[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING THE NATIONAL RESPONSE TO THE
WORSENING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:
PART II
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 22, 2020
__________
Serial No. 116-80
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
43-868 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi, Chairman
Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Mike Rogers, Alabama
James R. Langevin, Rhode Island Peter T. King, New York
Cedric L. Richmond, Louisiana Michael T. McCaul, Texas
Donald M. Payne, Jr., New Jersey John Katko, New York
Kathleen M. Rice, New York Mark Walker, North Carolina
J. Luis Correa, California Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Xochitl Torres Small, New Mexico Debbie Lesko, Arizona
Max Rose, New York Mark Green, Tennessee
Lauren Underwood, Illinois John Joyce, Pennsylvania
Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Dan Crenshaw, Texas
Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri Michael Guest, Mississippi
Al Green, Texas Dan Bishop, North Carolina
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey
Dina Titus, Nevada
Bonnie Watson Coleman, New Jersey
Nanette Diaz Barragan, California
Val Butler Demings, Florida
Hope Goins, Staff Director
Chris Vieson, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Statements
The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Committee on
Homeland Security:
Oral Statement................................................. 1
Prepared Statement............................................. 3
The Honorable Mike Rogers, a Representative in Congress From the
State of Alabama, and Ranking Member, Committee on Homeland
Security:
Oral Statement................................................. 3
Prepared Statement............................................. 4
Witness
Mr. Peter T. Gaynor, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management
Agency:
Oral Statement................................................. 5
Prepared Statement............................................. 7
For the Record
The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Texas:
Letter From City of Houston, Health and Fire Departments....... 68
Article, July 20, 2020......................................... 69
Image.......................................................... 70
The Honorable Dina Titus, a Representative in Congress From the
State of Nevada:
Letter, July 13, 2020.......................................... 57
Letter, July 9, 2020........................................... 58
Appendix
Questions From Chairman Bennie G. Thompson for Peter T. Gaynor... 75
Questions From Ranking Member Mike Rogers for Peter T. Gaynor.... 77
EXAMINING THE NATIONAL RESPONSE TO THE WORSENING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:
PART II
----------
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Homeland Security,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:08 a.m., in
room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building and via Webex, Hon.
Bennie G. Thompson (Chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Thompson, Jackson Lee, Richmond,
Payne, Rice, Correa, Torres Small, Rose, Underwood, Slotkin,
Cleaver, Green of Texas, Clarke, Titus, Watson Coleman,
Barragan, Demings, Rogers, Katko, Higgins, Lesko, Green of
Tennessee, Joyce, Crenshaw, Guest, and Bishop.
Chairman Thompson. The Committee on Homeland Security will
come to order. The committee is meeting today to receive
testimony on ``Examining the National Response to the Worsening
Coronavirus Pandemic: Part Two.''
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare the
committee in recess at any point.
To remind Members, we are following the Attending
Physician's guidance on wearing face coverings at all times
while not under recognition, and the Chair will only recognize
those who are following the guidance.
Today the Committee on Homeland Security is meeting for
Part II of our hearing to examine the National response to the
worsening coronavirus pandemic. Two weeks ago, the committee
heard from the State and local officials about how the Trump
administration's failure to respond to the pandemic has harmed
their communities and our Nation.
We invited FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor to that hearing,
but he declined to attend based on White House guidance
prohibiting administration witnesses from appearing before
Congress remotely. To be clear, that self-imposed guidance is
intended to undermine Congressional oversight of the
administration. But the committee will move forward with its
work today.
I would note that the committee also invited the Department
of Health and Human Services to participate in this hearing.
HHS refused to send a witness, even though the committee
scheduled this in-person hearing to accommodate the
administration's request. That refusal is yet another example
of the Trump administration shirking its responsibility to
answer to Congress and the American people on its bungled
response to COVID-19.
That being said, we are pleased that Administrator Gaynor
is here to respond to Members' questions about the pandemic,
which has now claimed lives of over 140,000 Americans. The
number of U.S. coronavirus cases continues to surge, with
60,000 new cases just yesterday. The country also recorded more
than 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day, yesterday, for
the first time in July.
Nations around the world, like Canada, Australia, Japan,
Korea, and many in Europe have managed to bring their outbreaks
under control through coordinated responses, consistent
messaging, and measures, such as face coverings, testing, and
contact tracing.
But here at home the Trump administration's response to the
coronavirus has been an abject failure, and the American people
have suffered the consequences. The President's gross
incompetence and incoherent plan to respond to the pandemic has
cost lives.
South Korea reported in its first COVID-19 case the same
day as the United States, but we have suffered 470 times the
number of deaths they have. Tragically, in many ways, we are no
more prepared now to address the pandemic today than we were at
its outset.
We still have a shortage of medical supplies and equipment,
like masks, gowns, and gloves. Wait times for COVID-19 tests
results are climbing. Most alarmingly, there is an urgent
demand for ICU beds in States where the virus is spinning out
of control.
Doctors and nurses in the greatest country on Earth should
not have to plea for the essentials they need to save lives and
protect their own. Just yesterday, months into the pandemic,
after repeated calls for face coverings from doctors and
scientists in his own administration, the President finally
called on Americans to wear a mask. We are hoping that this is
an indication that President Trump may, at long last, be
willing to take the advice of the experts on responding to the
pandemic.
We need real leadership at the Federal level if our country
is to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent more lives
from being lost needlessly. Administrator Gaynor and his agency
have a Herculean task ahead in many ways, made all the
difficult by the President himself.
Today our hearing is not about blaming China for the Trump
administration's failure to take care of its own people.
Frankly, we do not have time for such ridiculous attempts to
distract from the crisis at hand. Instead, I hope to hear from
Administrator Gaynor today about where we currently stand and
how the administration can improve its response to the public
health emergency. The American people are counting on us.
I thank Administrator Gaynor and my colleagues for
participating in this hearing today.
[The statement of Chairman Thompson follows:]
Statement of Chairman Bennie G. Thompson
July 22, 2020
Two weeks ago, the committee heard from State and local officials
about how the Trump administration's failure to respond to the pandemic
has harmed their communities and our Nation.
We invited FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor to that hearing, but he
declined to attend based on White House guidance prohibiting
administration witnesses from appearing before Congress remotely. To be
clear, that self-imposed ``guidance'' is intended to undermine
Congressional oversight of the administration, but the committee will
move forward with its work today.
I would note that the committee also invited the Department of
Health and Human Services to participate in this hearing. HHS refused
to send a witness even though the committee scheduled this in-person
hearing to accommodate the administration's request. That refusal is
yet another example of the Trump administration shirking its
responsibility to answer to Congress and the American people on its
bungled response to COVID-19.
That being said, we are pleased that Administrator Gaynor is here
to respond to Members' questions about the pandemic, which has now
claimed the lives of over 140,000 Americans. The number of U.S.
coronavirus cases continues to surge, with 60,000 new cases yesterday.
The country recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day
yesterday, for the first time in July.
Nations around the world like Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, and
many in Europe have managed to bring their outbreaks under control
through coordinated responses, consistent messaging, and measures such
as face coverings, testing, and contact tracing. But here at home, the
Trump administration's response to the coronavirus has been an abject
failure, and the American people have suffered the consequences. The
President's gross incompetence and incoherent plan to respond to the
pandemic has cost lives.
South Korea reported its first COVID-19 case the same day as the
United States, but we have suffered 470 times the number of deaths they
have. Tragically, in many ways we are no more prepared now to address
the pandemic today than we were at its outset.
We still have a shortage of medical supplies and equipment, like
masks, gowns, and gloves. Wait times for COVID-19 test results are
climbing. And most alarmingly, there is an urgent demand for ICU beds
in States where the virus is spinning out of control. Doctors and
nurses in the greatest country on earth should not have to plead for
the essentials they need to save lives and protect their own.
Just yesterday, months into the pandemic, after repeated calls for
face coverings from doctors and scientists in his own administration,
the President finally called on Americans to wear masks. We are hoping
this is an indication President Trump may, at long last, be willing to
take the advice of the experts on responding to the pandemic. We need
real leadership at the Federal level if our country is to overcome the
COVID-19 pandemic and prevent more lives being lost needlessly.
Administrator Gaynor and his agency have a Herculean task ahead, in
many ways made all the more difficult by the President himself. Today,
our hearing is not about blaming China for the Trump administration's
failures to take care of its own people. Frankly, we do not have time
for such ridiculous attempts to distract from the crisis at hand.
Instead, I hope to hear from Administrator Gaynor today about where
we currently stand and how the administration can improve its response
to this public health emergency. The American people are counting on
us.
Chairman Thompson. The Chair now recognizes the Ranking
Member of the full committee, the gentleman from Alabama, Mr.
Rogers, for an opening statement.
Mr. Rogers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am glad we are finally meeting in person. Our experiment
with virtual hearings hadn't gone all that well. Nearly
everyone was marred by technical issues that caused prolonged
delays and frustrated Members on both sides of the aisle. Going
forward, I hope we will continue to have these in-person
hearings.
Doing so improves our productivity and facilitates
participation by administration witnesses, like Mr. Gaynor.
I understand your frustration with the administration's
restrictions on appearing at virtual hearings, that is why I
appreciate your working with FEMA to facilitate the
administrator's in-person testimony today.
As I said before, our hearts go out to those who have lost
their loved ones to COVID-19 and those who are currently
undergoing treatment. COVID-19 is an unprecedented global
pandemic that requires an unprecedented response.
Unfortunately, the administration's response effort was
undermined from the start as China hid the disease from the
world. The Chinese Communist Party hoarded life-saving medical
supplies while they encouraged foreign travel, seeding the
virus across the globe.
Facing an extraordinary public health crisis and China's
deadly cover-up, the Trump administration has responded with a
whole-of-Government response. Since March, FEMA has helped lead
the response effort. The agency has coordinated the delivery of
over 20 billion items of PPE to medical personnel, emergency
responders, and critical infrastructure workers, administered
56 major disaster declarations covering every State and
territory, and obligated over $145 billion to support Federal,
State, and local response.
While those efforts should be commended, more hard work is
ahead. The number of positive cases continue to rise, and
hospitals in some areas are reaching capacity. Demands for PPE
and response funding from FEMA will continue to grow. I am
interested in hearing from the administrator about what our
States need, where the bottlenecks exist in supply chain, and
whether our domestic manufacturing capacity for PPE and medical
supplies is sufficient.
