[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE ADMINISTRATION'S EFFORTS TO
PROCURE, STOCKPILE, AND
DISTRIBUTE CRITICAL SUPPLIES
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SELECT SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 2, 2020
__________
Serial No. 116-101
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on: http://www.govinfo.gov,
oversight.house.gov or
docs.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
41-893 PDF WASHINGTON : 2020
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Jim Jordan, Ohio Ranking Minority
Columbia Member
Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri Paul A. Gosar, Arizona
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Jim Cooper, Tennessee Thomas Massie, Kentucky
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Jamie Raskin, Maryland James Comer, Kentucky,
Harley Rouda, California Michael Cloud, Texas
Ro Khanna, California Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Ralph Norman, South Carolina
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Chip Roy, Texas
Peter Welch, Vermont Carol D. Miller, West Virginia
Jackie Speier, California Mark E. Green, Tennessee
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota
Mark DeSaulnier, California W. Gregory Steube, Florida
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Stacey E. Plaskett, Virgin Islands
Jimmy Gomez, California
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
Katie Porter, California
David Hickton, Select Subcommittee Staff Director
Russ Anello, Select Subcommittee Chief Counsel
Taylor Jones, Clerk
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
Christopher Hixon, Minority Staff Director
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Select Subcommittee On The Coronavirus Crisis
James E. Clyburn, South Carolina, Chairman
Maxine Waters, California Steve Scalise, Louisiana, Ranking
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Minority Member
Nydia M. Velazquez, New York Jim Jordan, Ohio
Bill Foster, Illinois Blaine Luetkemeyer, Missouri
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Jackie Walorski, Indiana
Andy Kim, New Jersey Mark E. Green, Tennessee
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on July 2, 2020..................................... 1
Witnesses
Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, Supply Chain Stabilization Task
Force, Vice Director of Logistics, Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Department of Defense
Oral Statement................................................... 6
Admiral Brett P. Giroir, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Health,
Department of Health and Human Services
Oral Statement................................................... 8
The Honorable Kevin Fahey, Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition, Department of Defense
Oral Statement................................................... 10
Written opening statements and the written statements of the
witnesses are available on the U.S. House of Representatives
Document Repository at: docs.house.gov.
Index of Documents
----------
Documents entered into the record during this hearing and
Questions for the Record (QFR's) are available at:
docs.house.gov.
* Letter from DuPage County Health Department outlining
attempts to obtain PPE and testing supplies; submitted by Rep.
Foster.
* Letter from the American Medical Association; submitted by
Chairman Clyburn.
* Letter from the American College of Emergency Physicians;
submitted by Chairman Clyburn.
* Letter from the National Nurses United; submitted by Chairman
Clyburn.
* Letter from the American Association of Medical Colleges;
submitted by Chairman Clyburn.
* Questions for the Record: to Rear Admiral Polowczyk at the
Department of Defense; submitted by Chairman Clyburn.
* Questions for the Record: to Admiral Giroir at the Department
of Health and Human Services; submitted by Chairman Clyburn.
THE ADMINISTRATION'S EFFORTS TO
PROCURE, STOCKPILE, AND
DISTRIBUTE CRITICAL SUPPLIES
----------
Thursday, July 2, 2020
House of Representatives
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis
Committee on Oversight and Reform
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:07 a.m., in
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. James E. Clyburn
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Clyburn, Waters, Maloney,
Velazquez, Foster, Raskin, Kim, Scalise, Jordan, Luetkemeyer,
Walorski, and Green.
Mr. Clyburn. Today, this committee will ask several simple
questions. More than five months 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 harrowing stories about shortages in critical supplies
directly from frontline workers. We have heard from doctors and
nurses who were forced to reuse protective masks designed to be
worn just once. Some healthcare 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. And 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 so-called Project
Airbridge. Here are the facts: The White House's own internal
data, just released a few weeks ago, shows we still face
shortages of tens of millions of N95 masks and gowns, and those
shortages may persist for months. Healthcare providers have
confirmed this.
On June 12, Kaiser Permanente reported, and I quote, ``Like
all healthcare providers, we continue to experience shortages
of PPE, including N95 masks.'' These shortages are getting
worse as coronavirus infections skyrocket 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 a surge of demand, many have issued dire warnings
that they are running short of supplies which could cripple our
Nation's 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 these 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 professionals led
by a single official, the President has appointed different
officials, agencies and task forces, including one led by his
son-in-law, 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 Trump's 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 responsibility for directly
purchasing and distributing supplies used in the Defense
Production Act and other legal authorities, the Trump
administration has largely deferred to the private sector. This
has forced states, cities, and even individual hospitals, and
businesses to compete for scarce resources driving up prices.
Today, Chairwoman Maloney transmitted to this subcommittee
a startling memo that lays out just how ineffective this hands-
off approach is, including the administration's signature
program, Project Airbridge. 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 showed medical supply companies pleaded with the
administration to provide more guidance, and to take a more
active role in procurement. But according to one company, and I
quote, ``Politics has gotten in the way of that,'' end of
quote.
Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney, for sharing the Oversight
Committee's diligent work with us, and for entrusting this
subcommittee to carry it forward. I can assure you that we
intend to get to the bottom of this.
As I have said before, the purpose of this committee's
oversight is not to cast blame for past failures, but to make
improvements to ensure future success. So today, our goal is to
better understand why the administration has failed to meet our
country's need for PPE and testing supplies, and to seek a
commitment from the witnesses to take concrete steps to finally
address these shortages.
I now yield to the ranking member for his opening
statement.
Mr. Scalise. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to thank
our three witnesses who are going to be testifying today.
America's been through a lot in these past few months.
We've 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
struggle but work to make payroll; researchers who are working
tirelessly to find a cure.
But I don't think enough credit has been given to the teams
that the three of you represent and the work that you've 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 kinds of challenges when
we went through Hurricane Katrina. And while Hurricane Katrina
hit a limited area, this pandemic hit this entire country and
it hit the entire world all at the same time. So, as you can
imagine, the incredible challenges that that brings with it
when you're not just dealing with an isolated crisis, you're
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 that's needed, getting facilities up and running, we
owe it to 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 the 4th of July, we also confront an
important moment in the coronavirus pandemic. We've learned a
lot, and 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 hospital
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 Gaynor, about the
concerns our state was facing. My governor and I worked
together and the administration responded. And y'all delivered
those needed ventilators to us. I know you did the same for New
York and other regions that were concerned that 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.
So, I'm sorry--Mr. Polowczyk, so I appreciate what you did
and what your team did to respond so quickly. So, please convey
that thanks to them. It surely helped our state, it helped the
city of New Orleans to 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. They are using a
high flow of oxygen instead because they have learned that
intubation can actually do damage to the lungs. They have
learned how to keep healthcare workers safe with other
treatments.
While some still need ventilators, demand has dropped and
patients are seeing better outcome. The use of simple blood
thinners is saving lives because autopsies showed that patients
were getting massive blood clots in the lungs. Steroids and
cures, like Remdesivir, are showing tremendous progress. Even
as we see a spike in cases in areas of the country, the death
rate has actually dropped.
We've also 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 those 45 states
where the Governors, Republican and Democrats, followed the
guidelines, we saw dramatically lower death rates among seniors
in nursing homes.
Sadly, we also know that policies that mandated that COVID-
positive patients be returned to those nursing homes, even if
the nursing homes weren't capable of properly taking care of
them turned out to be a death sentence for many seniors. We
still haven't gotten the answers that we deserve to get so we
can learn more about that. And I, again, want to ask the
majority if we could join together, not just some of us, but
all of us, ask those five Governors who decided to go against
the CMS guidelines, if they would share those answers with us
and with the rest of the country, and most importantly, with
the families of their victims who were still demanding answers.
We're going to continue to press for those answers.
The hard-learned lessons, including the lessons that we
need to keep learning are underscored by the spike in cases in
particular areas of the country. The virus continues to spread.
It is not an even spread as we've seen. In fact, cases are
dropping in many areas of the country. We've learned that this
virus tends to spike in concentrated areas and it does so
rapidly. And there's a lot that we can learn from applying
those simple recognitions.
What I would say to the young people of America is you've
worked hard, in many cases, you had to homeschool, 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 you're experiencing more freedom, that freedom comes
with responsibility. We are seeing that spikes are primarily
affecting young people. And we are learning a lot about young
people; getting together in very crowded areas has actually
expedited the spread. So, we just urge young people to avoid
that spread. Learn from the things that we're learning. You
surely don't 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 it's possible.
Maintain recommended social distancing. We know how important
social distancing still is. We all need to do our part in
stopping the spread.
We also must recognize how much better prepared we are
today. We are currently conducting over 500,000 tests. We have
got a chart right 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 non-existent. You
saw the President expedite, through Operation Warp Speed, to
push more things, including the Defense Production Act to
increase testing, to the point where today we're conducting
over 600,000 tests a day.
