Be a member of congress. We welcome suzanne spaulding. Also thomas fanning, two of the commissioners of the commission. First of all, i want to thank the cochairs and the two commissioners for their important work on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. I think the end product is excellent. I think it has some solid recommendations that a number of these are within our committees jurisdiction and will be working hard to vault those and the ones evaluate those and the ones that we can get them passed into law. They can be done through executive action. I would like to spend my time, enter my formal written statement into the record. I just want to talk about two of the commissions of recommendations. When i got here in the congress in 2011, cybersecurity was a hot issue. It still is. It is not going away. But i remember the buzz word back then is we have to do something about this. We have made a number of attempts and quite honestly, we have made a fair amount of progress. My own sense
Many people think we are approaching the highest percentage of unemployed its the great depression. Needore than ever, people to know that americans are working for them. In a world where is no longer safe to be within six feet of each other, Congress Needs to learn how to adapt. It is not the first time we have had to ensure the continuity of congress. With the Nuclear Threat during the cold war, the u. S. Government constructed a large bunker for congress. We would be required to meet outside of washington. This may either first time in the modern area where there is not a physical meeting location at risk, but rather elected officials themselves and others we would be in contact with. We are a subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, which has jurisdiction over congressional organizations. Its important we look at this issue on how to govern during these sorts of times. From that perspective, while we wait for guidance on how to conduct more formal h
Introduce people more formally prior to their also thomas fanning, two of the commissioners of the commission. First of all i want to thank the cochairs and that commissioners for the important work on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. I think the end product is excellent. I think it has solid recommendations that a number of these are within our committees jurisdiction over the working hard to evaluate those and the ones that we can get them passed into law of these recommendations can be done through executive action. What id like to spend my time just enter my formal written state into the record, i just want to talk about two of the commissions recommendations. When i i got here in the congrs in 2011, cybersecurity was a hot issue. It still is. Its not going away. I remember the buzzword back ban is we have to do something about this. Weve made a number of attempts and quite honestly we made a fair amount of progress. My own sense is the bad guys, the people and often always have
Out there are literally tens of billions of dollars being spent now on vaccine research, on antiviral therapeutics, on testing, and we believe that in order for us to get our economy fully back, we have got to deal with the Health Emergency in front of us. So dollars have been made available. Hundreds of billions of dollars to health care providers, hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, providers on the n front lines on the front lines of this crisis and dealing to deal trying to deal with this challenge every day. We have focused on the economic crisis, the impact this has had on our Small Businesses, on our workers, and everything that was included in the bills that have already been passed, number four here in the United States senate, which have been signed into law by the president , have been singularly focused on trying to assist and get people through this time as a bridge to hopefully get the worst of us behind us and get it to a time when the economy begins to open up again. So
I call this hearing to order. This hearing will be a little bit different. It is perhaps the first congressional hearing during the extenuating circumstances of the pandemic. We have a sparse crowd reflecting the committees inherence to the rules put forth by the attending physician. Staff forthank patience and understanding as we work through the logistics involved in holding this hearing, which is a critical part of the committees ongoing oversight of the Intelligence Committee community. Afternoon, we move to a closed session. Aeir absence now is not reflection on the importance they place on this matter. We have asked members to watch as much as they can of the hearings from their offices, only coming into the hearing room to ask questions. I would also like to think the press corps for your accommodation of the restrictions we are placing as we seek to fulfill our requirements to hold this nomination hearing in an open setting, or at least as open as current circumstances allow. M