As hurricane season heats up, I am also interested to hear
FEMA's plan to deal with the COVID crisis while managing
response to major natural disasters. Our country has faced
outbreaks of serious disease in the past. In each case, we have
marshaled our collective resources and ingenuity to overcome
the crisis. I am confident that will be the case with COVID-19.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
[The statement of Ranking Member Rogers follows:]
Statement of Ranking Member Mike Rogers
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm glad we are finally meeting in person. Our experiment with
virtual hearings hasn't gone very well.
Nearly everyone was marred by technical issues that caused
prolonged delays and frustrated Members on both sides.
Going forward, I urge you to hold all of our hearings in person.
Doing so improves our productivity and facilitates participation by
administration witnesses, like Administrator Gaynor today.
I understand your frustration with the administration's
restrictions on appearing at virtual hearings. That's why I appreciate
your working with FEMA to facilitate the administrator's in-person
testimony.
As I said before, our hearts go out to those who have lost their
loved ones to COVID-19 and those who are currently undergoing
treatment.
COVID-19 is an unprecedented global pandemic that requires an
unprecedented response.
Unfortunately, the administration's response effort was undermined
from the start as China hid the disease from the world.
The Chinese Communist Party hoarded life-saving medical supplies,
while they encouraged foreign travel, seeding the virus across the
globe.
Facing an extraordinary public health crisis and China's deadly
cover-up, the Trump administration has responded with a whole-of-
Government response.
Since March, FEMA has helped lead the response effort. The agency
has----
Coordinated the delivery of over 20 billion items of PPE to
medical personnel, emergency responders, and critical
infrastructure workers;
Administered 56 major disaster declarations covering every
State and territory; and
Obligated over $145 billion to support Federal, State, and
local response.
While those efforts should be commended, more hard work is ahead.
The number of positive cases continue to rise and hospitals in some
areas are reaching capacity.
Demands for PPE and response funding from FEMA will continue to
grow.
I am interested in hearing from the administrator about what our
States need, where the bottlenecks exist in the supply chain, and
whether our domestic manufacturing capacity for PPE and medical
supplies is sufficient.
As hurricane season heats up, I am also interested to hear FEMA's
plan to deal with the COVID crisis, while also managing response to a
major natural disaster.
Our country has faced outbreaks of serious disease in the past.
In each case, we've marshalled our collective resources and
ingenuity to overcome the crisis.
I'm confident that will be the case with COVID-19.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Other Members of the committee are
reminded that, under committee rules, opening statements may be
submitted for the record.
As you know, most of--our committee room is too small, and
that is why we are meeting here in the Armed Services Committee
to accommodate the full committee. I thank them for allowing us
to use their committee room.
Members are also reminded that the committee will operate
according to the guidelines laid out by myself and the Ranking
Member in our July 8 colloquy.
I welcome our witness. We have with us here today the
honorable Peter Gaynor, FEMA administrator. Administrator
Gaynor was confirmed by the Senate on January 14, 2020. Prior
to his current role, he served as acting administrator for 10
months and was previously confirmed to serve as FEMA's deputy
administrator in October 2018.
Administrator Gaynor previously served as the director of
the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency. Before his
emergency management career, Administrator Gaynor served in the
United States Marine Corps for 26 years.
Without objection, the witness' full statement will be
inserted in the record.
I now ask Administrator Gaynor to summarize his statement
for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF PETER T. GAYNOR, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCY
Mr. Gaynor. Good morning, Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member
Rogers, and distinguished Members of the committee. My name is
Pete Gaynor, and I am the FEMA administrator. Thank you for
this opportunity to discuss the actions taken by FEMA to
protect the health and safety of the American people during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
On behalf of the men and women of FEMA, I would like to
begin by offering my condolences to the loved ones of over
142,070 Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19. One
life lost is one life too many, and our hearts go out to all
those that have been affected by the pandemic.
This has been a trying time for our country, and FEMA has
been working around the clock to help our Nation respond to
this historic global pandemic and other natural disasters. As
the FEMA administrator, it has been my honor to work alongside
the dedicated professionals of FEMA.
Today, I want to acknowledge that work force and our many
partners for their commitment to the Nation during this
response. This response continues to be one that is locally
executed, State-managed, and Federally-supported.
President Trump made the unprecedented decision to declare
a National Nation-wide emergency on March 13, and since that
time, the entire team has worked tirelessly to make a positive
impact, and many have risked their own health and safety to do
so.
For the first time in American history, we have a major
disaster declaration in every State, territory, and the
District of Columbia, and one Tribe concurrently. Today, FEMA
is responding to 114 active disasters and 97 emergencies. The
magnitude of this pandemic has required us to re-examine our
past practices and to keep the risk to our staff as low as
possible, all the while refusing to fail in meeting our
mission.
COVID-19 has been a global crisis with most countries
competing for the exact same medical supplies. Every government
across the Nation has been competing for the same resources,
such as personal protective equipment, or PPE. To further
complicate matters, most PPE is made in Asia where the virus
significantly slowed manufacturing and where U.S. law has
limited authorities.
During more common natural disasters, FEMA typically
manages an abundance of resources for disasters that are
limited in geographic scope and impact. In responding to COVID-
19, FEMA has met a more difficult task of managing the lack of
critical medical supplies and equipment. Rather than managing
resources, we are managing shortages.
We have worked tirelessly to find medical supplies and
equipment across the globe and rapidly move them to America. We
quickly prioritized resources to ensure that locations with the
highest risk of COVID-19 cases and deaths would not be in
danger of running out of supplies and life-saving equipment.
Using the HHS Strategic National Stockpile early on, it
became clear that the scope and scale of this pandemic went far
beyond what the stockpile was designed for. It could not be
relied upon as the single solution for pandemic supplies in the
United States.
To address these wide-spread shortages, the supply chain
stabilization task force was swiftly assembled by FEMA and its
Federal partners. In less than 10 days we established an
Airbridge to expedite critical supplies already purchased and
owned by some of the Nation's largest medical distributors with
the goal of providing temporary relief until supply chains
could begin to stabilize. Our goal was to supplement not
supplant.
This Airbridge cut international shipments from 37 days by
sea to just 1 day by air. From March 29 through July 1, we have
completed over 249 flights carrying life-saving supplies to the
American public.
In addition to expediting supplies into the United States,
the Federal response has focused on stabilizing the lives of
Americans in many impactful ways. Since March 13, we have
provided over $8.4 billion in obligations to States for COVID-
19-related activities, with the first $1 billion obligated in
just 11 days.
Another $1.7 billion has been allocated in support of title
32 National Guard troops, as well as the deployment of 5,300
DOD title 10 medical professionals who have provided critical
medical support to numerous hospitals under stress.
To further bolster the medical infrastructure of our
country, FEMA, through mission assignments to the U.S. Corps of
Engineers, constructed 38 alternate care facilities and
deployed 41 Federal medical stations. As part of the
administration's testing blueprint, FEMA has procured and
delivered more than 41 million swabs and 32 million units of
media.
While we continue to respond to COVID-19, we want to ensure
that we are using all our available assets and resources to
address these critical shortfalls. To do so, the Federal
Government has utilized the Defense Production Act to increase
the amount of medical equipment manufactured domestically to
ensure our Nation's future preparedness is not overly reliant
on foreign producers.
This increase of domestic manufacturing will also allow
FEMA to pivot toward hurricane season preparations as well as
other natural disasters. As part of this pivot, FEMA recently
released a planning guidance for the 2020 hurricane season to
help local officials best prepare for more common disasters in
the context of a pandemic. The operational guidance is
scalable, flexible, and functions as an all-hazards planning
document.
Regardless of the challenges FEMA will continue to
confront, the bedrock of our mission remains constant: To
protect the American people before, during, and after
disasters. The framework by which we accomplish this remains
unchanged. Responses are most effective when they are locally-
executed, State-managed, and Federally-supported. The Nation is
counting on us to accomplish our mission, and we will do so in
accordance with our core values of compassion, fairness,
integrity, and respect.
This unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic will
continue to require a whole-of-America effort, and FEMA looks
forward to coordinating closely with Congress as we work
together to protect the lives of the American people.
I would like to thank the committee for authorizing the
many resources necessary for FEMA to meet these historic
mission requirements and for the opportunity to testify today,
and I look forward to your questions from the committee today.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gaynor follows:]
Prepared Statement of Peter T. Gaynor
July 22, 2020
Good morning, Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Rogers, and
distinguished Members of the committee. My name is Pete Gaynor, and I
am the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss FEMA's response and the
actions currently under way to protect the American people during the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as the agency's on-going
engagement with the emergency management community to enhance disaster
preparedness within a COVID-19 environment.
On behalf of the men and women of FEMA, I would like to begin by
offering my condolences to the loved ones of the 140,000 Americans who
have lost their lives to COVID-19. One life lost is one life too many,
and our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by the
pandemic.
For the first time in the United States' history, there are 114
concurrent Major Disaster Declarations--at least 1 in every single
State, 5 territories, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the District
of Columbia. From islands across 2 oceans to the cities and farms of
America's heartland, the scale of this historic event has required FEMA
to adapt its response practices and workforce posture in order to both
respond to COVID-19 and simultaneously maintain mission readiness for
more common disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, or
wildfires.
Regardless of the challenges that FEMA continues to confront, the
bedrock of our mission remains constant: Helping people before, during,
and after disasters. The Nation is counting on us to accomplish our
mission, and we will do so in accordance with our core values of
compassion, fairness, integrity, and respect.
Since March 13, FEMA has obligated over $8.3 billion from the
Disaster Relief Fund to support State, local, Tribal, and territorial
(SLTT) partners in their COVID-19 response-related activities, with the
first $1 billion obligated in 11 days. One-point-six-seven billion
dollars has been allocated in support of the National Guard and Title
32 troops, as well as the deployment of 5,300 DOD Title 10 medical
professionals who have provided critical medical support to numerous
hospitals under stress. To further bolster the medical infrastructure
of SLTT partners, we have constructed 38 Alternate Care Facilities and
deployed 41 Federal medical stations through mission assignments to the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
As part of the whole-of-America response, as of July 10, FEMA, HHS,
and the private sector combined have coordinated the delivery of
approximately 181.8 million N-95 respirators, 746.5 million surgical
masks, 30.6 million face shields, 329.1 million surgical gowns, and
over 19.1 billion gloves.
FEMA's unprecedented support for SLTT partners extends well beyond
financial support or the distribution of personal protective equipment
(PPE). FEMA's response has served to stabilize lives in the most
fundamental ways, as demonstrated by the distribution of $27 million in
commodities through services such as emergency food shipments, and
$56.5 million in support for crisis counseling across 53 States and
territories providing free, confidential counseling through community-
based outreach and educational services.