We still need to keep growing this number, but you can see
that dramatic increase to see how the administration has
continued to respond. Nobody's letting their foot off the gas,
but it is important to notice how we've come together, even
with China hoarding and lying to the world how we've 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 were used to close their economies
that continues to be the most important barometer to watch as
we safely continue to reopen economies; No. 2, our doctors have
better understanding about how to treat patients, and we have
seen that from less use of ventilators, more use of therapies,
like Remdesivir, which was showing great promise.
No. 3, we know how to protect our most vulnerable
populations, and we hope as most Governors followed the proper
guidelines and saved thousands of lives that the other
Governors would follow that lead.
Four, we know that 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 we
are pushing everybody, government, private sector, all people,
to do more to try to find a cure and to 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 we're 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. We're trying to get more
lifesaving drugs to marketing, not fewer. Hopefully that will
not be the trend that continues.
And finally, five, the role and responsibility of
individual Americans to stop the spread is better understood
and needs to continue to be followed.
So Mr. Chairman, as America continues to move forward,
hopefully schools will start reopening, businesses will
continue to reopen, and we will 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 I look forward to
hearing from our witnesses. With that, I yield back.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank the ranking member for his statement
and for yielding back.
We now would like to introduce our witnesses. Today the
Select Subcommittee welcomes Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, the
leader of FEMA's Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force and the
Vice Director of the Logistics of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We
also welcome Admiral Brett Giroir, the Assistant Secretary for
Health at the Department of Department of Health and Human
Services. And we are pleased to have with us Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, 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.
Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are 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 the witnesses
answered in the affirmative.
Without objection, your written statements will be made a
part of the record. Rear Admiral Polowczyk, you're recognized
for five minutes for your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL JOHN POLOWCZYK, SUPPLY CHAIN
STABILIZATION TASK FORCE, VICE DIRECTOR OF LOGISTICS, JOINT
CHIEFS OF STAFF, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Mr. Polowczyk. Good morning, Chairman Clyburn, Ranking
Member Scalise, and distinguished members of the committee. I
am Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, Vice Director for Logistics 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 condolence 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 healthcare
front lines. My sister is a nurse in Westchester, and my niece
is a nurse in Long Island. Through daily communications, I'm
very cognizant of the needs of healthcare workers and if they
are being met.
On March 19, I was asked to support the management of
critical medical supplies needed to combat the pandemic. It was
clear the global domain 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 Nation's 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 it's
needed, when it's 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 chain's businesses
were operational, the warehouses all intact, the trucks were
all working, their employees luckily 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 was an array of supplies was
far greater than usual and rapidly 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 disasters which are
locally executed, state-managed, federally supported.
With the shortage of PPE, acceleration of the commercial
market was required because we could not wait for shipments of
critical resources. Airbridge was designed to provide Federal
support to medical supply chain and not supplant it. Airbridge
is about speed for manufacturing sources to points of care.
Supplies need not be aggregated in Federal warehouse, and then
pass the state government warehouses, and then on to other
municipalities, and finally to healthcare workers on the front
lines. Airbridge and the public-private partnership provided
speed from overseas sources to the frontline worker and limited
the all of touches in the distribution process.
On March 29 the first flight landed in New York with
gloves, masks, and respirators. By April 30, the 100th flight,
and essentially a month later, Project Airbridge had delivered
into the United States nearly 800,000 N95 respirators, 825
million gloves, 75 million surgical masks, over 11 million
surgical gowns, 2 million thermometers, 650,000 face shields.
The supplies I just listed would still have been at sea on
April 30 and not available to our healthcare workers if normal
shipping were used.
The commercial supply chain was both geographically
orientated, based on CDC outbreak data and further refined by
point of care prioritization, public hospitals first, then VA
hospitals, then private hospitals and nursing homes.
A Federal FEMA resource prioritization sale was stood up to
manage these priorities. This FEMA sale directed supplies to
COVID hotspots such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, New
Orleans, Detroit. This was a balance across the country feeding
hotspots, but also providing supplies to those who do not have
major COVID outbreaks.
Unfortunately, we were managing shortages nationwide. Using
data-driven decisions for allocation ensures the right
quantities of these critical medical supplies get to the right
place at the right time. In an unprecedented fashion, we
consolidated businesses from data from the six major medical
distributors into the cloud of FEMA creating a data lake of
information. For the first time, using a supply chain tool from
DOD, we were able to see the healthcare supply chain from
supplier to point of care. By the first week of April, we could
see inventory held by competing companies for distribution in
the U.S., and how the supply chain was filling orders from
hospitals and nursing homes.
We could see material coming into the commercial network
from overseas and for them further distribution down to the
actual point of care in any county across the country. This
gave FEMA, the Task Force, unprecedented visibility into where
supplies went and the speed of delivery.
FEMA entered into legal agreements with the commercial
supply chain. These agreements allowed the aggregation and use
of businesses system data and FEMA to manage the pandemic
response. These legal agreements limit the sharing of those
business sensitive information. These agreements also require
the commercial market to provide the material at reasonable
prices, and provide the government with data on where the
materials are provided.
Looking ahead, we are preparing America to be ready and
responsive beginning with the increasing our reserves and
expanding domestic capacity. Using the Defense Production Act
and other tools, we are working with industry to increase
domestic production supplies and pharmaceuticals. This is a
complex task of investments in Federal contracting. The DPA
cannot be used to force companies to make medical supplies.
Each industry expansion effort takes research and planning,
this is being done at speed. We have used the DPA more than 10
times across many items with high potential for more actions.
We now have more ventilators in the Strategic National
Stockpile than before the pandemic, thanks to U.S. production.
Pre-COVID, the stockpile had less than 18 million N95 masks. We
are growing that to 300 million. With the DPA, we grew U.S.
production of N95 masks. The stockpile had no ventilator drugs.
We are now growing it to have at least five in stock with
months' worth of supply. These efforts are part of an overall
strategy to transform the stockpile, build a holistic supply
chain echo system capable of being responsive, a modernized
stockpile combined with more U.S. production will enable a
continued Federal response.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, I look
forward to answering any questions that you may have.
Mr. Clyburn. Thank you. Admiral Giroir.
STATEMENT OF ADMIRAL BRETT P. GIROIR, M.D., ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Mr. Giroir. Chairman Clyburn, Ranking Member Scalise, and
distinguished members of the committee, on March 12, Secretary
Azar requested that I lead the coordination of COVID-19 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
coordinating testing, including now the new NIH RADx diagnostic
program, to assure 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 the 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 can't 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. And 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 COVID-19
tests, now averaging over 550,000 tests per day. Preliminary
data indicate that the states far surpassed their testing goals
for June. And 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 emerging techniques, like
pooling of samples, combined with investments and 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 address 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, drive-through 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
multifold.
Next, we leveraged trusted pharmacies to further expand
community testing, especially for minorities and underserved.
This Federal program is now providing testing at 624 locations
in 48 states and the District, 17 percent 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 percent of FQHCs now offer
COVID testing.
To further fight COVID-19 among racial and ethnic
minorities, as well as rural and other socially vulnerable
communities the office of the Assistant Secretary, my office,
Office of Minority Health, announced Morehouse School of
Medicine as the awardee for a new $40 million initiative to
create, and develop, and implement a strategic network of
national, state, territory, Tribal, and local organizations to
deliver COVID-19-related 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 Commissioned 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.
Mr. Clyburn. And thank you very much.
Assistant Secretary Fahey.
STATEMENT OF HON. KEVIN FAHEY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR ACQUISITION, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Mr. 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 Defense role's in procuring and distributing
Personal Protection Equipment, PPE, medical equipment, testing
supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.
While COVID-19 has an unprecedented impact on the Nation,
Secretary Esper has led the Department of Defense and
contributed to the administration's whole-of-government
response. Today, I will describe key elements of how the
Department's 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 American lives.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted critical shortfalls
in the medical supply and the PPE supply chain. On March 18,
President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act. In doing
so, he delegated authority to the Secretary at Health and Human
Services to determine nationwide priorities and allocation of
the health and medical resource. Accordingly, we have been
supporting HHS to execute the Defense Production Act
authorities.
On March 27, the President signed the CARES Act, it
includes language and resources to mitigate critical
shortfalls, and to create and expand domestic industrial-based
capabilities. I'd like to thank Congress for passing the CARES
Act, and all the support you've provided during this national
emergency.
To ensure that the Department could leverage all the
resources support to HHS and FEMA, my boss, the Under Secretary
of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Ms. Lord, created
the COVID-19 Joint Acquisition Task Force or JATF. The JATF
team has enabled HHS and FEMA to access the DOD acquisition
work force, our expertise, our authorities, quickly and
effectively. The JATF work with HHS has evolved. Today, it
supports expanding and replenishing the Strategic National
Stockpile. It is also working to expand domestic manufacturing
base for certain items. This line of effort includes procuring
critical medical supplies and PPE.
