and florida are seeing spikes in new cases. Over the june 28th weekend arizona beat a single day record of more than 300 fatalities and as each state required they are not required to share this publicly. And states like arizona are choosing not to. As of early june more than 43,000 longterm residents and staff have died from covid19 representing over a third of the nations known coronavirus deaths. This includes blue states, red states, and purple states. So lets get the data from Nursing Homes and also here from cms about health and safety regulations and put this talking point to rest. While americans are dying republicans and democrats. So admiral girar, an april hhs whistleblower complaint by dr. Bright alleges he was pressured to award contracts based on political connections to the Trump Administration and his family. Doesnt it concern you that there are reports of contracts that prioritize political connections to the Trump Administration over science and the safety of the American People . Thank you, maam. I dont have any knowledge of any contract that had a priority other than science and what was right for the American People. And did you read the article in the New York Times . Im sorry, did i read what article . Does he file a complaint . Yes, maam, i know dr. Bright. I really am sorry. Its hard to hear the question, maam. Im trying to answer, but could you maybe repeat that . Is he a real person, dr. Bright . Shes asking is he a real person, i think. Is he a real person, yes. I know dr. Bright. Okay, and did you read the article in the New York Times . No, i dont read the New York Times. I really just dont. Im too busy doing what im doing. Im happy to answer a question, but i dont routinely read the New York Times. Sir, you dont read an article that im sure your staff brought up to you based on the fact that dr. Bright raised a complaint as a whistleblower about behavior from the Trump Administration by prioritizing political connections, and let me ask you im just saying the Department Takes every whistleblower complaint seriously. I know its being investigated by the secretary. I dont have any knowledge of any pressure on dr. Bright. And after that complaint and discussion in the media on political connections what steps have you taken to make sure theres a level Playing Field in the federal marketplace so that everyone has the opportunity to compete based on experience and the products and services that they can deliver . At a time when so Many Americans were dying. I certainly agree with your premise, maam. We always do Everything Possible to make sure we have shared procedures and im sure complaints by dr. Bright are being investigated through our general counsel according to i know the secretary takes every whistleblower complaint seriously as i would. Im just not involved with dr. Bright on that level. The gentle ladys time has expired, but let me be clear with your answer. You know dr. Bright and you are familiar with this allegation . Yes, sir, of course. And you say it is being investigated. Im not investigating it, but the secretary has put out statements that he takes whistleblower complaints very seriously. I know thats the attitude of the department and it is being investigated by the normal channel. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate our witnesses that are here today and i want to extend so much appreciation from my district in indiana for the service of all of our witnesses here today. You three guys face an impossible task. China and the w. H. O. Lied about the extent of the crisis, and its well documented china used that time to horde p, e vital to this country. The obama depleted n95 masks during the 2009 h1n1 influenza outbreak. And then you had a National Media super eager to paint the worst possible picture merchandise the New York Times published an article on march 25th that said amid desperate need for ventilators calls grow for federal investigation, which said the u. S. Needed as many as 1 million ventilators to adequately respond to the pandemic but only had 200,000 available. Admiral, did the u. S. Really need 1 million ventilators . Maybe ill answer that. As an intensive care physician i was incredibly involved early on with the allocation of every single ventilator, every single request. No, we did not need a million ventilators, and we did not need 40,000. In fact, the New York Times mischaracterized the study by the society of critical medicine which found over 1 Million People could require treatment. Thats a huge difference than needing 1 million ventilators. The figure was used in a second the New York Times repeated by the other news outlets and rocketed around twitter and facebook. A the New York Times reporter tweeted the incorrect figure and said the Trump Administration was dooming people to die. It was retweeted 471 times. He eventually tweeted a correction three days later. The correction was retweet said just 15 days, he didnt even delete the original incorrect apocalyptic tweet. This is malpractice in the service of an agenda in service of creating a narrative at whatever cost. Frankly, this reminds me of the russia collusion hoax that was a hoax we saw play out over the last few years. An alarming report and by the time the story falls apart and has been disproven everyones move today the next outrage. Let me just say that during that time we had the president of the society of Critical Care medicine at fema working with us to understand specifically what the ventilator needs was. My group put out guidance how to duly who had been working on transition of aniesthesia machines. Not a Single Person in this country was denied ventilation, and now well have over 50,000 ventilators in the stockpile by next week. Thank you. And just curious. How many ventilators did new york end up receiving . I know it was first asked for tens of thousands which i think