I would like to thank the Members of this committee for authorizing
many of the resources FEMA and SLTT partners need to meet these complex
and historic mission requirements, as well as prepare for future
disaster considerations. Today's testimony will offer an overview of
FEMA response efforts and strategies for COVID-19, some of the lessons
we have learned, and implementable planning considerations as we pivot
to prepare for future disasters during a pandemic response.
overview of fema response
On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared a Nation-wide emergency
pursuant to section 501(b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief
and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act). As part of this
unprecedented Nation-wide declaration, all SLTT partners became
immediately eligible for FEMA Public Assistance (PA) Category B,
emergency protective measures as authorized by section 403 of the
Stafford Act and funded by the Disaster Relief Fund. Such assistance
includes, but is not limited to, funding for Alternate Care Facilities,
Tribal medical centers, non-congregate sheltering, community-based
testing sites, disaster medical assistant teams, mobile hospitals,
emergency medical care, and the transportation and distribution of
necessary supplies such as food, medicine, and personal protective
equipment.
Subsequent to the President's Nation-wide emergency declaration,
all States, territories, and some Federally-recognized Tribes requested
Major Disaster Declarations. To date, all 50 States, 5 territories, the
District of Columbia, and the Seminole Tribe of Florida have been
approved for Major Disaster Declarations to assist with additional
needs. FEMA is also working directly with 85 Tribal governments under
either the Nation-wide emergency declaration or a Major Disaster
Declaration.
In keeping with the Stafford Act, FEMA allocates funding to cover
75 percent of costs of Public Assistance, and SLTT governments are
responsible for the remaining 25 percent. To help SLTT governments
nimbly respond to and recover from COVID-19, the Department of Treasury
recently announced that Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars, provided under
the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, may be
used to pay for FEMA's cost share requirements under the Stafford Act.
On March 19, FEMA's role in the pandemic response changed. Under
the direction of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, FEMA moved
from playing a supporting role in assisting the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS), which was designated as the initial
lead Federal agency for the COVID-19 pandemic response, to coordinating
the whole-of-Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Upon transitioning into this management role, FEMA merged
interagency priorities to help guide the everyday operations of the
Federal Government's response. In keeping with the leadership of the
White House Coronavirus Task Force, the top priority was to protect the
health and safety of the American people by executing an unprecedented
whole-of-Government and whole-of-America effort. To best accomplish
this objective and combat the public health crisis confronting the
country, FEMA continued to coordinate response practices in alignment
with the medical priorities previously established by HHS's Assistant
Secretary for Preparedness and Response--shield the vulnerable, shelter
the susceptible, save the sick, and sustain supplies.
FEMA further infused its own operational priorities into the whole-
of-Government response by emphasizing the need to preserve the
workforce and take proactive measures to protect response employees,
continuously conduct mission-essential emergency management functions
within a COVID-19 degraded environment, and lead Federal operations on
behalf of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
In Washington, DC, the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC)
transformed into the fulcrum of Federal interagency coordination
efforts under the Unified Coordination Group (UCG), which is co-chaired
by me within my capacity as the FEMA administrator, and Robert Kadlec,
M.D., HHS's assistant secretary for preparedness and response. Eight
task forces were quickly assembled to address top priorities for the
pandemic response in coordination with the NRCC and focused upon
mission-critical functions such as: Gaining and maintaining situational
awareness of medical equipment supply and demand, including laboratory
testing supplies and protective equipment required for health care
professionals or critical infrastructure workers; establishing a
decision matrix for the allocation of finite resources within the
context of shifting hotspots; ensuring effective cross-communication
and coordination with SLTT partners to increase their response
capacities; maintaining positive response momentum by protecting and
rotating staff for rest periods; increasing the size of the workforce;
and keeping mission-essential employees constantly but safely engaged.
In addition, FEMA's 10 Regional Offices have served on the front
lines of the response, to include the activation of their respective
Regional Response Coordination Centers (RRCC). In support of this
whole-of-Government effort, there have been personnel from agencies
such as the DoD, HHS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE), Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) imbedded within the NRCC and RRCCs to coordinate
response and recovery efforts both Nationally and at the local level.
At its peak, over 50,094 Federal personnel were deployed in this
coordinated process to bring the full resources of the Federal
Government to bear. This includes 3,200 FEMA employees and 4,200 U.S.
Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers from HHS deployed in
support of the response, as well as the 42,000 National Guard members
responsible for conducting testing and PPE distribution, among other
COVID-19 response support missions Nation-wide. Additionally, there
were the 13,680 Title 10 forces, including 5,300 medical personnel,
working to support the response to the public health emergency. To
further bolster SLTT medical infrastructure, 17,636 U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers personnel assisted with the construction of Alternate Care
Facilities.
Building Surge Capacity
One of the first priorities for FEMA, HHS, and the UCG was to
increase the surge capacity of SLTT hospitals. In order to accomplish
this objective and protect the safety of patients, health care
providers, and the American public, FEMA directed the USACE to work
closely with SLTT officials to construct Alternate Care Facilities
(ACF). An ACF is a building such as a dormitory or civic convention
center that is temporarily converted into a medical treatment facility
during a public health emergency to provide additional space if
traditional health care institutions are filled beyond capacity. These
locations were identified and constructed through close partnerships
between USACE and SLTT officials, with local COVID-19 considerations
and future projections in mind. Upon construction, the ACF is then
State- or locally-managed, and eligible for FEMA Public Assistance
Category B funding under the Stafford Act for both their construction
and continued operations. In total, we have constructed 38 Alternate
Care Facilities.
Another type of ACF utilized by FEMA and our Federal partners
during the COVID-19 response are Federal Medical Stations (FMS). An FMS
is a pre-packaged ACF, and it is composed of Federal equipment and
supplies that are deployed and operated by the Federal Government using
supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). In total, 41 FMSs
were deployed through mission assignments to the USACE. However, due to
the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and significant demands for finite
supplies within the SNS, FMSs served to augment SLTT medical
infrastructure in critical areas of urgent need and could not be
deployed to meet every community's requests.
Managing World-wide Critical Shortages
From the outset, a key element of FEMA's response has been managing
shortages of medical supplies needed to combat the pandemic, such as
PPE, ventilators, swabs, and the chemical reagents required for
testing. This effort alone has presented an historic challenge for FEMA
and its Federal partners. COVID-19 has been a global crisis--leaders
across over 150 countries have simultaneously been competing for the
same medical supplies. We have been further challenged as most of the
manufacturing for PPE occurs in Asia, where the virus significantly
slowed down private-sector production capabilities.
Concurrently, American medical professionals on the front lines of
the pandemic have required an exponentially increased volume of PPE and
other medical supplies. On average, the United States began consuming a
year's worth of PPE in a matter of weeks. FEMA worked closely with HHS
to ensure that locations in danger of running out of supplies within 72
hours received life-saving equipment from the Federal Government's
reserve within the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), as administered
by HHS.
Phase 1: Distributions from HHS's Strategic National Stockpile
From the beginning, FEMA and HHS understood and acknowledged that
the SNS alone could not fulfill all of our Nation's requirements. The
SNS was never designed or intended to fully supply every State,
territory, Tribe, and locality in the United States concurrently and
cannot be relied upon as the single solution for pandemic preparedness.
It was principally designed as a short-term stopgap buffer to
supplement State and local supplies during a public health or National
security emergency.
During the SNS distribution process, the Federal Government worked
to balance each State's requests with the need to prioritize hotspots
and locations in danger of depleting their own life-saving medical
supplies within 72 hours. Emergency supply shortage notifications were
relayed from the local level to State emergency managers or public
health departments, who then passed them on to the Regional Response
Coordination Centers to be vetted by FEMA, HHS, and CDC. These requests
were then prioritized and shared with the National Response
Coordination Center (NRCC) to adjudicate. The NRCC had the benefit of a
National perspective to inform the decision-making process. This
National perspective incorporated understandings of increasing or
decreasing disease activity and its effects, a broad picture of where
resources were needed most urgently, and the resources available in the
SNS.
Given the finite number of medical devices such as ventilators in
the SNS and the limited capacity of the private-sector supply chains to
meet the demand, the Federal Government adopted a process to manage
Federal ventilator resources to ship them to the States only in the
quantities needed to manage the immediate crisis. As such, ventilators
were designated as strategic National assets to be distributed in
accordance with immediate need. Ventilator donations from the private
sector and Federal partners such as the DoD made meaningful
contributions to SNS distributions, and although there was an extremely
finite supply of ventilators available, we were able to fulfill every
State's validated request. Due to these whole-of-America efforts,
improved treatment techniques in hospitals, and Federally-supported
innovations within the American health care community to modify or
retool medical devices such as anesthesia machines, we are proud to say
that no one who needed a ventilator went without a ventilator.
Decisions on where to allocate these limited medical resources were
thoughtfully and deliberately informed by a series of intervening
variables and a data-driven approach. Considerations such as the number
of cases, deaths, available Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, available
ventilators, prevalence of vulnerable populations, and knowledge of a
location's medical infrastructure helped to inform FEMA and HHS
decision making. A series of influenza models, such as the University
of Washington's Institute for Health and Metrics (IHME) Model funded by
the Gates Foundation specifically for COVID-19, also played a critical
role in helping FEMA allocate medical resources.
Phase 2: The Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force and Project
Airbridge
To address the imbalance between supply and demand for PPE and
other medical supplies, the Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force,
under the direction of Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, was swiftly
assembled on March 20 to address wide-spread shortfalls amidst the
global competition for life-saving equipment. The Task Force consisted
of a multi-faceted team across the U.S. Government, and liaisons from
the private sector. In support of this whole-of-Government effort,
there have been over a dozen agencies and departments--such as the DoD
(including the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)), HHS (including the
CDC), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA)--embedded within the Supply Chain Task Force to
coordinate response efforts.
The Task Force, in conjunction with other agencies and Task Forces,
sourced PPE, swabs, ventilators and other critical resources for points
of care Nation-wide, with a special consideration given to supporting
health care workers on the front line and then other priority groups
including first responders and critical infrastructure workers in
lifeline industries who are unable to practice social distancing due to
the nature of their work.
To maintain the country's existing medical supply chain
infrastructure efficiently, the Task Force, along with FEMA and HHS,
has sought to supplement--not supplant--the overall supply chain
through a variety of strategies. Efforts to date have focused on
reducing the medical supply chain capacity gap to both satisfy and
relieve demand pressure on medical supply capacity. To execute a
strategy maximizing the availability of critical protective and life-
saving resources, the Task Force applied a four-pronged approach of
Preservation, Acceleration, Expansion, and Allocation to rapidly
increase supply today and expand domestic production of critical
resources to increase long-term supply capabilities.