I'd 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. It includes FEMA mission
assignments and HHS interagency agreements valued at nearly $2
million. DLA efforts provide test kits, ventilators,
pharmaceutical drugs, and PPE to DOD and other government
partners. This support includes ongoing efforts to supply
nearly 15,000 nursing homes with a two-week supply of PPE, also
supplied 107 million of PPE to the Javits Center in New York
City.
We have taken steps to address the overwhelmingly reliance
of foreign suppliers, and have been particularly successful in
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 per month by the end of the
calendar year, enabling the U.S. to domestically meet the
projected demand of medical community beginning in 2021.
Turning to medical equipment, DOD 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 resurging of COVID.
We now focus to support the longer-term stockpiling of
ventilators. As testing is becoming more a component to fight
against COVID, the community quickly determined that we faced a
global shortage of nasal swabs. Once we realized we were going
to run short, we engaged industry to determine where we could
increase capacity. In late April, we awarded a contractor 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 to support expanding tests
in COVID-19.
A strong domestic and industrial base is critical to the
economic and national security. Rapidly sourcing, procuring,
and moving items when transportation corridors are not
operating normally is challenging. We have demonstrated our
commitment and willingness to support the interagency
requirements and leveraging our expertise to provide immediate
and impactful support to the Nation.
I am incredibly proud of the Department's response to
national emergency, and to our dedicated individuals who have
worked diligently on behalf of the American people.
I look forward to your questions.
Mr. Clyburn. Thank you very much. We are now moving to
questions and answers. And I'm going to recognize myself for
five minutes.
In June, an internal White House document was released and
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?
Mr. Polowczyk. Yes, Chairman, I am.
Mr. Clyburn. This document confirms what our committee has
been hearing for weeks, that we face serious shortages in
Personal Protective Equipment, including masks and gowns. For
example, page four shows demand for N95 masks dwarfed supply in
March, April and May. It also shows that we will need more than
160 million N95 masks in July alone. But the imports and the
domestic production together will only supply about 130 million
masks. That leaves a projected shortfall of about 30 million
masks. The document suggests that that 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 use it.
Admiral, how is it possible more than five months into this
crisis, our country is still facing a possible shortage of 30
million N95 masks this month?
Mr. Polowczyk. Sir, 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 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.
Second, for context, the demand bars also represent COVID
demand, opening America, that pre-COVID medical. And in the
worse-case scenario of every worker I've listed there,
nonhealthcare, janitorial services, everybody that thinks they
need an N95 masks, but may not need an N95 mask. So, it's a
stacked demand chart with worst-case estimates, but I did not
add in the supply side all of those unknown factors that I
could not know.
Mr. Clyburn. Thank you for that. But this report also
projected shortages--indicated the projected shortages may be
conservative. And let me quote from it, ``Steadily declining
COVID hospitalization rates should reduce daily hospital PPE
usage.'' That's in the report.
However, hospitalizations are skyrocketing. They have
reached record highs in my home state of South Carolina, in
Texas, and Arizona, and many other states. And I just heard
last night or early this morning that there is one jurisdiction
where there are 101 percent of capacity for beds. Now, Admiral,
do you agree that the surge that we are now experiencing could
very well increase the demand for PPEs?
Mr. Polowczyk. The surge of cases, and, then, therefore,
the surge of hospitalizations, again, the demand slides on here
consider that we've completely opened up and are conducting all
the pre-medical COVID. 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, I'm cognizant
of the increases. But states are reporting and hospitals are
reporting more supplies on hand. I'll address that as we go
forward, sir.
Mr. Clyburn. Well, thank you very much.
I see my time has expired. I do have one or two other
questions, but I'm going to lead by example. I will now yield
to chairman--Ranking Member Scalise.
Mr. Scalise. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'll start with Rear Admiral Polowczyk. There's been a lot
of questions raised about the Defense Production Act. And we
see it continuing to pop up, people saying why isn't it being
used. And yet, I go back and look back in March, in April, in
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 of where the Defense Production
Act has been invoked by President Trump to move things faster
here in production?
Mr. Polowczyk. Yes, sir. So, the Defense Production Act, as
Honorable Fahey indicated, it was first the authorities were
giving 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
followed by uses for the purchasing and production of
ventilators. We've subsequently dived that supply chain for
ventilator production, and 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 manufacturers
dived their supply chains, find pinch points, and then we used
the Defense Production Act in certain investments in filter
material, and other consumables to relieve supply chain issues
so they can make more.
Mr. Scalise. Thank you. So, it just seems kind of strange
that you hear some people still saying the Defense Production
Act hasn't been used or, needs to be used. You just cited
multiple examples where it has been used, we've seen multiple
examples where it has, and continues to be used.
Mr. Fahey, can you testify? Have you seen familiar uses of
the Defense Production Act to help America meet this challenge?
Mr. Fahey. Yes, sir. I have a long experience in the
Department of Defense, where I have seen this used quite often,
mainly in two areas: Title 1, which is prioritization; and
Title 3, which is ramping up production. I was sort of in the
middle of mind resistant to ambush protection where we used it
a lot. And what I would tell you is that you see that
immediately in early March we sent our lead, our senior
executive who leads DPA over to FEMA to lead the Defense
Production Act Task Force.
The other things that I will tell you that the
administration challenges us with that we haven't used a lot,
one is Title 7, which is really where we get industry to
collaborate to work on things. And I will tell you, I think
that's going to be invaluable to bring in domestic medical
equipment here to the United States.
Mr. Scalise. I apologize. I know we're on a short supply. I
appreciate that you've given those examples. I applaud
President Trump for invoking the Defense Production Act, and
using so many other tools that he's had available to meet this
challenge to increase the production of ventilators, masks,
gloves, so many other PPE supplies.
But I want to ask you, Admiral Polowczyk, this has come up
a lot. This committee unfortunately hasn't put a focus on China
that needs to be placed on not just in holding China
accountable, but also, doing more work to try to bring some of
that manufacturing back, because we saw, as China was lying to
us and the rest of the world, they were hoarding PPE supplies.
They were buying them from other countries that were making
them to hold onto them so that once the rest of the world found
out, there was nothing to purchase.
Do you think it's in the national security interest of 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?
Mr. Polowczyk. Sir, yes. The industrial base expansion
efforts going forward are the linchpin of what we need to do.
We need to make more here, need to have a larger stockpile, and
then write contracts to have ready reserve as things get issued
from a stockpile whether it be a state or Federal, have the
ability to contract for it from a U.S. manufacturer. That's
essentially what we're trying to do going forward.
Mr. Scalise. I appreciate that testimony. I hope we put
more focus on that in this Congress, because Congress surely
can help expedite, and it shouldn't just be the administration
on their own trying to do more manufacturing here, so that
we're not as reliant on the other countries and we could meet
that demand even greater, even if China lies, manipulates, does
the things that they have historically done in the future.
Finally, Mr. Giroir, first, welcome here. And again,
Admiral Polowczyk, thank you, and the FEMA administrator for
the help you gave to our state when we needed that help. Even
though you went to the wrong high school in New Orleans, I did
want to ask you a serious question. We've 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 followed that guidance properly, some states
didn't. Have you seen the examples where some states went
against CMS guidelines? Have you found out why they went
against the guidelines? And did those deviations lead in what
we're seeing is potential deaths that should have never
occurred, maybe in the thousands of seniors in nursing homes
who should have never died if they would have just followed the
Federal guidelines that y'all gave?
Mr. Giroir. So, thank you for the question. I think I went
to the right high school, but we'll let that pass. What you're
referring to is something we really need to go back and look
at, because it is very concerning. The CDC was very clear that
in order to take care of a COVID nursing home patient, there
needed to be pretty significant mitigation measures, the
ability to isolate all the PPE, trained staff, cleaning, et
cetera. That was a sine qua non. If you couldn't do those
things, you shouldn't have it. And there were policies among a
few states that said, it doesn't matter, we're going to send
you that patient, as long as they are medically stable, you
have to take them.
I wasn't there. I wasn't that medical director, but that's
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 percent
mortality. So, that is a concerning practice, and we certainly
need to look at that in retrospect. That certainly isn't
happening.
Mr. Scalise. I hope we do. Thank you.
And Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank the ranking member.
Before I move on to the members, I wish to reiterate that
which I said at the top of our meeting today. I can't--I don't
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 you're not wearing the
masks, I'm not going to recognize you. Now, this is not Jim
Clyburn, this is not anything that's partisan. I just want to
read a couple of things here.
Ranking Member Scalise, you made it very clear at our last
meeting that you'll hold on to this mask wearing, and I think,
to quote, you said, it's no big deal. I appreciate that. I've
talked to Dr. Green. And I appreciate that. I've been reading
from Kevin McCarthy, who made it very clear. I'm going 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 toward that vaccine where we're in a much
stronger position than any other country before.''