that number might have been 30 or 40, but new york ended up getting maybe about 10,000 ventilators, but i will need to provide the committee with actual specific numbers if i could. But the initial thought was a lot, but they got less than that. And you created a control tower to monitor supplies and demand. Whats the status of the control tower on the role the federal government and the Strategic National stockpile in obtaining and distributing medical supplies to the states . Yes, maam. So weve got Business Information from essentially 90 plus percent of the medical supply chain. I could see it coming in from manufacturing whether it be u. S. Or overseas, being in the warehouses and distributed down to First Responders, Nursing Homes, hospitals. Were also in the process of building that out and getting actual wired connections to the 600 plus to get on hand daily information along with statehouses so youll have a holistic approach and understanding supply chain from states, hospitals, National Stockpile and from the commercial side. And i just want to say when President Trump enacted the defense production act the state of indiana got onboard immediately even in my district, and we are Still Producing domestically supplied ppe today. Thank you for your service today, gentlemen. I yield back, mr. Kmchairman. Thank you, mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for their service. Id like to first ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the Dupage County district attempting my experience to attempt to get adequate ppe and testing supplies. To summarize they reported the lack of personal protective equipment has seriously hampered the ability to control the spread. And i understand its pursuant to Committee Rules its being transmitted electronically to the staff of all members and we have copies here. But they have numbers on what they requested versus what they got. N95 masks, 1. 6 of what they requested. And on and on. As they say this has caused many additional cases and hampered their spread. And so its not entirely a good news story here. It strikes me that the biggest thing youre facing here is weve seen a resumption in the exponential growth of covid cases. Weve seen a doubling time of about two weeks were seeing in hot spots in some belt states. Were seeing several days doubling time. So my question, i guess, how many more doublings can you tolerate before a supply chain breaks . Im going to answer you with not a direct answer to the doubling because im not a medical professional. You understand the demand. The demand doubles and doubles and doubles. Yes, sir, i get that. Again, states in my conversations and my understanding and my work with every state, every regional manager and our large Hospital Systems most, 70 some odd, going on 75 have at least 30 to 60 days of supplies on hand. Right, and what does that do if the demand doubles and doubles and doubles again . It seems like in less than 0 days were going to have a huge crisis unless we start control on this. This also, admiral giroir, you have done a great job on increasing Testing Capacity, but its linear. A little less than linear sometimes, increased the Testing Capacity. This cant keep up with an exponential growth in the Testing Capacity. And do you see any way to keep up with demand that doubles and doubles and doubles again . Yes, thank you, congressman. So my job is to make as many tests available as possible as quickly as possible. Get them to the right people. There are strategies. Again, were a little bit linear, but were going to get a little more exponential as supply chains kick in for some of the point of care tests. But were exploring different opportunities and you know that about pooling of tests, particularly with surveillance. But the breaks, if you have a high enough fraction of people infected where every pool has multiple positive samples in it. Thats not the case in most places. That would be used in low prevalence surveillance. Okay. So lets see. I would like to move to Antibody Testing for a moment. In the familys first coronavirus package, congress directed the covid19 testing to be done at no cost to the patient. We worked very hard, our staff worked. We got language from hhs to make sure that was true, and now im hearing in my state that hhs is walking this back in terms of reimbursements. Are you willing to commit that hhs will continue to do the reimbursements necessary to make sure this Antibody Testing will take place at no cost to the patient . Im not trying to avoid this. Im not a person who can commit on the reimbursement side, but i can tell you its clearly our intention, the secretarys intention that diagnostic testing, testing that is done in the context of screening and antibody tests are of no charge to individuals and we want to work to that, yes, sir. If you find out thats not true, please get back to us. I actually havent heard that being an issue, but ill investigate that and take it for action, sir. Its very important, especially in light of the president s statements that he wants to slow down testing, something hes confirmed multiple times. One technique that he may be using is to charge people money for something that should be free. And slowing down testing is not what we need right now. Thank you. And my time is up and i yield back. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today and for their lives of service to this great country. Its true were seeing an increase in positive covid19 cases. The United States is testing more people than any other country, over 35 million thus far with 637,000 on june 25th alone. The most recent data available. The Trump Administration has also successfully procured millions of ppe, including aggressive utilization of the defense procurement act. As of june 26th, the efforts on the part of fema, hhs, and the private sector have led to the delivery of the following, 167. 