Through these lines of effort, the Task Force worked with the major
commercial distributors to facilitate the rapid distribution of
critical resources in short supply to locations where they were needed
most. This partnership enables a whole-of-America approach to combat
the pandemic.
A key example of this public-private partnership in action is
Project Airbridge. Established in less than 10 days, Project Airbridge
expedited the movement of critical supplies from the global market to
medical distributors in various locations across the United States.
FEMA covered the cost to fly the supplies, enabling the delivery of PPE
into the United States from overseas factories. To be clear, the
Federal Government does not own the content of these flights, but
simply facilitated the rapid transportation of these materials to the
United States on behalf of the 6 largest American medical distributors
who have partnered with the Supply Chain Task Force.
Remarkably, this Airbridge cut the duration of transporting
international shipments down from 37 days on a ship to just 1 day by
air. Under the leadership of the White House Coronavirus Task Force,
FEMA and its partners successfully innovated to deliver PPE to America
36 times faster. Put another way, the Airbridge ensured that PPE was
delivered to the United States in less than 3 percent the amount of
time it traditionally takes to transport PPE.
After the cargo was flown in via the Airbridge, 50 percent of the
supplies on each plane were sent by the distributors to points of care
in areas of greatest need. These areas were determined by HHS and FEMA
personnel within the National Resource Prioritization Cell (NRPC),
based on information provided by States and CDC epidemiological data.
In addition, distribution decisions have been informed by the immense
amounts of data provided by the 6 distributors who partnered with
Project Airbridge. These companies are Cardinal Health, Concordance,
Owens and Minor, McKesson, Medline, and Henry Schein.
These 6 distributors allowed us to see what inventory is coming in
and where it is going--down to the zip code. This data has provided the
Task Force the ability to prioritize hospitals, nursing homes and other
health care facilities with the most critical needs and highest COVID-
19 rates. This information was updated frequently by the NRPC to
provide an accurate view of evolving conditions, PPE accessibility, and
shifting hotspots.
The remaining PPE from Project Airbridge was distributed through
the companies' regular networks into the broader U.S. supply chain.
Prioritization was given to hospitals, health care facilities, and
nursing homes around the country. In some cases, the Federal Government
may have purchased some of the supplies upon arrival to provide to
States with identified and unmet needs. This is truly an historic
accomplishment by FEMA and its Federal partners. The result was a data-
informed process that helped FEMA better ensure the right supplies got
to the right places at the right time to save lives.
Project Airbridge was integral to the Federal strategy to manage
critical shortages of PPE and other medical supplies by accelerating
international deliveries until domestic and foreign manufacturers could
increase production to well above pre-COVID-19 levels and standard
supply chains could begin to stabilize. From March 29 to June 30,
Project Airbridge completed 249 flights and expedited the delivery of
nearly 4.5 million N95 respirators, almost 1 billion gloves,
approximately 122 million surgical masks, and more than 60 million
surgical gowns, among many other critical medical supplies. As of July
1, Project Airbridge has ceased all activities, but retains the ability
to be reactivated in accordance with shifting conditions.
Phase 3: Transition to Expedited Shipping and Increased Manufacturing
Although Project Airbridge was able to fill critical shortages of
PPE and other medical supplies, it was never intended to be a permanent
component of a stabilized supply chain. As global production levels
continue to increase, we have transitioned toward traditional and
expedited sea lane shipping with cargo ships able to carry considerable
volume. On May 10, FEMA's first shipment of N-95 respirators arrived by
sealift in the Port of Long Beach, California, with a subsequent
delivery of N-95s arriving on May 21. Subsequently, we have scheduled
additional sealift delivery through the month of July. This will
provide an additional 62.7 million N-95 respirators, 1.3 million
gloves, and 6.2 million gowns into the United States. This is
approximately 390 cargo containers of material.
As part of the whole-of-America response, as of July 14, FEMA, HHS,
and the private sector combined have coordinated the delivery of
approximately 181.8 million N-95 respirators, 746.5 million surgical
masks, 30.6 million face shields, 329.1 million surgical gowns, and
over 19.1 billion gloves.
Expansion of the industry has also been simultaneously taking
place. Manufacturers are enhancing domestic production capacity with
additional machinery, and in some cases re-tooling assembly lines to
produce new products. As an example of this work, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is providing assistance to manufacturers who have
produced other products, such as automobiles, on adding production
lines or alternative sites for making more ventilators during the
COVID-19 public health emergency.
In addition, the Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force is working
through over 350 leads to match American businesses who have excess raw
materials, workforce, or factory production capacities combined with an
overwhelming desire to provide their support to the National response
effort. Task Force members are actively working to facilitate the
creation of private-sector partnerships to pair companies that have
offered their excess factory production capacity, the talents of their
workforce and access to their raw material supply chains with critical
supply manufacturers who have expertise in producing PPE, ventilators,
and other needed equipment.
As part of the Federal efforts to scour the globe for PPE and
consider all opportunities, FEMA and its Federal partners explored
thousands of leads both overseas and across our country. Whether a lead
came from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Members of Congress
representing businesses in their State, or through an enterprise's
unaffiliated inquiry, we processed all leads through standard vetting
procedures and the Federal procurement process. To be clear, FEMA
follows the law and all applicable procedures prescribed in the Federal
Acquisition Regulation and other agency procedures when entering into
contracts. To further support this effort, a firewall was established
between those responsible for identifying leads and those responsible
for the procurement of contracts. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
FEMA has awarded a total of 676 contract actions for a total value of
$1.60 billion to date on behalf of HHS and other Federal partners in
support of SLTT partners.
To help FEMA pivot toward hurricane season preparations, on April
28, FEMA's role within the Federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic
began to evolve. The White House Task Force, DOD, HHS, and the Supply
Chain Task Force (SCTF) agreed that the DOD would assume responsibility
for procuring emergent PPE items in response to COVID-19 on behalf of
FEMA and HHS. The official transition concluded May 29, 2020. Moving
forward, new procurements for COVID-19 will largely reside with the
DOD's Defense Logistics Agency, which has a robust procurement and
distribution capacity and capability.
This transition will help FEMA to better prepare and support the
upcoming hurricane season and other potential disasters Americans may
face. As FEMA and its partners begin returning to steady-state
operations, the 8 Task Forces within the NRCC have begun transitioning
into Working Groups. All personnel previously assigned to the 8 Task
Forces have either been demobilized or realigned under 6 corresponding
working groups. Regardless of FEMA's role in the management and
distribution of critical resources, this COVID-19 response effort will
continue to be Federally-supported, State-managed, locally-executed,
and in this instance, private sector-enabled.
Like all task forces assembled to confront specific challenges in
crisis, the Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force's lines of effort
require longer-term institutional solutions to ensure that America is
ready for a sustained response to COVID-19 and other pandemics. The
expansion of our domestic industry to increase the production of PPE
and other supplies is key to our ability to conduct a sustained
response. One of the most prominent examples of efforts to expand the
domestic industry is demonstrated by interagency efforts to leverage
the Defense Production Act.
The Defense Production Act
The Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C.
4501 et seq.) is an authority the President may use to expand the
production of supplies and services from the private sector needed to
promote the ``National defense,'' a term that includes emergency
preparedness and response activities conducted pursuant to Title VI of
the Stafford Act and protection and restoration of critical
infrastructure operations. The authority to use the DPA for health and
medical resources for COVID-19 was delegated to the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and HHS in Executive Order 13911, ``Delegating
Additional Authority under the Defense Production Act with Respect to
Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19.''
The Secretary of Homeland Security delegated its authority to me, as
the FEMA administrator. FEMA specifically has relied on the DPA, as
delegated and in coordination with our Federal partners, to focus on
increasing the production and distribution of ventilators, N-95 masks,
and medical countermeasures.
Beginning on March 19, the Unified Coordination Group (UCG), which
I chair, and which includes leaders from FEMA, the Department of Health
and Human Services, the Department of Defense (DOD), and other Federal
agencies, reviewed all requests for use of the DPA for COVID-19 and
elevated them to the White House Coronavirus Taskforce for decision.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, DPA authorities can be used
to address disruptions in medical and health care lifelines necessary
for the continuous operation of critical Government and business
functions which are essential to human health and economic security.
The DPA enables the Federal Government to leverage domestic industry's
ability to supply materials and services in support of the National
defense. In addition to using the DPA to protect essential health
resources and combat materials shortages, the Federal Government is
also using the DPA to increase domestic manufacturing capabilities,
which will help to ensure the United States' future preparedness for
pandemics is not overly reliant upon the foreign production of medical
supplies which, as we have seen, may be vulnerable to supply chain
disruptions.
For response to the COVID-19 pandemic, FEMA's authorities under the
DPA are described in Titles I, III, and VII of the Defense Production
Act.
DPA Title I--Priorities and Allocations
Title I of the DPA provides the Federal Government with the
authority to require contracts and orders to be accepted and to receive
priority over non-rated contracts and orders not prioritized by the
Federal Government for the National defense. Priority-rated contracts
and orders take precedence over all unrated contracts and orders, when
necessary to meet delivery dates specified in the rated orders.
Priority ratings can be added to contracts and orders to procure health
resources, including PPE, to ensure the Federal Government has the
necessary resources to combat COVID-19.
In response to a Presidential Memorandum, ``Memorandum on Order
Under the Defense Production Act Regarding 3M Company,'' on April 3,
2020 FEMA issued a DPA order to 3M for 166.5 million respirator masks
from its factories in China, South Korea, and Singapore, to be
delivered from April to July 2020. FEMA is using this rated order to
fill State requests for support and to help fill normal supply chains
for PPE.
DPA Title I also authorizes FEMA to allocate limited supplies of
materials, services, and facilities in the domestic market, which
allows the Federal Government to control the distribution of scarce,
high-demand health resources. FEMA has also exercised its delegated
allocation authority under Title I to impose export limitations
ensuring that critical medical supplies needed for the domestic
response to COVID-19 are preserved for domestic use. In furtherance of
President Trump's April 3 ``Memorandum on Allocating Certain Scarce or
Threatened Health and Medical Resources to Domestic Use,'' FEMA
published a Temporary Final Rule to allocate 5 categories of scarce
medical items. These categories include N-95 respirators, surgical
gloves, PPE surgical masks, and other air-purifying respirators for
domestic use. FEMA reviews planned exports of these items and may
purchase them, return them for distribution in the domestic market, or,
if they fall within one of several established exemptions, allow them
to proceed to export. FEMA coordinates closely with our Federal
partners in implementing this order, including DHS's CBP, the U.S.
Department of Commerce, HHS's FDA, and the U.S. Department of State.