I agree with all of these. And there are others that I
won't bother to read. I would hope that we would do our part.
So, I am going to reiterate that we are going to honor the
wearing of masks, because that's what the Attending Physician
has instructed, and he has not made it either/or distances, he
made it and social distancing, and wearing a mask.
With that, I yield to----
Mr. Scalise. I'm sorry. Would the chairman yield?
Mr. Clyburn. Yes.
Mr. Scalise. I know we talked about this privately, as well
as--I think we've seen today everybody has been complying. Is
there any suggestion that there is 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 were not mandatory, it
was social distancing, clearly which still is important, and
then there was an addition that masks be mandatory. And I think
we're seeing everybody comply with that. Is that----
Mr. Clyburn. 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 questioning is not wearing a mask. I made it very clear.
If we're not speaking, we ought to be wearing a mask. If we're
not speaking, we ought to be wearing a mask. I've made that
very clear. And I've been around for a while and I understand
recalcitrance when I see it. I understand it when I feel it.
And I see it and I feel it. I just want you to know that I'm
going to respond to it appropriately.
With that, I yield to the chairwoman.
Ms. Waters. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I'm going to direct my first question to Rear Admiral
Polowczyk. You indicated in response to Mr. Clyburn's question
about whether or not your memorandum really was inclusive
enough for you to know and understand what the needs are going
to be because of this fight that we're having. You indicated
that you really didn't know what the states were doing. Is that
right?
Mr. Polowczyk. Not essentially, ma'am. I've had
conversations with all 50 states.
Ms. Waters. Excuse, me. Rear Admiral, you did not include
in your calculation what the states may have been doing?
Mr. Polowczyk. No. Many times states were not forthcoming.
Ms. Waters. So, why don't you know what the states are
doing? What is the plan? How do you know? How should you know
what the states are doing?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, you would like--OK.
I've had several--over the last couple of weeks, I've 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 percent of the states have at least 30 to 60, 90 days
of supplies on hand.
Ms. Waters. Where----
Mr. Polowczyk. For those that don't have that amount, they
have at least 30 days.
Ms. Waters. 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 they're including whatever the
Federal stockpile is and what the states have? Is there a plan?
Mr. Polowczyk. Yes, ma'am. There is a plan.
Ms. Waters. And how does the plan work?
Mr. Polowczyk. We are going to have several echelons of
supply. First, we have been able to communicate with the
states. The states have told us, as I just explained, that
there are plans, and some states are working toward 90 to 120
days' worth of supply. The national stockpile, with the help of
Defense Logistics Agency, is going to grow to three months.
Ms. Waters. Reclaiming my time, do they have a report that
they do to you on a regular basis? Every week? Every month?
Every 30 days? How does the plan work?
Mr. Polowczyk. No. The states at this time are not
reporting on that--on that----
Ms. Waters. Thank you. That's good. That's what I
understand. And that's why you don't have the projections that
include them. You don't have a regular plan.
Now I want to ask: How do you work with FEMA?
Mr. Polowczyk. I am the Supply Chain Task Force Lead
embedded within FEMA and so that task force is part of the--of
Administrator Gaynor's effort of work.
Ms. Waters. Thank you.
So, does everyone report to you? Do you report to anyone
else?
Mr. Polowczyk. The chain of command, again, I am working at
FEMA as the Supply Chain Task Force Lead. The--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.
Ms. Waters. Thank you.
What role does Jared Kushner play in this command?
Mr. Polowczyk. Mr. Kushner plays no role in anything I do.
Ms. Waters. What role does he play that you know about?
What does he do? He's been sent to FEMA. What is his role in
FEMA?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, he's not at FEMA.
Ms. Waters. Where is he?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, I believe he's a special advisor to
the White House Task Force.
Ms. Waters. Is he involved in contracting at all with--for
PPP with any organization, with any provider, with any
business?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, not to my knowledge.
Ms. Waters. He may be, but you don't know about it. Is that
right?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, I would highly doubt that he has any
role in acquisition and contracting. Like even myself, I
don't--the acquisition and contracting people don't work for
me. There's----
Ms. Waters. Who is responsible for contracting with private
businesses?
Mr. Polowczyk. The FEMA Administrator owns contracting
authority, along with mister--Honorable Fahey here. His team
owns the Department of Defense's contracting authority, and I
have none of those authorities.
Ms. Waters. Does the competition still exist between the
Feds and the states for PPP? I understand that states have on
some occasion made contact with international businesses to get
supplies, and those supplies on the way have been commandeered
by the White House or Feds. Do you know anything about that? Is
there competition still going on?
Mr. Polowczyk. I have no knowledge of any time where FEMA
has confiscated anything for any state.
Ms. Waters. I did not mention FEMA, but I did specifically
mention the White House. Do you know any time that they have
been--PPP that have been commandeered that have been ordered by
the states and paid for by the states?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, I have no knowledge of that. I have--
nobody has presented anything to me that was concrete enough,
other than conjecture.
Ms. Waters. And may I just wrap this up by asking, who
makes the determination about what states get what from the
Federal supply?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, the--that's a FEMA process and so if
the--I'll answer to the best of my ability for Administrator
Gaynor, but the FEMA stood up, as I said in my oral remarks, a
resource prioritization cell. That Resource Prioritization Cell
uses information from CDC, Dr. Birx, the epidemiologists, and
the requests from the states. That resource prioritization cell
then takes all that into account and provides some supplies to
the states.
Ms. Waters. Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank you.
The chair now yields to Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Admiral Giroir, what's more important: going to church or
protesting?
Mr. Giroir. I'm a public health person. I'm not going to
say what's more important, but both need to have protection by
the guidelines.
Mr. Jordan. Democrats don't think that. Democrats think
protesting is a lot more important than going to church. We've
got a story from Governor Northam. Sixteen people go to a
sanctuary that holds 225 people; they get cited. Nothing
happens to thousands and thousands of people who protest, not
maintaining social distances and not wearing a mask.
How about this one? What's more important: going to a loved
one's funeral or protesting?
Mr. Giroir. We absolutely need to be consistent in the way
we apply things, and there's obviously some inconsistencies.
Mr. Jordan. That's because the First Amendment's the First
Amendment, not just parts of it, right?
Mr. Giroir. I'm not a constitutional lawyer.
Mr. Jordan. No, but you're an American citizen. You
understand your rights. You understand the Constitution----
Mr. Giroir. The First Amendment is the First Amendment.
Mr. Jordan [continuing]. The Bill of Rights, the First
Amendment has a number of rights. It doesn't just say
protesting trumps everything else. Mayor de Blasio, when New
Yorkers who gathered to mourn a Hasidic rabbi, he said this: My
message to the Jewish community and all communities is this
simple. The time for warnings has passed. I've instructed NYPD
to proceed immediately to summons them.
If you go to someone's funeral, you're going to get
arrested. But you can protest in the streets, not maintain
social distancing.
How about this one? What's more important: engaging in your
livelihood, running your business, or protesting?
Mr. Giroir. Again, you're having a rhetorical question
there. We get your point. I think public health practice----
Mr. Jordan. Well, you might get my point. But this is the
problem. Democrat Governors, Democrat mayors don't. Mayor
Garcetti said this. He said he was going to turn off people's
utilities, shut off utilities if anyone tried to reopen their
business. Unbelievable. And yet Mayor Garcetti, here's what
else Mayor Garcetti said. He said back in April, he said:
Snitches will be rewarded.
What's 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 do you think of those is
more important?
Mr. Giroir. Well, let me make a statement that public
health standards need to be consistently applied, and when
they're inconsistently applied, there's going to be a lot of
frustration among the people who are trying----
Mr. Jordan. No kidding. No kidding. We have seen the height
of inconsistency from Democrat mayors, Democrat Governors all
over this country.
What do you think's 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 xenophobic?
What's more important?
Mr. Giroir. Restricting travel from China and then Europe
was really critical steps for us to slow the infusion of
infected individuals into the country.
Mr. Jordan. No kidding. No kidding. Not xenophobic, was it?
Just a smart move.
Mr. Giroir. I have not seen any xenophobia in any of our
discussions. We're trying to make decisions based on public----
Mr. Jordan. Democrats sure saw it way back when the
President made a decision that everyone else criticized.
Democrats sure saw it. Democrats are defending the World Health
Organization. It's probably more important that we not give
money to an organization that lies to us than to continue to
support them. What do you think's more important? Continuing to
give money to the World Health Organization, who lied to us
about the start of this pandemic, or maybe cutting off the
money to the World Health Organization, Admiral?
