We are following the attending physicians guidance on wearing face coverings at all times while not under recognition and the chair will only recognize those who are following the guidance. Today, the committee on Homeland Security is meeting for part two of our hearing to examine the National Response to the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Two weeks ago, the Committee Heard from state and local officials about how the Trump Administrations failure to respond to the pandemic has harmed their communities and our nation. We invited fema administrator peter gaynor to that hearing but he declined to attend based on white house guidance prohibiting administration witnesses from appearing before congress remotely. Guidance is that intended to undermine congressional oversight of the administration. The committee will move forward with his work today. Thecommittee also invited department of health and Human Services to participate in this hearing. Hhs refused to send a witness even though the Committee Schedule this hearing to accommodate the administrations request. That refusal is yet another example of the Trump Administrations shirking of its responsibility to answer congress and the American People on the response to covid19. Pleasedng said, we are that administrator gainer is here to respond to members questions about the pandemic, which is now claimed lives of over 140,000 americans. The number of u. S. Coronavirus cases continues to surge with 60,000 new cases just yesterday. The country also recorded more than 1000 coronavirus deaths in a single day yesterday. That was the first time in july. Nations around the world like canada, australia, japan, korea, and many in europe have managed to bring their outbreaks under control through coordinated responses, consistent messaging, and messieurs such as face covering, testing, and contact tracing. Here at home, the Trump Administrations response to the coronavirus has been an abject failure and the American People have suffered the consequences. The president s incompetence and co incoherent planned to respond to the pandemic has cost lives. Korea reported the same day as the United States. We have suffered 470 times the number of deaths they have. In many ways, we are no more prepared now to adjust the pandemic today than we were at its outset. We still have a shortage of medical supplies and equipment like masks, gowns, and gloves. Wait times for covid19 test are climbing. Most alarmingly, there is an urgent demand for icu beds in states where the virus is spinning out of control. Doctors and nurses in the greatest country on earth should not have to plead for the essentials that they need to save lives and protect their own. Just yesterday, months into the pandemic, after repeated calls for face coverings from doctors and scientists in his own administration, the president finally called on americans to wear a mask. We are hoping that this is an indication that President Trump may, at long last, be willing to experts advice of the on responding to the pandemic. We need real leadership at the federal level. Administrator gainer and his agency have a Herculean Task ahead in many ways, made all the more difficult by the president himself. Today, our hearing is not about blaming china for the Trump Administrations failure to take care of its own people. Frankly, we dont have time for such ridiculous attempts to distract from the crisis at hand. Instead, i hope to hear from administrator gainer about where we currently stand in how the administration can improve its response to the Public Health emergency. The American People are counting on us. I think it ministry to gainer and my colleagues for participating in this hearing today. The chernow recognizes the Ranking Member, the gentleman from alabama, for an Opening Statement. Thank you mister chairman. I am glad we are finally meeting in person. Our experiment with virtual hearings did not go all that well, it was marred by technical issues that cause prolonged delays on both sides of the aisle. Going forward, i hope we will continue to have these inperson hearings. Doing so improves our productivity and still takes participation by administration witnesses like mr. Gaynor. I understand your frustration with the administrations restrictions on appearing in virtual hearings, thats why i appreciate you working with fema to facilitate the inperson testimony today. As i said before, our hearts go out to those who have lost their loved ones to covid19 and those who are currently undergoing treatment. Covid19 is an unprecedented Global Pandemic that requires an unprecedented response. Unfortunately, the administrations response effort was undermined from the start as china hid the disease from the world. The Chinese Communist party hoarded lifesaving medical supplies while they encouraged foreign travel, seeding the virus across the globe. Facing an extraordinary Public Health crisis in chinas deadly coverup, the Trump Administration has responded with a whole of government response. Since march, fema has helped lead the response effort. The agency has coordinated the delivery of over 20 billion ppe to medical personnel, Emergency Responders and critical workers. It administered 56 major disaster declarations covering every state and territory. And obligated over 145 billion to support federal, state and local response. While