DPA Title VII--Voluntary Agreements with Private-Sector Partners
Based on a finding that COVID-19 presents a direct threat to the
National defense and its preparedness programs, FEMA has also initiated
efforts under Title VII of the DPA to establish a Section 708 voluntary
agreement for the response to COVID-19 and future pandemics. Under
Title VII, FEMA plans to enter into a voluntary agreement with private-
sector manufacturers and distributors of critical health care resources
necessary in a pandemic. Participants in a voluntary agreement are
granted relief from antitrust laws for actions taken pursuant to a
voluntary agreement at the direction of the Federal Government.
As part of the effort to develop a voluntary agreement, FEMA held
an open meeting on May 21 to present the draft agreement and solicit
stakeholder feedback. Consistent with positive feedback and interest
expressed by industry partners, FEMA is in the process of finalizing
the agreement. If this agreement is approved by the Attorney General
and the Federal Trade Commission, this agreement would formalize the
unity of effort between the private sector and the Federal Government
for integrated coordination, planning, and information sharing for the
manufacture and distribution of PPE, pharmaceuticals, and critical
health care resources identified as necessary to respond to COVID-19
and future pandemics.
DPA Title III--Expansion of Productive Capacity and Supply
Title III of the DPA allows the Federal Government to make loans,
loan guarantees, and to take other actions to facilitate increased
production capabilities needed to maintain, expand, or protect services
and materials essential to the National defense. The Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (Pub. L. 116-136) allocated
$1 billion for Title III projects related to COVID-19. Title III funds
are held in the DPA Fund, managed by the DOD. These funds have been
allocated to support increased production capacity and speed of
production by DOD and HHS for critical health care resources including
N-95 respirators, test kits, vaccines, and other pharmaceuticals.
lessons learned
FEMA has responded to this pandemic while continuing to adapt its
operations and procedures to support preparation for complex future
crises. Among the first lessons learned was the need to preserve PPE
and prioritize its distribution.
Prioritization and Preservation
Within the context of a disrupted supply chain, it quickly became
apparent that health care workers, first responders, patients, and
critical infrastructure workers needed prioritization for distributed
PPE. While increased production capacity was coming on-line, FEMA, CDC,
and other partners ensured that scarce PPE was allocated to those on
the front lines of the pandemic, and also maximized the utility and
useful life of available PPE by releasing guidance to reduce, reuse,
and repurpose this PPE. Due to global PPE shortages, the implementation
of contingency and crisis capacity plans were sometimes necessary to
ensure the continued availability of protective gear.
The BATTELLE Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS) became
another component of the plan to preserve PPE. These units can
decontaminate compatible N95 respirators using a mobile CONEX box-based
Vapor Phase Hydrogen Peroxide (VPHP) generator. It is the subject of an
emergency use authorization issued by FDA, with capacity to
decontaminate 80,000 such respirators daily. The Federal Government
purchased 60 systems and distributed 45 for use Nation-wide, and FEMA
continues to support their distribution.
Next-Generation SNS
Moving forward, we must have a ready and responsive SNS, which is
why FEMA, HHS, and DoD are continuing to work together on the
President's vision for a Next-Generation SNS. A transformation is
required for a holistic supply chain ecosystem responsive to the unique
needs of each region of the United States. This includes developing
supply chain intelligence, strengthening local, State, and Federal
partnerships, and expanding domestic manufacturing for a successful
future. This strategic commitment to modernize the SNS is necessary for
a stronger Nation prepared to meet any local, regional, or National
event. Thanks to U.S. production, we now have 49,849 ventilators in the
Strategic National Stockpile as of July 16, which is more than we did
before the pandemic. Similarly, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the SNS
had fewer than 18 million N95 masks, and we are now growing the reserve
through the DPA to include 300 million. Furthermore, whereas the SNS
previously did not contain ventilator pharmaceuticals, it will now have
a 3 months' supply in stock.
Rapid Testing for Vulnerable Populations
Given the wide selection of platforms to administer COVID-19
diagnostic testing and the supply chain limitations for the materials
needed to support them, FEMA supported HHS efforts to prioritize rapid
testing for vulnerable populations such as those found in nursing
homes. Prioritizing the limited number of rapid tests for populations
with underlying health considerations was key to facilitating a rapid
response and the strategic distribution of scarce supplies. COVID-19
diagnostic platforms with longer turnaround times were found to be more
appropriate in situations with lower risk of rapid spread and
escalation. In further support of vulnerable populations within nursing
homes, FEMA has coordinated 26,222 deliveries totaling a 14-day supply
of personal protective equipment to all 15,400 Medicaid and Medicare-
certified nursing homes.
Rapid testing was also proven to be an effective tool in places
such as the Navajo Nation, in which limited medical infrastructure and
high rates of chronic illnesses combined to create an at-risk
demographic. Rapid testing, as supported by HHS, Indian Health
Services, and FEMA, has allowed for increased diagnostic screenings
above the National average.
As part of our agency's efforts to support HHS-led community-based
testing strategies, FEMA continues to support the White House
Coronavirus Task Force and the administration's Testing Blueprint.
Beginning in early May, large quantities of testing swabs and transport
media began shipping to help increase testing capacity in support of
individualized State, territorial, and Tribal plans. As of July 10,
FEMA has procured and delivered over 36.9 million swabs and 28 million
tubes of transport media. Each State, territory, and Tribe will develop
its own distribution strategy to align with its testing plan and unique
needs. Nationally, partnerships with major retail companies and local
independent pharmacies to increase testing access will provide
Americans with faster, less invasive, and more convenient testing for
under-tested and socially vulnerable communities.
Rumor Control and Myth Busting
Throughout all stages of FEMA's COVID-19 response, we have
consistently worked to correct misconceptions about the agency or
Federal Government's actions and established a Rumor Control Page on
our website to assist in this effort. The agency frequently gets
questions regarding FEMA ``seizing'' or ``commandeering'' critical PPE.
To be clear, FEMA does not seize PPE from its Federal, State, local,
Tribal, or territorial partners, hospitals, or any entity engaged in
lawful transactions to distribute these resources. FEMA does not divert
any PPE orders to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile.
However, it is true that certain individuals and businesses are
trying to profit from the confusion and fear surrounding COVID-19,
hoarding scarce resources with intent to resell them at prices in
excess of prevailing market prices. This price gouging profoundly harms
the Nation's ability to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and protect those
men and women on the medical front lines of that fight. The U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ), under the direction of Attorney General
William Barr, established the COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task
Force, focused on the detection, investigation, and prosecution of
illegal hoarding and price gouging related to the pandemic. In some
instances, FEMA has assisted the DOJ in its anti-price gouging efforts
by issuing rated orders requested by the Hoarding and Price Gouging
Task Force to purchase hoarded stockpiles that DOJ has identified as
being involved in price gouging efforts.
In addition to concerns about price gouging, FEMA is aware of the
threat posed by fraudulent PPE being manufactured, acquired, and
shipped to customers desperate to obtain PPE for use in health care and
other industries. The U.S. Government, academia, and the private sector
are working collaboratively to minimize the risk to Americans posed by
fraudulent PPE.
Firefighter Grant Modernization Efforts
To better support SLTT partners and first responders within the
context of the COVID-19 pandemic, FEMA has adapted its Assistance to
Firefighter Grant (AFG) and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency
Response (SAFER) Grants programs. For example, FEMA's grant
modernization efforts have evolved to allow for virtual consultations
with the fire services on program development and virtual peer reviews.
These new capabilities have reduced risk for participating parties and
accelerated the reviewal process, with competitive AFG-Streamlined
applications able to be completed in under 1 month instead of the
typical average of 6 months for the traditional AFG Program.
Furthermore, Acting Secretary Wolf of DHS exercised his
discretionary authority to relax certain requirements within the SAFER
Grant Program. By waiving salary caps, cost shares, and prohibitions on
supplanting previously budgeted funds, we have reduced financial
burdens on applicants and expanded the number of fire departments able
to apply. With many municipalities facing a reduction in tax revenue,
the waivers for the fiscal year SAFER Grant Program will allow fire
departments to retain or rehire firefighters facing layoffs. DHS and
FEMA will provide these fire departments with 100 percent of the
funding needed to hire firefighters over the next 3 years. FEMA
anticipates opening the fiscal year 2020 application later this
calendar year.
disaster preparedness in a covid-19 environment
COVID-19 is not the first nor the last pandemic the American people
will face. It is, therefore, imperative that we continue to prepare at
all levels of government, within our communities, and across the
private sector by learning from our experience with this novel
coronavirus. Furthermore, building a culture of preparedness through a
whole-of-America response could become an important component of our
ability to most effectively respond to other disasters such as
hurricanes or wildfires during a sustained pandemic response.
Operating in overlapping disaster environments will create new
intricacies within already complex mission requirements. For example,
there will be a new need to evacuate strategic National assets such as
ventilators or key pharmaceuticals. Evacuating people within the
current COVID-19 environment will present an even larger challenge, and
it will likely require the wide-spread availability of non-congregate
sheltering. Furthermore, COVID-19 may slow down State, territorial, and
Tribal abilities to conduct damage assessments for disasters such as
flooding, severe storms, and hurricanes. Response to other disasters,
in turn, can slow down the ability of officials to collect crucial
information about COVID-19 cases and stymie their ability to share the
critical data needed to combat it. Consequently, there is a potential
for a compounded effect that could result in a larger emergency than
each disaster would be on its own. These are just some of the
considerations FEMA has accounted for as we pivot to prepare for what
could become active hurricane and wildfire seasons.
2020 Hurricane Season Operational Guidance
With a watchful eye on hazards of any type, on May 20, FEMA
released COVID-19 Pandemic Operational Guidance for the 2020 Hurricane
Season to help emergency managers and public health officials best
prepare for disasters, while continuing to respond to and recover from
COVID-19. The guide describes anticipated challenges to disaster
operations posed by COVID-19, as well as actions emergency managers and
public officials can take to prepare for those challenges. By creating
a shared understanding of expectations among FEMA and our SLTT
partners, the Nation will be better positioned to achieve successful
operational outcomes in disaster response and recovery efforts. While
this document focuses on hurricane season preparedness, most planning
considerations can also be applied to any disaster operation in the
COVID-19 environment, including no-notice incidents, flooding and
wildfires, and typhoon response.
FEMA expects to maintain COVID-19 activation into the 2020
hurricane season in order to best support SLTT operations. To ensure
that operational decisions are made at the lowest level possible,
consistent with the National Response Framework, FEMA is organizing to
prioritize resources and adjudicate accordingly, if needed.
FEMA personnel who are currently deployed will be prepared to pivot
to support emergent needs. FEMA regions continue to provide technical
assistance and coordination for a range of program areas with their
respective SLTT partners. FEMA is also well-positioned with thousands
of personnel in the field supporting existing operations, thousands
more available ready to support emergent disaster operations, and more
personnel joining the agency through virtual on-boarding every 2 weeks.