Mr. Giroir. As the U.S. representative to the Executive
Board of the World Health Organization, it's clear that the
organization needs reforms, and I will work with the
administration to try to implement those reforms, while
preserving some very important global public----
Mr. Jordan. How about this one? How about this one? What's
more important: requiring committee members to wear a mask in a
committee hearing when they're 10 feet apart from anyone else
or not sending COVID-positive people back into nursing homes?
Which is more important?
Mr. Giroir. That's a public health determination, and I
will say it's definitely more important not to accepted COVID-
positive people back to----
Mr. Jordan. No kidding. Especially--and probably it's more
important not to do it for 46 days than even to do it for even
one day, right?
Mr. Giroir. Yes, sir.
Mr. Jordan. And is it probably important, when we're
dealing with the pandemic, that 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? Might it be helpful if he gave
us that information?
Mr. Giroir. Information is always the basis for which we
could understand what's happened and how to avoid it in the
future, yes, sir.
Mr. Jordan. Admiral, I appreciate your work. I appreciate
all you, the work you're doing. Common sense, commonsense
approach to all this versus what we're seeing from Democrat--we
can't let people go to their loved one's funeral but, oh, my
goodness, we can join thousands of people at a protest. Mayor
Garcetti can walk out in front of thousands of people, kneel
down to them without a mask, that's fine. But, oh, you go to an
empty beach, he wants someone to snitch you out, rat you out,
and report to you the Government. And I guess you get some kind
of reward. Maybe he's handing out ribbons or certificates or
something for people who rat out their neighbors. I don't know.
But I'd like some common sense. I'd like some consistency
about the First Amendment, about the Constitution, when it
comes to these Democrat mayors and Democrat Governors around
the country.
I yield back.
Mr. Clyburn. As I go to Maloney, let me ask you a question,
Mr. Giroir. Is COVID-19 a hoax?
Mr. Giroir. No, sir, it's not a hoax.
Mr. Clyburn. Will it disappear miraculously?
Mr. Giroir. We will only gain control over COVID-19 by
disciplined public health measures and eventually a vaccine.
Mr. Clyburn. And in the interim, wearing the masks and
socially distancing will indicate us doing our part.
Mr. Giroir. Yes, sir. We want to stress that wearing a
mask, physical distancing, hygiene are all critical public
health components. Yes, sir, you're correct.
Mr. Clyburn. Thank you very much, sir.
With that, I yield.
Mr. Jordan. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Clyburn. I yield.
Mr. Jordan. Yes, I didn't say it wasn't important to
maintain social distancing and wear a mask. I said: What's more
important? That policy or sending, not sending people with
COVID-positive back into nursing homes? And the admiral was
really clear. He said the second one is much more important
than the first. All of them are important. That's why we're
doing it. But the second one is more important than first, and
we would like the information. The ranking member's been asking
for weeks for this information with no help from you and the
majority to get that information. That was my point.
Mr. Giroir. And maybe just to clarify, I think the question
was not wearing a mask versus nursing home but wearing a mask
in here when you're 10 feet apart versus----
Mr. Jordan. Yes. Exactly.
Mr. Giroir [continuing]. In a nursing home. Because I don't
want to diminish the importance of wearing a mask.
Mr. Jordan. I thank the admiral for his commonsense answer.
Mr. Clyburn. Yes, I appreciate that. But I reiterate this
is not a hoax.
Mr. Jordan. I didn't say it was. You're the one bringing it
up.
Mr. Clyburn. Well, yes, I want to bring it up.
Mr. Jordan. You think it's a hoax? I don't.
Mr. Clyburn. Because a Republican President said that it
is.
Mr. Jordan. I think relevant to the pandemic----
Mr. Clyburn. OK.
Mr. Jordan [continuing]. It looks like common sense and
good policy.
Mr. Clyburn. I just want you to know you won't be checked.
Mr. Jordan. Checked for what?
Mr. Clyburn. For everything that you say in here.
Mr. Jordan. So, are you.
Mr. Clyburn. OK.
Mr. Jordan. No, I'm fine with being checked.
Mr. Clyburn. I understand, because I'm going stick with the
science.
Mr. Jordan. I----
Mr. Clyburn. I'm going to stick with the science. All
right.
I now yield to Mrs. Maloney.
Mrs. Maloney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks to you
all of our witnesses and their work.
I'd first like to ask, Admiral Giroir, I want to ask you a
straightforward question. Do you believe the Trump
administration provided adequate guidance to the private sector
on how to procure and distribute PPE to the people in our
Nation who needed it most? Admiral?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, I think you meant me. It is not
Admiral Giroir.
These legal agreements that we signed with the commercial
enterprise allowed us to direct their efforts to where the
government felt the highest need was.
Mrs. Maloney. Thank you.
I'm sorry, Admiral, but according to an investigation that
my staff on the Oversight Committee enacted, which we're
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 trade organization. They told us that 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.
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, I don't mean to interrupt but you----
Mrs. Maloney. Excuse me?
Mr. Polowczyk. I'd like to clarify. I've 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.
Mrs. Maloney. OK. 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
wasn't coming, end quote.
On March 28, the President of the industry's 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 or the administration failed to provide the guidance that
they needed.
Now I want to move on. There's another issue that's 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?
Mr. Polowczyk. First, to answer the priority question, we
hold----
Mrs. Maloney. Excuse me. I'm going forward because I only
have five minutes.
Mr. Polowczyk. OK. I hold daily----
Mr. Scalise. Could I ask a point of order, Mr. Chairman?
The gentlelady from New York literally accused a rear admiral
of the United States military of being missing in action. Can
he at least be able to defend himself? That's an absurd claim.
No one should make a claim to a witness who's a military
service member to say he was missing in action. She referred to
him by name. That's absurd. He ought to have the opportunity to
defend himself, Mr. Chairman.
Mrs. Maloney. Point of order, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Clyburn. I understand I'm aging a little bit, but I
thought she said the administration was missing in action.
Mr. Scalise. Well, she said he was missing in action. He
made it clear that he wasn't even here during that time.
Mr. Clyburn. He made it very clear.
Mr. Scalise. And she said the administration when she
started by saying he was missing in action. He's a rear admiral
of the United States military. He does not deserve to be talked
to that way, and he at least ought to have the ability to
defend himself.
Mr. Clyburn. You've stated your point of order.
Mrs. Maloney, you're recognized.
Mrs. Maloney. OK. 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 I'd like to get back to my questions, if I
could, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Polowczyk. Yes, ma'am, I'll quickly answer the follow-
on question. There's always been a firewall between the
requiring individual and the person who is 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.
Mrs. Maloney. Thank you.
But according to our investigation and the companies who
agreed to talk to us, not one but several of them told us that
the Trump administration pushed them to buy PPE for weeks
through one particular Chinese company called BYD, which is
heavily subsidized by the Chinese Government.
One company told us that HHS pressed 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, very uncertain
supply chain, end quote.
Were these companies lying, Admiral?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, as the head of the Supply Chain Task
Force, I did no business with BYD because, one, they were not
proven and, two, I can't speak to the price, but they did not
have a proven track record or were not FDA-approved. It's also
the same company that I think the state of California took lots
of risk and bought a lot of masks from, but I know of no
forcing of anybody to go do business with BYD.
Mrs. Maloney. Admiral----
Mr. Clyburn. The gentlelady's time has expired.
Mrs. Maloney. May I ask for an additional second? I have a
minute. I have a very important point to make, and there was a
lot of disruption during the questioning.
Mr. Clyburn. OK. I recognize the gentlelady.
Mrs. Maloney. OK. Admiral, these companies warned that
there is, quote, way too much reliance on these Chinese
[inaudible] companies, 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 PPE here in the United States, and I believe this could be
a bipartisan issue. That's why I am introducing a bill that
would require 10 percent of the PPE in the Strategic National
Stockpile to be produced domestically. We can't put ourselves
in this position again. This bill is a good first step toward
promoting a stronger manufacturing base for critical medical
equipment.
Thank you to the panelists, my colleagues.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank the gentlelady for yielding back.
The chair now recognizes Mr. Luetkemeyer.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank our
witnesses today for their service to our country and the--all
the hard work that you've put in to get our country back up and
running here and protect our citizens from this deadly virus.
Admiral Polowczyk, I'll followup on Ms. Maloney's questions
here with regard to the supply chain. You've worked on this a
lot, and it's 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?
Mr. Polowczyk. It's going to range by product. N95 mask, I
think we're going to, as Mr. Fahey mentioned, as we go through
the summer and into the fall, we will be almost wholly really
holistically domestically reliant, and then further on down is
where we're trying to do some effort. It's a potential--other
DPA actions--is nitrile gloves. We essentially make zero
nitrile gloves in the United States, and I think we're working
hard to ramp up that production. But that's going to be
rheostat, not a light switch. So, each product line has a
different dimension to it, sir.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. OK. Thank you.