1 million n95 respirators. Surgical masks, 27. 3 million face shields, 299. 2 million surgical gowns and coveralls, and 17. 1 billion gloves. And as far as ventilators go, the administration has assured thus far that we have more than enough, so much so that numerous states are returning their ventilators to the Strategic National stockpile. Washington state returned 400. California, 500. But instead of working with the president to help americans, my colleagues across the aisle would rather politicize this Public Health crisis. And one sentence, the majoritys leadership said, quote, were not here to place blame, end quote. Then the very next sentence, they bash the president , suggesting his culpability in the deaths of americans. That happened just today. We cant have a true assessment of our response because this hyperpolarized environment makes every single action a political failure. We have got to get past this in our country if were to come through this. Additionally, President Trump has had an allhandsondeck mentality to develop the covid19 vaccine. Historically, it takes an average of ten to 15 years to develop a vaccine. Its a multistep process that takes decades. Dr. Fauci has stated that we should have a couple hundred million doses of covid19 vaccine by the beginning of 2021. This is an incredible feat. It took 42 years to develop a vaccine for chickenpox. 43 for ebola. 47 for a polio vaccine. So how are we moving so fast . That Public Health experts think we can have a vaccine in 12 months . For one, were conducting multiple phases and tests simultaneously rather than one at a time, which greatly increases the speed of development. But also increases the manpower and the expense, and thankfully, President Trump has devoted the full resources of the federal government to this crucial endeavor. Additionally, the wall street journal has noted a combination of other improvements such as enhancement of sequencing, advancements in bioengineering techniques and unprecedented government support. Let me emphasize the last point again. The journal notes, and i quote, unprecedented government support, end quote, is a primary cause of the breakneck speed of development of the vaccine. While some prefer to sit on the sidelines and attack the administration, President Trump has been boldly acting to help find a cure. He launched operation warp speed aimed at developing a vaccine by the end of the year. He selected five Coronavirus Vaccine candidates as finalists, pledged future vaccines will be free for vulnerable americans. Prodded top Health Officials to speed up development and streamlined fda approval processes and requirements. This administrations response has been unprecedented. The committee, this committee, on the other hand, mr. Chairman, we still havent held a single hearing or briefing on chinas responsibility for covid19, not one. According to Columbia University, not necessarily a bastion of conservatism, i might add, and reported by abc news, certainly not a republican news organization, had china notified america just one week sooner, Columbia University predicts 60. 1 of american casualties could have been avoided. Meaning chinas deception resulted in 60 of our casualties. Have we spent 60 of our time looking into chinas actions . Are nltd nt we the task force designed to look into the cause of deaths from covid. Have we spent 50 of our time looking into chinas failure and deception . Theyre 60 of our casualties according to Columbia University. We havent spent a single minute investigating what the scientists at Columbia University said potentially killed 60 of our deaths. That is a failure of this committee. Yet all the other side wants to do is point the finger at President Trump. Thats sad. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield. I thank the gentleman for yielding back. The chair now recognizes mr. Raskin. Mr. Chairman, thank you. And witnesses, thank you for your service to our country. Mr. Chairman, i continue to be impressed by the bottomless reservoirs of counterfeit outrage and self righteousness by the president s defenders complaining over absolute nonsense like imaginary hoaxes, imaginary constitutional offenses, and of course, the imaginary repression of the president s quack miracle cures, which have been proven to be a danger to our people. But lets return back to reality. Lets come back to america, where our people are suffering. According to the New York Times, new cases are up 80 in the last two weeks. Were seeing a startling rise in coronavirus cases in many of our southern and western states, including florida, texas, arkansas, alabama, arizona, oklahoma, and many others. 35 states where the virus is now on the rise. Yesterday, the United States shattered all records with new cases reported in a single day reaching nearly 50,000. There were more than 800,000 new cases reported in june alone, and dr. Fauci says were on course to hit 100,000 cases per day. That is terrifying. Now, since the pandemic began, the Trump Administration has insisted upon having no plan. Its up to the states. Its helterskelter rag tag operation. The Trump Administration has made only limited and ssporadic of the defense act and we have to acquire supplies often from china, and the same suppliers to distribute the supplies. And we know President Trump, contrary to this mad scramble to try to distance him from china, we know that President Trump praised the performance of the Chinese Government and president xi 37 different times in january, february, march, and april. Praising general xis good, very good, great performance. His relationship with him. The extraordinary deals theyre working together. And if republicans want to go down that road instead of working to address the needs of the people, im happy to do it because it will lead into total disgrace and embarrassment of their