In order to better adapt plans in this environment and support our
partners, FEMA programs will continue to provide assistance to
survivors, but many programs may require on-line or phone registration
processes (in lieu of in-person), remote assessments or inspections,
and adapted program delivery within impacted areas experiencing
localized outbreaks or periods of peak COVID-19 activity. However, if
and when SLTT partners are overwhelmed, FEMA is prepared and postured
to provide program support, regardless of delivery method.
At such a pivotal time for this country, the FEMA workforce has
risen to these unprecedented circumstances and met our mission each and
every day. We are adaptable, resilient, and support each other. To help
protect our workforce, FEMA released to a roadmap for the agency in
June concerning the opening FEMA facilities in the future. All FEMA
facilities will be required to have safety protocols established prior
to welcoming any employees back into a physical facility. This phased
approach will ultimately result in a much smaller permanent footprint
in our facilities than we had prior to the pandemic, without
sacrificing services. As an example of our agency's continuing services
in a protective workforce posture, FEMA's Congressional and
Intergovernmental Affairs Division has completed over 600 engagements
with Congressional and SLTT officials since shifting to wide-spread
telework practices.
conclusion
In closing, I would like to emphasize my pride and gratitude to the
men and women of FEMA, as well as my gratitude to our partner
departments and agencies for their adaptability, hard work, and
endurance during this unprecedented response. Many have risked their
health during the COVID-19 response, and their safety and well-being
remain at the very top of our agency's priorities.
Furthermore, this agency would like to thank all Americans. Through
coordinated social distancing campaigns across the country, the
sacrifices made by millions of Americans bought valuable time as part
of this whole-of-America response. These contributions by the public
allowed FEMA and its partners to strategically allocate, and then
continuously shift, globally scarce resources such as ventilators to
hotspots where they could immediately save lives within a 72-hour
window. This whole-of-America response was personified by leaders in
places such as Washington State who voluntarily donated their
ventilators to new hotspots in locations like New York.
Finally, I again express my appreciation to Congress and the
President for providing FEMA with the necessary resources to meet very
complex mission requirements and conditions. This unprecedented
response will continue to require a whole-of-America effort, and FEMA
looks forward to closely coordinating with Congress as we work,
together, to protect the health and safety of the American people
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you for this opportunity to
testify. I look forward to answering any questions that you may have.
Chairman Thompson. I thank the witness for his testimony. I
remind each Member that he or she will have 5 minutes to
question the witness. I will now recognize myself for
questions.
Mr. Gaynor, can you talk to us about why a lot of Members
in Congress are still hearing from hospitals that they are
short on PPE?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I can't talk to the specific
hospitals, but I will just talk generally where we are with the
pandemic. Just, you know, for context, this is a global
pandemic, and I said in my opening statement that every country
that has COVID-19 disease in their country, to include every
Governor and mayor, Tribal chief in the United States is
looking for the same exact PPE.
We don't make it here in the United States. We make very,
very little. We make virtually no rubber gloves in the United
States, as an example. You know, we are in competition still
for PPE around the globe. The place we are in today is much
better than we were 60 days ago, although we are not going to
buy our way out of this with just money. We are going to have
to improve the industrial base to make these critical items in
the United States so we are not at the whim of our global
competitors.
We have talked to every single State director, emergency
management director in the country, and got a feel for what
they have in stock in States. It is actually pretty positive.
Sixty, 90, 120 days, States have stockpiled today.
Now, there may be shortages, micro shortages across the
country based on COVID-19 cases, you know, increased
hospitalizations, and those hospitals or those front-line
workers that have a shortage should work with their local
emergency management director, their local public health
director, and identify those----
Chairman Thompson. I----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. To the State and then obviously to
us so we can fulfill those requests.
Chairman Thompson. So your testimony is that all a hospital
has to do to get the requisite requirement for PPE is talk to a
local emergency manager?
Mr. Gaynor. There are many different ways to do it. That is
one way. You know, the commercial medical grade PPE
distribution is very healthy today. So, if they can't get it
via their normal supply chain--there are 6 big medical
distribution companies in the country--if they can't get it
there, we can help. We have insights through our----
Chairman Thompson. Yes. Well, my point is----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Supply chain control policies to
help those hospitals or who else may have a shortage.
Chairman Thompson. My point is that it is still a problem.
Can you provide any written direction to the committee as to
how you suggest they can share with their constituents how they
can get access to more PPE, if required?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I want to be clear, you know, we have
a ways to go on making sure we have enough PPE. This is not as
simple as just throwing a light switch and we just magically
make more. We still have many months to go before we start
making enough in the United States to supply the demand. As
cases grow in the sunbelt, demand goes up.
But if there is a hospital or a Tribe or a county, city
that needs PPE, contact their local emergency manager to go to
the State and obviously to us so we can fulfill that or address
that----
Chairman Thompson. Well----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Through either Federal supply or
commercial supply.
Chairman Thompson. Well, I am glad to hear that because it
is still part of what most Members hear in their district.
Moving forward, last week, our Nation topped 75,000 new
cases of COVID-19 in a single day for the first time. We have 4
percent of the world's population, about a quarter of all
deaths in the world from COVID-19. Clearly, our National
response to the pandemic has been woefully inadequate.
When we were--when we held part one of this hearing on July
8, Governor Pritzker of Illinois, Tupelo, and Dr. Shah of
Harris County Public Health in Texas all said that inconsistent
messaging is severely hurting our ability to respond to this
crisis.
Does it help FEMA's response effort when the President
repeatedly says things about the coronavirus that are not
accurate, such as he did Sunday when he claimed that the
coronavirus is going to disappear?
Mr. Gaynor. Sir, you know, my role in the administration is
to make sure that I focus on leading Federal operational
coordination, making sure that all the things we need to
overcome COVID-19, whether it is rising cases,
hospitalizations, need of staff, PPE, pharmaceuticals, beds, my
role is to make sure that every request from every Governor,
from every mayor, from every Tribal chief is fulfilled to the
best of our ability based on what we have.
Chairman Thompson. Well----
Mr. Gaynor. That is my role in fighting COVID-19.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you. But consistent messaging, all
the experts say, is important if we are going to get through
this and get over this.
Let me ask you this: Has FEMA ever been directed by anyone
at the White House to procure supplies from any source?
Mr. Gaynor. No, sir.
Chairman Thompson. Well, I want to put on the screen a
contract between FEMA and a contractor that FEMA provided us
upon request. The procurement of N95 model RP 88018 and RP
88020 respirators, it says, ``Order directed by the White
House.'' You all provided that to us.
So what I want you to do, if you can't explain it now,
because part of the conversation we have been hearing is that
agencies have been directed to do certain things and use
certain contractors, and you have said--I have provided you
with documents that you provided us, and I just want you to go
back and check your people to make sure that you are not saying
something that is not true from FEMA's perspective.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I am absolutely confident what I just
said about not receiving direction from the White House is
absolutely 100 percent true. That document that we provided is
really an administrative note by one of our contracting
officers where we got many different inputs from where we could
find supplies from COVID-19.
I received at the high point 50 emails a day from people
trying to offer me PPE, where we can buy it, all pushed into
the system. I received phone calls from mayors. I received
phone calls from Governors about a local producer had PPE. I
received information from the Vice President and the task force
where people would call up hospitals and say, ``Hey, I know of
a PPE provider and look into this.''
So that is a reflection of just where I--or where we got
all sorts of information from everyone. I got calls from
Senators and Congressmen saying, ``Hey, I have a person that
produces PPE in my agencies. Can you put that into the
contracting chain?'' That is a reflection of just that,
thousands and thousands of unsolicited requests from many
different people around the country trying to be very helpful,
and it comes from all different directions.
You know, the gap between somebody offering a supplier,
whether it is true or whether it is--they don't have anything,
they are just trying to----
Chairman Thompson. I----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. And the gap between us
contracting, and I have said it before, is as wide as the Grand
Canyon.
Chairman Thompson. I understand, but I want you to look at
it, that particular information, and after you have, get back
to us and say it was exactly what I said. I am fine with it.
Mr. Gaynor. Sir, I have looked at it. I will tell you right
now--I will save you the time--it is exactly what I said it is.
Chairman Thompson. OK. Thank you. I yield back.
The Chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the full
committee.
Mr. Rogers. Thank you, Mr. Gaynor, for being here.
As you know, hurricane season began June 1, and the
Chairman and I both represent States that are on the Gulf
Coast, and hurricane season is a big deal for us. Is FEMA
capable of managing COVID-19 response and the hurricane season
simultaneously?
Mr. Gaynor. We are, sir. I have stated publicly before, I
don't think FEMA has been more ready than we are today. We have
not only dealt with COVID-19 response, on-going response, we
have dealt with flooding in Michigan. We have dealt with
earthquakes in Puerto Rico. We have dealt with tornados, and we
are completely ready for the hurricane season.
Early on, after we were tasked by the President to
provide--or begin--or take over the lead for Federal
operational coordination, we knew we were going to be in
hurricane season, and so we drafted a plan called the ``COVID-
19 Pandemic Operational Guidance for the 2020 Season.'' This
was done and issued on May 20. We did this in 21 days.
We took all the lessons learned up to that time about how
to integrate, respond to COVID-19, and the hurricane season.
This is--actually you could use this for any hazard, so whether
it is wildfires or flooding. The lessons learned in this apply
to all hazards across the country.
You know, we want to make sure that jurisdictions look at
their existing plans about evacuation and sheltering and apply
the lessons that you are going to need to apply that we have
learned in COVID-19. You are going to need more time. You are
going to need more space. You are going to need to do more
cleaning, all those kind of things.
You are going to have to--again, I was a local emergency
manager in a city, and I was a State emergency manager. You are
going to have to go through all those plans to make sure you
update those so you are ready for whether it is a hurricane or
a tornado or a wildfire.
We have provided some planning guidance across the Nation
to make sure that not only the Federal Government is ready but
our partners, locally-executed, State-managed, and Federally-
supported, it is a team effort. It all has to work together. Of
course, we need our citizens to be ready for disasters also. So
it is an all-of-community effort.
Mr. Rogers. Do you find those local partners being willing
to participate in a cooperative manner with you in trying to
prepare?
Mr. Gaynor. I missed a word, sir.
Mr. Rogers. Do you find that those local governments are
willing--are cooperative partners?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. We just came back from a road trip to
the Gulf Coast last week. I spent a significant amount of time
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; New Orleans; Mississippi, Gulf Port;
Mobile, Alabama, and checked on local and State preparedness
for the hurricane season and how they are doing on COVID-19.