Admiral Fahey, I think--Honorable Mr. Fahey, I think this
question may be for you. But in the acquisition of these--of
the PPE, did you see hoarding going on by China? There appears
to be some evidence to that effect. Did you see that yourself?
Mr. Fahey. Sir, 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 that we checked
the supply that was coming from China.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. OK. I know in 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--
you know, I don't know why--whether they just incompetent or
whether they trying to undermine our safety of our citizens,
but apparently there was a lot of that. Did you see that as
well?
Mr. Polowczyk. Congressman, if I could--this is Admiral
Polowczyk--if I could take this for Honorable Fahey. So, yes, 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 folks from
embassies to go visit warehouses, to go visit places that we
hadn't done business with before, and a lot of times we found
out that there wasn't anything there. So, we didn't make any of
those procurements. The second thing we did was we let a
contract with Underwriters Laboratories to go do inspections
for us to prevent that. So, we did not procure anything because
there were reports of very faulty material coming from China.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. Very good.
Admiral Giroir, one of the things that's going on is
Operation Warp Speed, which is to develop a vaccine. I think an
important part of not only developing the vaccine is to be able
to get it distributed, should it happen. You know, we don't
know for sure if it will. But if it is developed, and it is
made available to our citizens, we need to get it out as
quickly as possible. Are you working on plans to supplement
Operation Work Speed's development with plans for distribution
as well?
Mr. Giroir. Yes, sir, Congressman. I'm not personally
involved in that but, of course, as the assistant secretary, I
have good knowledge of that. There was 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 vaccine will indeed depend on the
vaccine's characteristics. We hope it can be distributed to the
most vulnerable, those in high need, but we need to wait until
the trials come out to figure out where it works, how it works
most effectively. But there is a comprehensive program led by
General Perna, who is really the logistics guy in the country,
as well as Dr. Slaoui, who is widely recognized as truly one of
the foremost vaccine developers in the world.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. One more quick question for you, Admiral.
With regards to reporting of deaths from a COVID situation,
there are reports, and I've been talking to medical
professionals, as well as I think there's evidence that even
the Governor of Colorado found out, there's been misreporting
of deaths for people who may have been involved in, for
instance, an auto accident but had COVID in their system and
that death is being reported as a COVID death because there
apparently is a perverse incentive to do that. They get paid
more. The hospitals get paid more for a COVID death than they
do for an auto accident. Is there any truth to that, or how
does this work?
Mr. Giroir. 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 lists the causes of death. So, the Federal
Government is dependent on the loss, but, yes, there appear to
be some mis-incentives to overcode. We hear anecdotal versions
of that, but I can't give you an estimate of whether that's 2
percent, 5 percent, 10 percent, but it is something that has to
be done at the local level, all the way down to the level of
the physician. It's impossible for the CDC to go back and
investigate those individually.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. I'm from Missouri, but my youngest
daughter lives in Denver, Colorado, and in discussing it with
her and seeing news report to this respect, the Governor of
Colorado had all of his COVID deaths reviewed I think around
the end of May, first part of June, and found that 12 percent
of them were misrepresented. That's a pretty significant
number, and I think that's something that HHS needs to look
into to make sure that the numbers and the data that we're
getting is accurate. Somebody who, you know, is unfortunately
in an auto accident but is reported as a COVID death, that is a
ridiculous statement and a ridiculous part of our data. It
needs to be cleaned up. So, I would certainly hope that you
would take a look on that and see if we can get something
fixed.
Mr. Giroir. Yes, sir.
Mr. Luetkemeyer. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank you for yielding back.
The chair now recognizes Ms. Velazquez.
Ms. Velazquez. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.
I want to respond briefly to the claims that nursing home
deaths were caused by the actions 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
continental USA. In many states, such as Florida, more than
half of the deaths from coronavirus occurred in nursing homes.
In Ohio, an estimated 7 to 10 coronavirus deaths were in
nursing homes.
And from my state, New York, I grieve for every New Yorker
who lost their life in this crisis. But I'm incredibly proud of
New York's response. Our state followed CMS guidance at every
stage in the process including on nursing homes. CMS guidance
on March 13, 2020, allowed nursing homes to accept COVID
patients.
Question: When should a nursing home accept a resident who
was diagnosed with COVID-19 from the hospital? Here is the
answer put out by CMS: A nursing home can accept a resident
diagnosed with COVID-19 and still under transmission-based
precautions for COVID-19 as long as the facility can follow CDC
guidance.
Our state was following guidance put out by this
administration which was often changing daily. What we lacked,
however, was strong support to testing and access to testing
and Personal Protective Equipment into nursing homes quickly to
prevent the spread of the virus, and even as the virus recedes
in states like New York that were initially, other states like
Texas and Florida are seeing spikes in new cases. Over the June
28 weekend, Arizona hit a single-day record of more than 3,800
cases and fatalities approach 1,600. And though each state is
required to report cases and deaths in nursing homes to the
CDC, they are not required to share this publicly. And states
like Arizona are choosing not to.
As of early June, more than 43,000 long-term residents and
staff have died from COVID-19, representing over a third of the
Nation's known coronavirus deaths. This includes blue states,
red states, and purple states. So, let's get the data from
nursing homes that the select committee has requested and also
here, from CMS
[inaudible] health and safety regulations and put this
talking point to rest, while Americans are dying, Republicans
and Democrats.
So, Admiral Giroir, an April HHS whistleblower complaint by
Dr. Bright alleges that he was pressured to award contracts
based on political connections to the Trump administration and
his family. Doesn't 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?
Mr. Giroir. Thank you, ma'am.
I don't have any knowledge of any contract that had a
priority other than science and what was right for the American
people.
Ms. Velazquez. And did you read the article in The New York
Times?
Mr. Giroir. I'm sorry? Did I read what article?
Ms. Velazquez. Rick Bright, does he exist, Dr. Bright? Does
he file a complaint?
Mr. Giroir. Yes, ma'am, I know Dr. Bright. I'm sorry. I
really am sorry. It's hard to hear the question, ma'am. I
really do apologize. I'm trying to answer, but could you maybe
repeat that?
Ms. Velazquez. Is he a real person, Dr. Bright?
Mr. Clyburn. She's asking is he a real person, I think she
said.
Mr. Giroir. Is he a real person? Yes, I know Dr. Bright.
Ms. Velazquez. OK. And did you read the article in The New
York Times?
Mr. Giroir. No, I don't read The New York Times.
Ms. Velazquez. Oh, OK.
Mr. Giroir. I just don't. I'm too busy doing what I'm
doing. I'm happy to answer a question, but I don't routinely
read The New York Times.
Ms. Velazquez. Sir, you don't read an article that I'm 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----
Mr. Giroir. Right.
Ms. Velazquez [continuing]. Prioritizing political
connections.
Mr. Giroir. So----
Ms. Velazquez. And let me ask you----
Mr. Giroir. I'm just saying the Department takes every
whistleblower complaint seriously. I know it's being
investigated by the Secretary. I don't have any knowledge of
any pressure on Dr. Bright.
Ms. Velazquez. And after that complaint and discussion in
the media on political connections, have--what steps have you
taken to make sure that there is 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 are dying?
Mr. Giroir. I certainly agree with your premise, ma'am. We
always do everything possible to make sure we have as fair
procedures as possible, and I'm sure the complaints by Dr.
Bright are being investigated through our general counsel,
according to, and I know the Secretary takes every
whistleblower complaint seriously, as I would. I'm just not
involved with Dr. Bright on that level.
Mr. Clyburn. The gentlelady's time has expired.
Let me be clear with your answer. You know Dr. Bright, and
you are familiar with this allegation.
Mr. Giroir. Yes, sir, of course.
Mr. Clyburn. And you say it is being investigated.
Mr. Giroir. I'm not investigating it, but the Secretary has
put out statements that he takes whistleblower complaints very
seriously. I know that's the attitude of the Department, and it
is being investigated by the normal channels.
Mr. Clyburn. Very good.
Mr. Giroir. Yes, sir.
Mr. Clyburn. Thank you very much.
The chair now recognizes Mrs. Walorski.
Mrs. Walorski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate our witnesses that are here today, and I want
to extend so much appreciation for my district in Indiana for
the services of all of our witness here today. You three guys
face an impossible task. China and the WHO lied about the
extent of the crisis, and it's well documented that China used
that time to hoard PPE that was vital to this country. To make
matters worse, the Obama Administration name depleted the N95
mask from the Strategic National Stockpile during the 2009 H1N1
influenza outbreak and never replenished it. The odds were
against you guys from the very beginning.
Then you had a national media super eager to paint the
worst possible picture. So, for instance, The New York Times
published an article on March 25 that said: Amid desperate need
for ventilators, calls grow for Federal investigation, which
said that the U.S. needed as many as 1 million ventilators to
adequately respond to the pandemic. We only had 200,000
thousand available.
Admiral Polowczyk, did the U.S. really need 1 million
ventilators?