arguments and their attempts to blame china for this whole situation. And if china covered up at the beginning, which i think it did, President Trump covered up for china in the process. Thats the relationship. Now, admiral polowczyk, i want to ask you questions about demand and supply. You said that the demand for masks may be inflated because some industries think that they need them when they dont actually need them. And i want to make sure i heard you right there. I think you invoked Janitorial Services as one of those. Do janitors and custodial crews like the ones that are going to crew the raburn house often building this evening, do they not need masks . There are several standards of masks. So obviously, referring to medical grade, those would be covered under niaush, and so theyre a different standard of masks. So im not saying they dont need a mask. Im just saying there are different standards of masks. Okay. So let me go to a question of supply then. And this goes to the question i think ms. Waters was asking you. You said youre not certain about what the nation supply of ppe is, and that might be understated because you dont know how much ppe and how many masks the states are actually in possession of. Can you just explain why you dont have that figure, why you dont know that, and will we ever come to a place where we actually have a coordinated National Strategy to get americans the equipment that they need . Sir, there is a coordinated National Strategy. And so the states are working with me to give them give me their warehouse information data. As we work through this. And if you had heard my other answers, the supply chain information, you cant run a supply chain without information, without data. So the first thing i did was i brought in all the Business Systems for 90 of the Health Care Supply chain. I have aggregated that at fema and brought in a information tool from dod, and i can see okay, forgive me because my time its part of the answer. Were aiding the state warehouses, adding the hospital information, and so health and Human Services and fema are going to have the entire ecosystem of understanding supply and demand across the nation. Okay, and finally, given the explosive demand for ppe right now, because of a pandemic out of control, should we not be using the defense production act more comprehensively and expansively right now to increase the supply for the crisis thats coming . Sir, he may be able to comment on this, but there are multiple areas under development to expand production. Whether it be pharmaceuticals, whether it be more cloth and nonwoven fabric for surgical masks, whether it be other nitro gloves, et cetera. All of those take times and investment, decision criteria, but mr. Fahey may be able to answer the question about that. Great, and ill yield back after that, mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. We have many efforts going on, as the admiral talked about. We think were pretty good on medical masks perspective, but in every other category, the process goes that we have an extensive process where we go out and ask industry what theyre willing to do and making sure they understand our requirements. And for the other pieces of the equipment, we have done it a lot on masks, we have done it on ventilators. The other thing we dont mention a lot is a lot of times the supply chain is bottlenecked, is a subcontractor. Were looking at the subcontract. We have efforts in every vine of effort from a ppe and medical equipment to expand the domestic capacity here in the u. S. Thank you very much. The gentlemans time has expired. The chair now recognizes mr. Kim. Thank you for coming here. Admiral giroir, i wanted to start with you. Do you assess we have successfully flattened the curve in the United States . Let me give you two tenths of this number. Number one, we did flatten the curve during the time to flatten the curve because we expected a lot more cases. Right now, as you know, the numbers are going up. Are we flattening the curve right now . Were not flattening the curve right now. Do you think were headed in the right direction . Right now, and i try to nuance this a little bit. In many counties we are, in many states we are. In many states we arent. Four states are accounting for about 50 of our cases and theyre very concerning to all. With those states with increased cases, i often hear and have heard my colleagues here say this last time around, that the increase in the positive cases is due to increased testing. In your professional and expert assessment, is that does that account for the increase that were seeing in those states . There is no question that the more testing you get, the more you will uncover, but we do believe this is a real increase in cases because of the percent positivities are going up. So this is real increases in cases. You said today that you think we should be looking at the guidelines of the opening up america, so i was looking it up here, and it said the satisfied before proceeding to phased comeback, it said cases downward trajectory of documented cases in a 14day period or downward trajectory of positive tests as presented the total tests in a 14day period. Do you know how many states are fulfilling this standard right now . Right now, theres a lot of movement in the system, as you know. Some have drawn back certain activities and some have kept going. I do want to make the statement, if you let me, is that what were really seeing, we are seen States Reopen quickly and have had no cases. We have seen cases not reopen and have a lot of cases. We really do believe the current outbreak is primarily due to under 35s with a lot of gatherings. Not appropriate protection like masks. Yes, its important to reopen, and we believe in the guidelines. But i think the weight of the evidence is guidelines or not, the personal responsibility is really