Many, if not all of the emergency managers that I talked
to, to include Governors, have taken these guides, guidelines
under consideration and are making and have made preparations
for hurricane season to make sure that they are completely
ready not only for a hurricane but a hurricane while responding
to COVID-19.
Mr. Rogers. You know, the Chairman was talking to you about
PPE and some of the shortages that we have experienced. You
know, we know that China has been a source of--primary source
of production of PPE, and I think you are going to see our
country move away from that in the future.
But my understanding from your responses to the Chairman's
questions is you feel like that we now have found alternative
sources that are sufficient for this kind of equipment going
forward. Is that accurate?
Mr. Gaynor. Like I said before, we are in a much better
place than we were coming out of March and April. However, we
are not out of the woods completely with PPE. Again, the
majority of PPE is made offshore: China, Malaysia, Vietnam. So
one of our efforts early on with the supply chain control
stabilization force was to accelerate that PPE to the United
States, take preservation methods to--or measures to preserve
PPE that we had, and to increase industrialization in the
United States through the use of the DPA.
All those things have happened. They continue to happen. We
are producing N95 masks in the United States. We need to
produce other items. Through our partnership with the Federal
Government, DOD, DLA, and many other partners, we are working
toward that. But it is not a light switch. It is more of a
rheostat, and we have some distance to travel.
Mr. Rogers. Great. Thank you.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Thompson. The Chair now recognizes other Members
for questions they may wish to ask witnesses. I will recognize
Members in order of seniority, alternating between Majority and
Minority. Members joining the hearing via Webex are reminded to
unmute themselves when recognized for questions and to mute
themselves once they have finished speaking, and, to the extent
practicable, to leave their cameras on so they may be visible
to the Chair.
The Chair now recognizes gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Jackson
Lee, for 5 minutes.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Chairman, I thank you very much for this
hearing, and I thank the Ranking Member for his presence here.
We are at such a catastrophic crisis in this Nation that,
however we are able to come together, Mr. Chairman, I am
appreciative very much, virtual and/or in person.
Americans are dying. They are dying. I don't know how many
times I need to say this. They are dying. Our hearts are
broken: 144,000 and the number is growing.
Administrator, I do want to thank the hard-working FEMA
employees and contractors and others. Thank you for your
embedded commitment. You are a man that deals with crisis, and
that is your work, and I think it is your passion.
I would appreciate it if you would give me yes or no
answers because my time is limited. I come from an epicenter,
and I am dealing with my colleagues across the State.
Congressman Gonzalez has indicated, if you can help them in
Hidalgo County, and they are short of oxygen. You can contact
Judge Cortez and Dr. Melendez. They have no oxygen. People are
dying.
My colleague Congressman Vela, please contact Judge
Trevino. They would like another super testing site. They have
no morgues and crematoriums. People are dying. Congressman
Gonzalez said that 500 to 600 people a week are dying.
In my own district of Harris County, the numbers now are
extreme. People are dying. It is crucial that we know that
Texas has almost 5,000 dead. It has 58,000 cases in Harris
County and Houston. There are 83,000 cases just in the last 24
hours, 784 dead.
My question to you is that when the National declaration
was declared of an emergency, did you get handed a strategic
plan for the Nation dealing with testing and dealing with
masks? I just need yes or no. Did you get a plan handed to you
from the White House?
Mr. Gaynor. Are you talking about from the very first day?
Ms. Jackson Lee. Yes.
Mr. Gaynor. No. But we had an existing pandemic----
Ms. Jackson Lee. Mr. Administrator, let me----
Mr. Gaynor. I know, ma'am, and I want to be respectful----
Ms. Jackson Lee. You can finish with a sentence.
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. But it deserves more than a yes or
no answer. We had a plan that was up there in 2018 called the
PANCAP plan, the Pandemic Crisis Action Plan. That plan was
updated on March 1 to work into what we were seeing with COVID-
19----
Ms. Jackson Lee. I thank you very much.
Mr. Gaynor. So we had a plan, yes, ma'am.
Chairman Thompson. You had a plan March 1. We discovered
COVID-19 on October 2019. I don't want to hold that to you, but
that was testimony in this committee by another member of the
administration.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. That PANCAP plan was written and
updated in 2018.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you. But that plan you did not get
when you were handed the responsibility of supervising COVID-
19.
Despite concerns from local officials that a lack of
Federal testing support could cause further spread of the
virus, in late June, the Trump administration confirmed it
would no longer provide funding for 13 sites, including sites
in States like Texas, which are experiencing rises in confirmed
cases. Only 2 sites in testing have been extended until the end
of July.
Every medical expert says testing is diagnostic. I would
appreciate it--2 questions: Why are they cutting sites? In
that, I am requesting that the National Guard be continued past
August 31 or at least until August 31 to continue our testing
sites.
Then I want to understand, in your plan, did you give
States the urgency of the need for stay-at-home orders? As you
well know, there was a White House task force report that was
hidden and kept from States in terms of members or local
authorities. My local mayor did not have it.
In that report, moving onto that report, it indicated that
Bexar County and Harris County were hot spots and that we
should rewind back on our opening. Did FEMA get that report?
Was there a reason why that report was kept? Should we now be
rewinding in these hot spots because of that report? Mr.
Administrator.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. So let me try to answer what all
your questions are. First, on the community-based testing
sites, when we first started community-based testing sites--we
call them 1.0, the first version of that. There are 41 of those
across the country run and funded by the Federal Government to
really get testing started in the local community.
That has morphed into--we are in version 3.0 where there is
more than 700 testing sites across the country. Most of those
now accessible in places like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS stores,
Krogers, where anyone can walk up and get a test.
To the original Federal testing sites, it was not an issue
about stopping funding. It was really about an issue of passing
control and running the administration of those testing sites
to States. Still running today some of them, I think the last 4
in your district.
I know you and I have had conversations about keeping those
running because they are important to your community. We have
adapted since the beginning, and I think this is why we have
been successful. We adapt as we go because we learn new things,
and so I think testing sites is really a testament to how we
adapt to the testing need.
On the National Guard extension, I think we have already
had 2 extensions.
Ms. Jackson Lee. We need another one.
Mr. Gaynor. The most current extension runs out on August
21. That extension is up for consideration. We spoke about it--
I spoke about it with the President, the Vice President, and
the Coronavirus Task Force. There is not a week that goes by
where I don't have the conversation with the Governor about
extending it.
That will be--I believe the administration, we are talking
about all that. I think in time you will learn, we will learn
what the decision is on that. But I have confidence that the
National Guard continues to provide critical support to
Governors across the country. At the high point, 40,000
guardsmen and -women across the country providing all sorts of
support. You know the kinds of things that they do in your
community we need them to continue while we battle COVID-19.
The last one, I believe, was the stay-at-home orders. Well,
the Federal Government doesn't issue orders to Governors,
States' rights. I think what we provided to Governors and
mayors and Tribal chiefs is guidance. Here is the best
guidance, CDC guidance.
You know, I have learned a lot in my role on the
Coronavirus Task Force. I was talking to Dr. Fauci the other
day, and there are some fundamentals that we all have to do:
Wear a mask, social distance, stay away from loud, large
crowds, you know, don't go into bars, and good hygiene. If we
do those 4 things, we can continue to crush COVID-19.
So, again, we want to make sure that, you know, whatever--
every State is different, every locality is different, locally-
executed, State-managed, and Federally-supported. My role is to
make sure I support those State Governors and those local
elected leaders if they have a resource deficit.
Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady's time has expired.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana for 5
minutes, Mr. Higgins.
Mr. Higgins. I thank the Chairman for holding this meeting
and the Ranking Member, and I thank our witness for joining us
today. The supply chain has been brought up several times by my
colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I agree: One thing that
has become very apparent during this pandemic is that the
United States' reliance on overseas foreign countries, most
notably China, where this virus originated, let us remember, to
provide important medical supplies PPE, et cetera--I would
argue many, many other items--it is very apparent. We have to
change, as much has been done by the President's
administration, to bring manufacturing work back to the United
States. I think we need to take a deep look at our supply
chains and bring back the capability to produce domestic
products of strategic importance, such as medical supplies or
food security.
I would argue we are not just talking about China. We have
to consider transit across the Pacific. We can't quickly or
efficiently bring supply chains back to the United States
without making the determination to do so, and we have to have
the courage and the will in Congress to make those moves.
From the Executive branch, we need action, as we have seen
President Trump's administration, to bring manufacturing back
to the United States and in our reliance on overseas nations
for our medical supplies and focusing on sources that exist.
What can easily be produced regionally should be a top priority
of Congress.
Administrator Gaynor, do you agree with the premise of what
I just stated, sir, regarding shifting to regional supply
chains? That would include not just manufacturing in the United
States proper but using our reliable partners in the Western
Hemisphere, especially Mexico and Canada, through the new USMCA
agreement. Would you agree with that assessment?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I think just in a more general sense
and, you know, we have to--this is a National security issue,
PPE, and we have seen how critical that is to protecting lives
and minimizing suffering. So we are on a path to increase U.S.
production in the United States.
The recent CARES Act provided $1 billion under Title 3 to
bring some of these resources back to the United States. So
investments in test kits and reagents, N95 masks and PPE,
prioritize pharmaceuticals, vaccine delivery systems, and
supply development are all initiatives that are under way in
partnership with our DOD comrades and DLA, Defense Logistics
Agency.
Mr. Higgins. Yes, sir. Thank you for that thorough
response. Obviously, we are still in the middle of this thing,
and the strategic steps we need to take to be ready for future
pandemics, that becomes increasingly clear as we continue to
progress through this current challenge.
My question now to you, sir, is, are agencies right now
looking at what regional assets are available in North and
South America, especially again the USMCA partners, to
supplement and eventually replace our dependence on medical
supplies and other strategic products that are currently being
produced in China and elsewhere?
Are you identifying strategic, capable locations and
facilities with our reliable Western Hemisphere trading
partners to replace the threat we have now? They could shut--
they could just turn the valve off, or we could have some sort
of a challenge that would restrict us from crossing the
Pacific. Are you identifying these assets now in the Western
Hemisphere?
Mr. Gaynor. So I can't speak to any specifics because it is
really not in my current roles and responsibility. But I know,
generally, just because there are conversations going on in the
administration, supply chain task force, and other places that
we are looking to maximize, you know, on-shore production of
PPE and any other safe and resilient partner we can. Again, I
would have to defer to Defense Logistics Agency or the DOD
about how far they have gotten on some of those initiatives.