Mr. Giroir. Maybe I'll 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.
Mrs. Walorski. In fact, The New York Times article
mischaracterized the study by the Society of Critical Care
Medicine, which estimated that, over the course of the
pandemic, as many as 1 million people could require ventilator
treatment. That's a huge difference from needing 1 million
ventilators. Whether this was an honest mistake or not, such an
eye-popping number got a ton of attention. The figure was used
in a second New York Times article, repeated by the other news
outlets, and rocketed around Twitter and Facebook. A New York
Times reporter tweeted the incorrect figure and then 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 retweeted just 15 times, and he
didn't 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: Report breathlessly an alarming
report, and by the story falls apart and has been disproven,
everyone's moved to the next outrage.
Mr. Giroir. 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 ventilators
need was. My group put out guidance on how to dually ventilate
people, along with the American Society of Anesthesiology, who
had been working on transition of anesthesia machines. So, we
were involved. Every single ventilator decision went to the UCG
to weigh the needs. And as far as we know, not a single person
in this country was denied ventilation. And now because of the
DPA use, we'll have over 50,000 ventilators in the stockpile by
next week.
Mrs. Walorski. Thank you.
And just curious. How many ventilators did New York end up
receiving?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, I do not have the actual specific
number, but I know that it was first they asks asked for tens
of thousands which I think that number might have been 30 or
40, but we--New York ended up getting maybe about 10,000
ventilators. But I will need to provide the committee with the
actual specific numbers, if I could, but the initial thought
was a lot, but they got less than that.
Mrs. Walorski. And, Admiral Polowczyk, again, you created a
control tower to monitor medical supplies and demand. What's
the status of the control tower on the role of the Federal
Government and the Strategic National Stockpile and obtaining
and distributing medical supplies to the states?
Mr. Polowczyk. Ma'am, so we've got information from
essentially 90-plus percent of the health medical supply chain.
I can see it coming in from manufacturing, whether it be U.S.
or overseas, be it in the warehouses and distributed down to
first responders, nursing homes, hospitals. We're also in the
process of building that out, getting actual wired connections
to the 6,800-plus hospitals in the United States, to get on
hands daily information, along with adding state warehouses to
this. So, you'll have a holistic approach and understanding of
the supply chain from states, hospitals, national stockpile,
and from the commercial side.
Mrs. Walorski. And I just want to say that, when President
Trump enacted the Defense Production Act, the state of Indiana
got on board immediately, even in my district, and we are still
producing domestically supplied PPE today. Thank you for your
service, gentlemen.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank the gentlelady for yielding back.
The chair now recognizes Mr. Foster.
Mr. Foster. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our
witnesses for their service.
I'd like to first ask unanimous consent to enter into the
record a letter from the DuPage County Health Department, a
county in my district, outlining their experience attempting to
get adequate PPE and testing supplies. And so to summarize it,
they attested that the lack of appropriate personal protective
equipment and medical testing supplies had seriously hampered
the ability to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Mr. Foster. So, this is--so I understand pursuant to
committee rules, it's being transmitted electronically to the
staff and all members, and we have copies here for anyone.
But they have numbers here on what they requested versus
what they got: N95 masks, 1.6 percent of what they requested;
gowns, 1.6 percent; eye protection, 1.4 percent; and on and on.
And, you know, as they say, this has caused additional, many
additional cases and hampered their spread and so I just--you
know, it's not entirely a good news story here.
I think it strikes me that the biggest thing that you're
facing here is that we've seen a resumption in the exponential
growth of COVID cases. We're seeing nationwide doubling of time
of about two weeks. We're seeing hotspots in sunbelt states.
We're seeing several days' doubling time.
And so my question, I guess, starting with Rear Admiral
Polowczyk, how many more doublings can you tolerate before a
supply chain breaks?
Mr. Polowczyk. I'm going to answer you with not a direct
answer to the doubling because I'm not a medical professional,
and I'm not----
Mr. Foster. You understand the demand. It doubles and
double and doubles.
Mr. Polowczyk. Yes, sir, I get that.
Again, states in my conversations, in my understanding, in
my work with every state, every regional manager and our large
hospital systems, most, 70-some-odd, going on 75 percent, have
at least 30 to 60 days of supplies on hand.
Mr. Foster. Right. And what does that do if the demand
doubles and doubles and doubles again? I mean, it seems like
that in less than 30 days, we're going to have a huge crisis,
unless we start seeing, you know, real self-control on this.
There's also, Admiral Giroir, you know, you can see you've
done a great job on increasing testing capacity, but it's
linear. You know, you've sort of linearly, a little bit less
than linearly sometimes, increased the testing capacity. This
can't keep up with an exponential growth in the testing
capacity. Do you see any way to keep up with demand that
doubles and doubles and doubles again?
Mr. Giroir. 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, we're a little bit linear, but we're going
to get a little bit more exponential as supply chains kick in
for some of the point-of-care tests, but we're exploring
different opportunities, and you know that, about pooling of
tests, particularly with surveillance.
Mr. Foster. Yes, but the pooling breaks if you have a high
enough fraction of people infected where every single pool has
multiple positive samples in it.
Mr. Giroir. That's not the case in most places. That would
be used in low-prevalence surveillance.
Mr. Foster. OK. So, let's see. I'd like to move to antibody
testing for a moment here. You know, in the Families First
Coronavirus Response package, Congress directed the COVID-19 to
be done at no cost to the patient. Now we worked very hard, our
staff worked. We got language from HHS to make sure that that
was true. And now I am hearing, you know, in my state that HHS
is walking this back on in terms of reimbursements. And are
you--are you willing to commit that HHS will continue to do the
reimbursements necessary to make sure that this will--antibody
testing will take place at no cost to the patient?
Mr. Giroir. I'm not trying to avoid this. I'm not a person
who could commit on the reimbursement side, but I can tell you
that it is clearly our intention, the Secretary's intention,
that diagnostic testing, testing that is done in the context of
screening and the antibody tests that it is in are at no charge
to individuals, and we want to work to that yes, sir.
Mr. Foster. OK. If you find out that's not true, please get
back----
Mr. Giroir. I actually haven't heard that being an issue,
but I'll investigate that and take it for action.
Mr. Foster. No, no, it's very important because especially
in light of the President's statements that he wants to slow
down testing, something he's 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's up, and I yield back.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank you very much, Mr. Foster.
The chair now recognizes Mr. Green.
Mr. Green. Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member Scalise.
I want to thank our witnesses for being here today and for
their lives of service to this great country. It's true we're
seeing an increase in positive COVID-19 cases. The United
States is testing more people than any other country, over 35
million thus far with 637,000 on June 25 alone, the most recent
data available. The Trump administration has also successfully
procured millions of PPE, including through aggressive
utilization of the Defense Production Act, as you guys have all
mentioned today.
As of June 26, 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, 682.5 million 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. In one sentence, the
majority's leadership said, quote, we're not here to place
blame, end quote, and then the very next sentence they bashed
the President, suggesting his culpability in the deaths of
Americans. I mean, that happened just today.
We can't have a true assessment of our response because
this hyperpolarized environment makes every single action a
political failure. We've got to get past this in our country if
we're to come through this.
Additionally, President Trump has had an all-hands-on-deck
mentality to develop the COVID-19 vaccine. Historically, it
takes an average of 10 to 15 years to develop a vaccine. It's a
multistep process that takes decades. Dr. Fauci has stated that
we should have a couple hundred million doses of COVID-19
vaccines by the beginning of 2021. This is an incredible feat.
It took 42 years to develop a vaccine for chicken pox, 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, we're
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 that 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 candidates as finalists, pledged future COVID
vaccines will be free for vulnerable Americans, prodded top
health officials to speed up development, and streamlined FDA
approval processes and requirements.
This administration's response has been unprecedented. The
committee, this committee, on the other hand, Mr. Chairman, we
still haven't held a single hearing or briefing on China's
responsibility for COVID-19, 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 percent of American
casualties could have been avoided, meaning China's deception
resulted in 60 percent of our casualties.
Have we spent 60 percent of our time looking into China's
actions? Aren't we the task force designed to look into the
cause of American deaths due to COVID? Have we on this
committee spent 50 percent of our time looking into China's
failure and deception? They're 60 percent of our casualties,
according to Columbia University. We haven't spent a single
minute investigating what the scientists at Columbia University
said potentially killed 60 percent of our deaths. That is a
failure of this committee. Yet all the other side want to do is
point the finger at President Trump. That's sad.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
The chair now recognizes Mr. Raskin.
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
summoned up by the President's defenders, who are 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 let's return back to reality. Let's come back to
America where our people are suffering. According to The New
York Times, new cases are up 80 percent in the last two weeks.