key right now. Absolutely. When were seeing this increase in positive cases as you were talking about that is succeeding what we see in our increase in testing, we all know that we want to continue to have more testing available. You just said so in your respanse. I understand your written testimony theres a company producing more than 10 Million Laboratory testing extraction and pcr kits a month enabling states to complete millions of tests. However, i understand the contract expires in five days. I wanted to ask you, can you commit to this committee today that there will not be a reduction in that Testing Capacity . Theres not going to be a reduction in Testing Capacity. So the contract youre talking about, we had initially acquired. We acquired very few laboratory reagents. But we did acquire that because the states were not accustomed to using many of them. This one company, and what were seeing right now is we want we think the market is stable enough, you have 10. 25 billion into the states if the states will buy that from that specific company. But we did, because the states, when i say the states, its laboratories in the states, were not as accustomed to using this type of test with this type of machine that we did sort of cede by buying that federally and distributing it. My home state of new jersey was hit particularly hard by the virus, and in march and april, we were really struggling. We had very few tests available. We tried to seek additional hhsbacked, femabacked, federallybacked test sites. We had two in new jersey. We try today get more. We were told that that request was denied and that no more federal test sites would be stood up in our country in the beginning of april. I wanted to learn from you, who made that decision . And can you tell me how that decision was made not to have any more federallybacked test sites . I think thats not true because we started 41 completely federally run sites, but the plan had always been to transition those, so we have 624 federally sponsored Retail Pharmacy sites now. Because 41 drivethroughs run by i get that, but that was not until may those were stood up. Thats not true. Okay. I mean, we have been standing this up if you dont mind, we can take for the record and you can get back to me with that timeline. That would be helpful. Just a last question here. I just wanted to clarify your position regarding the World Health Organization since you mentioned this earlier today. You said reforms are needed. We get that. You also mentioned youre confirmed by the senate, and i was looking it up. It was in may, to be the u. S. Representative on the executive board of the World Health Organization. So i wanted to ask you, was it your recommendation that the United States terminate our relationship with the w. H. O. During the middle of the pandemic . I was not asked for a recommendation. So when President Trump made that decision later in that month, after you were sworn in as the u. S. Representative to the executive board of the w. H. O. , he did not seek your advice or your consideration before he made that decision . Is that what youre saying . I have not provided a recommendation to anyone. Thats correct. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, back to you. I thank you very much. Let me thank all of the witnesses for their appearances here today. And i have always opted to yield to the Ranking Member for any closing comments. And in his absence, i will yield that to mr. Jordan. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would just point out that, you know, this in the last comments from the majority side that the World Health Organization lied to us. So i think the president took a pretty commonsense position. He said we dont have to pay organizations to lie to us. Theyll probably do it for free. But i want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Even though you had to have one member of the minority say that you were missing in action, which i find amazing. Officer in the United States navy missing in action. I find it amazing they would say such a thing. You had another give more credence to a New York Times article than the word of an admiral in the United States navy. But we on the Minority Side appreciate your service to our country and your service in this critical time. We also appreciate what the attorney general of the United States said two months ago when he said the constitution is not suspended during a crisis. And amen to that. Unfortunately, as we have talked about here over the last couple hours, i dont know that certain mayors and certain governors appreciate that fact. At least they have not at a minimum, they have not appreciated that fact in a consistent fashion. They have a different set of rules for protests, and i understand peaceful protest is fundamental to the First Amendment, fundamental to american way of life and i support it and i have engaged in it, but theres a big difference between peaceful protests and some of the things we have seen in the streets of our great country and cities over the last several weeks. But peaceful protest is important, but so is your ability to practice your faith, exercise your religious liberty rights, so is your ability to engage in your livelihood and operate your business. So is your ability to attend a loved ones funeral. So i think i would appreciate a little more consistent application of the constitution in our First Amendment liberties by some of the democrat mayors and governors around our country. What we would also appreciate, and we have raised this issue now several times, the gentleman from tennessee brought it up, you talk about this committee looking forward. Dealing with this tough time and this crisis that were in. But sometimes to properly handle and address things and look forward, you need to understand what happened. And two big things that have happened. If