those efforts should be commended, more hard work is ahead. A number of positive cases continue to rise and hospitals in some areas are reaching capacity. Demands for ppe and response funding from fema will continue to grow. I am interested in hearing from the administrator about what our states need, where the bottlenecks exist in supply chain and whether our domestic manufacturing capacity for ppe and supplies insufficient. As Hurricane Season heats up, i am also interested to hear femas plan to deal with the covid crisis well managing response to Major National disasters. Our country has faced outbreaks of serious disease in the past and in each case, we have marched our collective resources and ingenuity to overcome the crisis. Im confident that will be the case with covid19. Thank you mister chairman, i yield back. Other members of the committee are reminded that on the Committee RulesOpening Statement, it may be submitted for the record. As you know, most of our Committee Room is too small and that is why we are meeting here in our own Services Committee to accommodate the full committee. I thank them for allowing us to use their Committee Room. Members are also reminded that the committee will operate according to the guidelines laid out by myself and the Ranking Member and our july 8 meeting. I welcome our witness. We have with us here today the honorable peter gaynor, fema administrator. Administrative gaynor was confirmed by the senate january 14, 2020. Prior to his current role, he served as acting administrator for 10 months and was previously confirmed to serve as phoenix deputy administrator in october, 2018. He previously served as the director of rhode island Emergency Management agency. Before his Emergency Management career, administrator gaynor served in the United States marine corps for 26 years. Without objection, the witnesses full statement will be inserted in the record. As i now ask administrative gaynor to summarize his statement for five minutes. Good morning. Chairman thompson, Ranking Member rodgers and distinguished members of the committee. My name is pete gaynor, and i am fema administrator. On behalf of the men and women of fema, i would like to begin by offering my condolences to the loved ones of 142,000 americans who have lost their lives to covid19. One life lost his one life to many. Our hearts go out to all of those who have been affected by the pandemic. This has been up a trying time for our country. As the fema administrator, it has been my honor to work alongside the dedicated professionals of fema. Today, i want to acknowledge that workforce and our many partners for our commitment to the nation during this response. This response continues to be one that is locally executed, state managed and federally supported. President trump made the unprecedented decision to declare a national, nationwide emergency on march 13. Since that time, the entire team has worked tirelessly to make a positive impact and many have risked their own health and safety to do so. For the first time in american history, we have a major disaster declaration in every state, territory, in addition to columbia. Today, femas response for 114 active disasters and 97 emergencies. The magnitude of this pandemic has required us to reexamine our past practices and to keep up the risk to our staff as low as possible. All the while refusing to fail in meeting our mission. Covid19 has been a Global Crisis with most countries competing for the exact same medical supplies. Every government across the nation has been competing for the same resources, such as personal Protection Equipment, ppe. To further complicate matters, most ppe is made in asia, where the virus significantly slowed manufacturing and u. S. Law is limited authorities. During more Common National disasters, fema typically manages an abundance of resources for disasters that are andted in Geographic Scope impact. In responding to covid19, fema has met a more difficult task of managing the lack of critical medical supplies and equipment, rather than managing resources, we are managing shortages. We have worked tirelessly to find medical supplies across the globe and rapidly move them to america. We quickly prioritize resources to ensure that the highest risk of covid19 cases and deaths would not be in danger of running out of supplies and lifesaving equipment. Using the hhs Strategic National stockpile early on, it became clear that the scope and scale of this pandemic went far beyond what the stockpile was designed for. It could not be relied upon as the single solution for pandemic supplies in the United States. To address these widespread shortages, the supply chains civilization task force was Stabilization Task force was quickly assembled by fema and its federal parts. In less than 10 days, we established the gate bridge to purchase critical supplies, already owned by the largest medical distributors, with the goal of providing temporary relief until the supply chains could be stabilized. Our goal was to supplement. This cut International Shipments from 37 days by sea, to one day by air. From march 29 to july 1, we have completed over 249 flights, carrying supplies to the American Public. In addition to extraditing supplies to the United States, the federal response has focused on stabilizing lives of americans in many impactful ways. Since march 13, we provided over a . 