We're 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 we are 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. It's up to the states. It's a
helter skelter ragtag operation. The Trump administration has
made only limited and sporadic use of the Defense Production
Act and has mostly relied on the private sector to procure
supplies, often from China and other foreign suppliers and the
same foreign suppliers to be distributing the supplies.
And we know President Trump, contrary to this mad scramble
to distance him from China, we heard that President Trump
praised the performance of the Chinese Government and President
Xi 37 different times in January, February, March, and April,
praising General Xi's good, very good, great performance and
his relationship with them, the extraordinary deals that are
working together. And if Republicans want to go down that road
instead of working to address the needs of people, I'm very
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. That's the relationship.
Now, Rear 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 don't 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 clean the Rayburn, the House Office Building
this evening, do they not need masks?
Mr. Polowczyk. Sir, there's several standards of masks.
Right? So, I was referring to medical grade. Those would be
covered under NIOSH, and so they are a different standard of
mask. So, I'm not saying that they don't need a mask. I'm just
saying there's different standards of mask.
Mr. Raskin. OK. So, let me go to a question of supply then.
Then this goes to the question I think Ms. Waters was asking
you. You said that you're not certain about what the nationwide
supply of PPEs is and that might be understated because you
don't know how much PPE and how many masks the states are
actually in possession of.
Can you just explain why you don't have that figure, why
you don't 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?
Mr. Polowczyk. 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 any of my other answers, the supply chain
information, you can't run a supply chain without information,
without data. So, the first thing I did was I brought in all
the business systems for 90 percent of the healthcare supply
chain. So, I've aggregated that at FEMA the data--brought in an
information tool from DOD, and I can see----
Mr. Raskin. My time----
Mr. Polowczyk. It's all part of the answer.
And so adding 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.
Mr. Raskin. OK. And, finally, given the explosive demand
for PPE right now, because of the 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 that's coming?
Mr. Polowczyk. Sir, Mr. Fahey 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 non-molding fabric for surgical masks, whether it be
other--nitrile gloves, et cetera. So, of all those take time
and investment, decision criteria. But Mr. Fahey may be able to
answer the question about the robustness of that answer.
Mr. Raskin. Mr. Fahey, can you answer?
And I'll yield back after that, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Fahey. Yes, sir. We have many efforts going on. As the
Admiral talked about, I mean, we think we're pretty good on the
medical mask perspective, but in every other category, the
process goes that we have an extensive process where we go out
and we ask industry what they're willing to do and making sure
they understand our requirements and for the other pieces of
the equipment, we've done it a lot on masks. We've done it on
ventilators.
The other thing we don't mention a lot is a lot of times
the supply chain is bottlenecked as a subcontractor. So, we're
looking at the subcontractor. So, we have efforts in every line
of effort from a PPE medical equipment to expend the domestic
capacity here in the U.S.
Mr. Clyburn. I thank you very much. The gentleman's time
has expired.
The chair now recognizes Mr. Kim.
Mr. Kim. Thank you all for coming here.
Admiral Giroir, I wanted to start with you. I wanted to ask
you, do you assess that we have successfully flattened the
curve in the United States?
Mr. Giroir. Let me give you two tenses. No. 1, 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 case
numbers are going up.
Mr. Kim. So, are we flattening the curve right now?
Mr. Giroir. We are not flattening the curve right now. The
curve is still going up.
Mr. Kim. Do you think we're headed in the right direction?
Mr. Giroir. 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 aren't. As you know, four states are accounting for
about 50 percent of our new cases, and they're very concerning
to all in public health.
Mr. Kim. 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 expert assessment, does
that account for the increase that we're seeing in those
states?
Mr. Giroir. 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 the percent of positives are
going up. So, this is real increases in cases.
Mr. Kim. You said today that you think we should be looking
at the guidelines of the Opening Up America. I was just looking
it up here. It said to satisfy before proceeding to phased
comeback, it said: The cases, downward trajectory, documented
cases within a 14-day period, or downward trajectory of
positive tests as a percent of the total tests within a 14-day
period.
Do you know how many states are fulfilling this standard
right now?
Mr. Giroir. So, right now, there's 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 will let me, is that what we're really seeing, we have seen
states reopen quickly and have had no cases. We've seen states
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, it's
important to reopen, and we believe in the guidelines, but I
think the weight of the evidence is guidelines are not--you
know, the personal responsibility is really key right now.
Mr. Kim. Sure absolutely, what we're seeing is increased
positive cases that you're talking about that is exceeding what
we see in terms of our increase in testing. We all know that we
want to continue to have more testing available.
Mr. Giroir. Of course.
Mr. Kim. So, I understand your written testimony that there
is a company that is producing more than 10 million laboratory
testing extraction and PCR kits per month, enabling states to
complete millions of additional tests.
Mr. Giroir. Right.
Mr. Kim. However, I also understand that the contract that
you highlighted expires in five days. So, I want to ask you,
can you commit to this committee today that there will not be a
reduction in that testing capacity?
Mr. Giroir. There is not going to be a reduction in testing
capacity. So, the contractor you're 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 we're seeing
right now is we want--we think the market is stable enough.
You've got $10.25 billion into the states that the states will
buy that from that specific company. But we did, because the
states--when I say the states, it is laboratories in the states
were not as accustomed to using this type of test with this
type of machine----
Mr. Kim. Yes.
Mr. Giroir [continuing]. That we did sort of cede that by
buying it federally and distributing it.
Mr. Kim. Two questions left for you, my home state of New
Jersey was hit particularly hard by the virus, and in March and
April we were really struggling and very few tests available.
We tried to seek additional HHS-backed, FEMA-backed, federally
backed test sites. We had two in New Jersey, we were trying to
get more, and we were told that that request was denied, and
that no more Federal test sites will be stood up in our country
in the beginning of April. I just wanted to learn from you who
made that decision? And can you tell me how that decision was
made not to have any more federally backed test sites?
Mr. Giroir. So, I think that's 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 drive-throughs is run----
Mr. Kim. I get that, that was not until May that those were
stood up.
Mr. Giroir. No, that's not true.
Mr. Kim. OK. I would love it, if you don't mind, we can
take for the record, and you get back to me with that timeline.
That would be really helpful.
Just the last question here, I just want 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 mention that you were confirmed by the
Senate, and I was looking it up that 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 WHO
during the middle of a pandemic?
Mr. Giroir. I was not asked for a recommendation.
Mr. Kim. 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 WHO, he did not
seek your advice or your consideration before he made that
decision. Is that what you're saying?
Mr. Giroir. I have not provided a recommendation to anyone,
correct.
Mr. Kim. OK. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, back to you.
Mr. Clyburn. Thank you very much. Let me thank all the
witnesses for their appearances here today. 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.
Mr. Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just point out
that, you know, in the last comments from majority side, that
the World Health Organization lied to us. So, I think the
President took a pretty commonsense position. He said, we don't
have to pay organizations to lie to us, they'll 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, an
officer of 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've talked about here over the last
couple of hours, I don't know that certain mayors, and
certainly 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.
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 there is a big difference
between peaceful protest and some of the things we have seen in
the streets of our great country and our great 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
under the First Amendment, so is your ability to engage in our
livelily and operate your business, so is your ability to
attend a loved one's funeral.
So we, I think, would appreciate some--a little more
consistent application of the Constitution in our First
Amendment liberties by some of the Democrat mayors and
Governors around the country. And what we would also
appreciate, Mr. Chairman, 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 we're 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: We talked about 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 doesn't want to look at that fundamental issue. And
just as importantly, decisions made by certain Governors--40
percent of the death in this country happened in nursing homes,
and decisions made by Governors in five states that would, in
hindsight, frankly I don't even know of any hindsight, that
were just ridiculous wrong decisions cost of the lives of so
many thousands, thousands of our fellow citizens.
And so, at some point, we would, as I said earlier, as the
ranking member said numerous times, we would like to get this
information, particularly from the Governor of New York on this
decision to put COVID positive people back into nursing homes
for 46 straight days. And why the majority won't help us get
that information, for the life of me, I can't figure out.
That's 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.
Mr. Clyburn. 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.
Foster's request with unanimous consent for the letter to be
inserted into the record. And I'm ordering that that be done. I
would also like to enter into the record four letters this
committee has received in recent days from organizations
representing healthcare institutions and workers: The American
Medical Association; the American College of Emergency
Physicians; National Nurses United; and the American
Association of Medical Colleges.
Mr. Clyburn. Each of these groups has written to emphasize
that healthcare 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. It is so ordered.
In closing, I want to thank the witnesses and my colleagues
on this select subcommittee. Today's hearing made clear that as
coronavirus infections and hospitalizations spiked around the
country, communities are facing alarming shortages of Personnel
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. It's 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 ensure 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 biweekly updates on the projected supply and
demand for PPE and testing supplies. I look forward to
continuing to work with each of you to ensure that our
government is working to help all of Americans during this
national crisis.
With that, this meeting is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:19 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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