china had told us earlier, lots more people would be alive today. In our country and around the world. For some reason, the majority doesnt want to look at that fundamental issue. Just as importantly, decisions made by certain governors, 40 of the deaths in this country happened in Nursing Homes. And decisions made by governors in five states that were in hindsight frankly, i dont think we need hindsight, were ridiculous wrong decisions, cost the lives of so many thousands, thousands of our fellow citizens. So at some point, we would, as i said earlier, as the Ranking Member has said numerous times, we would like to get this information, particularly from the governor of new york on this decision to put covidpositive people back into Nursing Homes for 46 straight days. And why the majority wont help us get that information for the life of me i cannot figure out. Thats where we need to go. We do need to understand some things that happened in the past so we can be forward looking and help our country deal with this issue. With that, mr. Chairman, i would yield back. I thank the gentleman. And i thank all of the Witnesses Today for their participation. And the members of the subcommittee. I want to, without objection, i would like to enter mr. Fosters request for unanimous consent for the letter to be inserted into the record. And i am ordering that that be done. I would also like to enter into the record full letters this committee has received in recent days from organizations representing Health Care Institutions and workers. The american medical association, the American College of emergency physicians, National Nurses united, and the American Association of medical colleges. Each of these groups has written to emphasize that Health Care Workers around the country are still experiencing shortages of critical supplies, including masks. I ask unanimous consent that these letters be entered into the official hearing record. And its so ordered. In closing, i want to thank the witnesses and my colleagues on this select subcommittee. Todays hearing made clear that as the Coronavirus Infections and hospitalizations spike around the country, communities are facing alarming shortages of personal protective equipment and testing supplies. We need urgent action from the federal government to address these shortages now. Before more people are exposed and the virus spins further out of control. There are clear and tangible steps the federal government can take. First, we need a clear chain of command so the federal government can make efficient use of its vast resources and career professionals to identify the need and procure and distribute supplies. Second, the Administration Needs to adhere to rigorous contracting practices, including open competition to make sure it is not favoring inexperienced politically connected suppliers over businesses with a track record of success. Third, the federal government must establish a comprehensive plan to directly procure and distribute critical supplies rather than continuing to defer to the private sector. I cannot emphasize this enough. Our federal government has the resources, the manpower, and the Legal Authority under the defense production act to procure the necessary supplies and quickly get them to the communities that need them. Its time we use them. I appreciate the hard work of each of our witnesses and their colleagues at fema, the department of defense, and health and Human Services. But to insure this problem gets fixed, we need you to Keep Congress apprised of your progress. I am therefore calling on fema, hhs, and dod to provide this committee with weekly updates on the projected supply and demand for ppe and testing supplies. I look forward to continuing to work with each of you to insure that our government is working to help all americans during this national crisis. With that, this meeting is adjourned. First ladies, influence and image, on American History tv, examines the private lives and public roles of the nations first ladies, through interviews with top historians. Tonight, we look at Eleanor Roosevelt and bess truman. Eleanor roosevelt was the first first lady to hold an official government position and to chair a white house conference. Bess truman was a very private first lady and never granted a full interview while her husband was in office. Watch first ladies, influence and image, tonight at 8 00 eastern on American History tv on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, a discussion on the declaration of independence origins, purpose, and global significance during and after the American Revolution. With university of maryland history professor richard bell. On sunday, at 4 00 p. M. Eastern, on reel america, the 1970 film fresh colors detailing czech refug refugees first job when arri arriving in the United States, hired to create a film about the american flag, using his own narration, animation, and archival footage. At 6 00 p. M. On american art fktds, a tour of the museum of the American Revolution with Michael Quinn discussing the museums history, design, and what he calls the museums crown jewel, George Washingtons camp tent. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. This is a crisis. People are losing their lives. With Police Reform taking center stage in congress, watch our live unfiltered coverage of the latest developments. Plus, the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. Where were going down from 30,000 to 25,000 to 20,000, and now we sort of stayed flat and now were going up. And briefings from the white house on foreign affairs. Congress on health care. Insight from former administration officials. But i do think theres a line one should not cross where governmental power is used essentially exclusively for personal benefit. We will stand proud and we will stan
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