4 billion in obligations to states for covid19 related activities, with the first one 1 billion obligating in just 11 days. Another 1. 7 billion dollars has been allocated in support to our National Guard troops, as well as the deployment of up 5300 medical professionals who have provided critical medical support in most hospitals under stress. To further bolster the medical infrastructure of our country, fema through mission assignments, u. S. Army corps of engineers, constructed care facilities and deployed 41 federal medical stations. As part of the blueprint, fema has delivered more than 41 million swabs and 32 Million Units of medium. While we continue to respond to covid19, we want to make sure that we are using all our available assets and resources to address these critical shortfalls. To do so, the federal government utilized the defense production act to increase the amount of medical equipment manufactured domestically to ensure our nations future preparedness is not overly reliant on foreign producers. This increase in domestic manufacturing will also allow fema to prepare for hurricane preparations and other National Disasters. As part of this pivot, fema recently released a Planning Guidance for 2020 Hurricane Season to help local officials best prepare for common disasters in a pandemic. The operational guidance is scalable, flexible and functions as it all has. Regardless of the challenges, fema will continue to be the bedrock of our nation to remain constant. To protect the American People before, during and after disasters. In the framework by which we accomplished this, it remains unchanged. Responses are most effective when they are locally executed, state managed and federally supported. The nation is counting on us to accomplish our mission and we do so in accordance with our core values of compassion, fairness, integrity and respect. This unprecedented response to covid19 pandemic will continue to require a whole of american effort and fema looks forward to coordinating closely with congress as we Work Together to create better lives for American People. I want to thank the committee for authorizing the resources necessary to meet the historic requirements and for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to the questions from the committee today. Thank you. I thank the witness for his testimony. I remind each member that he or she will have five minutes to question the witness. I will now recognize myself for questions. Mr. Gaynor, can you talk to us about why a lot of members in congress are still hearing from hospitals that they are short on ppe . Mr. Gaynor yes, sir. I cannot talk to specific hospitals, but i will talk generally where we are with the pandemic. Just for context, this is a Global Pandemic. I said in my Opening Statement that every country that has covid19 disease in their country to include every governor, mayor, tribal chief in the United States, they are looking for the same exact ppe. We do not make it here in the United States. We make very little, virtually no rubber gloves in the u. S. , as an example. We are in competition still for ppe around the globe. The place we are in today is much better than we were 60 days ago, although we are not going to buy our way out of this with just money. We will have to improve the Industrial Base to make these critical items in the u. S. , so that we are not at the whim of our global competitors. We have talked to every single state director, Emergency Management director in the country and got a feel for what they have in stock in states. Its actually pretty positive. 60, 90, 120 days, states have stockpiles today. Now, they may be shortages, micro shortages across the country based on covid19 cases, increased hospitalizations and those hospitals are those frontline workers that have a shortage and they should work with local Emergency Management directors, local Public Health director and identify those to the state and obviously to us, so we can fulfill those requests. So, your testimony is that all hospital has to do to get the requisite requirement for ppe is talk to their local emergency manager . Mr. Gaynor theres many different ways to do it, thats one way. The commercial, medical grade ppe distribution is very healthy today. So if they cannot get it via their normal supply chain, the six big medical Distribution Companies in the country, if they cannot get it there, we can help. We have insights. My point is mr. Gaynor to help those hospitals or who else may have a shortage. My point is, its still a problem and, can you provide any written direction to the committee as to how you suggest they can share with their constituents how they can get access to more ppe if required . Mr. Gaynor yes sir, i want to be clear. We have a ways to go in making sure we have enough ppe. This is not as simple as just throwing in a light switch and we magically make more. We still have many months to go before we start making enough on the u. S. Supply and demand. As cases grow in the sun belt, demand goes up. If there is a hospital or a tribe or a county, city that needs ppe, contact their local emergency manager to go to the state, and obviously to us, so we can fulfill that and address that, by either a federal supply, or commercial supply. Im glad to hear that because it is still part of what most members here in their distr