Mr. Higgins. Right. Well, your part in the administration
has taken historic actions to respond to this pandemic, and
that means you are in the room. So you certainly--although this
might not be the specific role that you play, according to your
job description, do you have a sense from the Executive that we
are looking beyond the scope that we have been restricted to by
previous administrations?
Let us not focus on the Obama administration or the Bush
administration. This reliance on foreign production of
important and strategic products has happened over the course
of decades, and President Trump inherited that. It is being
changed greatly now in response to this current threat. Would
you generally agree with that and answer that question?
I will yield, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I think generally we are looking
under every rock. We are turning over every way we can bring
more production to the United States, have better partners with
more reliant streams of PPE or other medical supplies critical
to the health and safety of the United States.
Chairman Thompson. The gentleman's time----
Mr. Higgins. Thank you, sir, for your appearance here
today.
Mr. Chairman, I yield. Thank you, good sir.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana for 5
minutes, Mr. Richmond.
Mr. Richmond. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor, let me ask, do you--or FEMA has any role in
procuring testing?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. The FEMA role has been--is to
provide--so just to step back. So the administration provided a
testing blueprint to Governors so they could build a testing
initiative project, regime, based on their needs or their
unique States. Our role has been to supply materials so they
could conduct their test.
Mr. Richmond. Right.
Mr. Gaynor. So the 2 things that we have been doing since
May is providing swabs and transport media to States. In my
opening statement, we have shipped 42 million swabs and about
32 million----
Mr. Richmond. But are you shipping test kits? No.
Mr. Gaynor. I am not--FEMA is not shipping test kits. I
think a majority of test kits either come from the commercial
sector. You can get them via the normal----
Mr. Richmond. Well, let me just cut to the chase. In
retrospect, would it have been a wise decision to take the
tests offered by the World Health Organization when this
pandemic first started?
Mr. Gaynor. I would defer. So I have many great partners,
and FEMA is----
Mr. Richmond. Well, the short answer is we could use more
tests right now.
Mr. Gaynor. We have done 50 million tests.
Mr. Richmond. That is not my question. Can we use more
tests right now?
Mr. Gaynor. I think we have enough testing platforms in the
United States. I think we have to maximize those testing
platforms.
Mr. Richmond. Wait. Let's start over then. You are saying
right now, as the FEMA administrator, the United States has
enough tests right now?
Mr. Gaynor. We have enough testing capacity. It is really
the challenges of maximizing all that capacity. There are
occasions----
Mr. Richmond. OK. Let's--I am going to go to another
subject. We want students back in school, correct?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
Mr. Richmond. The President has declared a disaster.
Through public assistance, which is run by FEMA, are you all
going to include reimbursement for protective measures for
school districts, such as masks for children?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. We have been looking at our
authorities under the Stafford Act, what we can buy under
emergency protective measures. I think one of the things that
the administration wants to be thoughtful about is through many
supplementals, like the CARES Act, through the Stafford Act,
how can you best maximize those funding resources?
I think when you look at the funding that has been provided
by Congress to schools, it is pretty significant. I think that
there is enough money out there that Governors and mayors can
use that money to do those things that you are talking about
before they come to FEMA.
Mr. Richmond. But----
Mr. Gaynor. It doesn't exactly fit into our authority.
Mr. Richmond. But that is not true. I mean, look, I am from
New Orleans. I am familiar with project worksheets. I am
familiar with public assistance. I am familiar with all of
those things. Protective measures always fall within the
Stafford Act and FEMA when you are talking about public
assistance.
So I don't understand--it is fine to say, well, we think
they have money other places. But normally protective measures,
such as thermometers, shields, and all of those things, would
and should be--so we have an administration saying, ``Go back
to school,'' but we are not providing the school districts or
others with the funding.
Now, the HEROES Act that provides so much funding for
public schools is wasting away in the Senate. Now, so we are
not going to approve public assistance eligibility for masks.
Is that what I am hearing?
Mr. Gaynor. So what I am saying is there is 17 different
funding streams in supplementals that are specifically aimed at
schools and public education.
Mr. Richmond. Right. I am not talking about 17. I am
talking about you. I am talking about FEMA and very
specifically public assistance eligibility.
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I will go back--you know, what is most
effective, how can you maximize----
Mr. Richmond. I am just asking if you made a decision.
Mr. Gaynor. We have not made a decision.
Mr. Richmond. I am not asking for your train of thought.
Mr. Gaynor. We have not made a decision because there are
other alternatives that are much better than----
Mr. Richmond. Sir, so you have not made a decision?
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Stafford Act funding.
Mr. Richmond. So FEMA is not going to provide eligibility
for masks. That is what I am hearing. If that is the case, just
say ``no'' and we can move on.
Mr. Gaynor. So I learned in this business never say
``never.''
Mr. Richmond. OK.
Mr. Gaynor. So we have examined our authorities. We are
looking at how the situation develops. We are looking at other
authorities that have other money put to this task.
Mr. Richmond. Let's move on to one last thing. What about a
city's ability to pay hazard pay for things--I have a letter
from a sanitation company whose guy is on the back of the
trucks, increased cost for the city in dumping. Would cities be
able to apply for eligibility under public assistance to pay
increased costs for dumping and sanitation and hazard pay for
sanitation workers?
Mr. Gaynor. I would have to go back and look at the rules
on that. I couldn't tell you whether it is eligible or
ineligible.
Mr. Richmond. Thank you, and I yield.
Mr. Gaynor. But I will follow up with your staff on that
specific item.
Mr. Richmond. Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Gaynor. You are welcome.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Arizona for 5
minutes, Mrs. Lesko.
Mrs. Lesko. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I want to say I think it is mildly amusing that,
after you in your opening statement bashed the President, then,
at the end of the statement, you said this is not about bashing
the administration or Trump. I don't think any of us really
believe that.
But in any case, the next thing I want to say that in my
district, my staff checks on a weekly basis with all of our
hospitals and Congressional district aid in Arizona, and they
have all told me they have enough PPE.
Also, I want to address the things about the schools. We
voted for relief for the schools. We gave billions of dollars
to the schools to deal with coronavirus. In fact, $850 million
went to Arizona alone, and that was to buy PPE, masks, tablets,
whatever they needed for coronavirus.
Next, I want to thank you, Mr. Administrator, for having
your regional FEMA people get on conference calls with me
because, early on in Arizona, you know, everyone was worried
about having enough masks, enough ventilators, everything. Your
regional people would get on conference calls with me, the
hospitals in my district, the Arizona Department of Emergency
Management, and the Arizona Department of Health Services, and
they would directly answer questions to the hospitals. So I
thought it was very helpful, and please pass onto them that I
think they did a good job.
Also, I wanted to address about giving money to States and
cities for this. We have given billions of dollars to States
and cities to deal with coronavirus. So certainly what was
mentioned by Mr. Richmond could be used for that.
My next question, Mr. Gaynor, is about nursing homes. I
have read that--I am just going to read it--FEMA has shipped
28,562 deliveries of medical supplies to nursing homes to 53
States and territories. FEMA coordinated 2 shipments totaling a
14-day supply of personal protective equipment to all 15,400
Medicaid- and Medicare-certified nursing homes.
I also want to say that I joined Dr. Ben Carson, who
personally came to Arizona to one of the nursing home
facilities in my district. So I appreciate that the
administration did that.
But can you tell me, Mr. Gaynor, ``nursing homes,'' usually
that term is not used in the industry. Does that mean skilled
nursing homes, or does that include assisted living homes, or
what does that include?
Mr. Gaynor. The 15,400 are the 15,400 registered nursing
homes with CMS, Medicare, Medicaid. So I am not sure--there may
be different categories in that, and I would defer to
Administrator Verma maybe to get the details on what all that
consists of.
Mrs. Lesko. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Administrator, the last one is: I know you have done a
lot of work--FEMA has--with the Navajo Nation in Arizona and in
other States. Can you expand on what FEMA has done or is doing
with the Navajo Nation in Arizona?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for recognizing my
region. You have one of the finest regional administrators
assigned to you out there, Bob Fenton. So I would like to give
him a shout out. But we have been working with the Navajo
Nation nearly from the beginning. We continue to be out there.
I think we have about 25 people on the ground from FEMA, to
include many other partners from the Indian Health Service,
CDC, ASPR.
We have provided almost $85 million in funding together,
you know, about $5 million from FEMA and about $80 million from
other sources. We have provided ventilators. We have provided
surge capacity. We have provided medical staff, both DOD and
HHS and logistics support to make sure that that community can
respond to COVID-19. We continue to be out there. We will stand
strong with them until we put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror.
Mrs. Lesko. Well, and I want to say thank you to you and
your staff, and I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
New Jersey for 5 minutes, Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member. It
is an honor and a privilege to be here this afternoon--this
morning, actually.
I would just like to start out with responding to the
gentlelady from Arizona's comments. You know, it is no one's
pleasure to have to bash the administration, but I see that
that is not necessary in Arizona. You know, we have to be
mindful that we are here as oversight obligation and as part of
our duties. You know, just like in the Obama administration, if
there was need for criticism and bashing, we did it, and I
don't think any administration should be above it.
We are just glad to hear that there are States that are
getting support, great support from this administration, New
Jersey. Based on the comments from the gentlelady from Texas
and the gentleman from Louisiana, our States have been lacking.
So I guess we are not in favor with the administration. So I
guess it is who your friends are is how this is going to work
during this pandemic.
Mr. Administrator, with reference to going back to school,
do you feel that we have the capacity right now to keep
students, teachers, bus drivers, administrators, anyone
involved in the school day safe at this point?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. Again, no 2 States are equal, no 2
cities are equal, nor counties or Tribes. So there is lots of
guidance out there that has been provided by CDC and others
about what does a safe environment look like. I think Governors
have to assess their risk about going back into school.
Some States, you know, in New England, for example, are in
pretty good shape. Other States in the sunbelt see a rise in
coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. They are going to have
to assess that risk and make the best decision for their
constituents. So, again, I think what the administration has
done is provide guidelines so we enable and empower Governors
and mayors to make really good decisions for their
constituents.
Mr. Payne. Do you think--you know, I hear the message you
are sending out, but it is not necessarily the same message
that comes out of the White House. What can we do to coordinate
the message so people across the Nation can be getting the same
message and the same guidelines?
You say one thing, and then the White House comes out with
totally the opposite. I mean, I know you don't have very much
control of that, but don't you think that if there was a
coherent, solid message from everyone across the board, that we
would be in a better position?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. You know, I think, from my position
on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, I meet most every
day with the task force members, to include the Vice President,
about a number of different things, to include messaging,
messaging on schools, messaging on PPE, you know, what are the
facts, and what is the narrative.
So I think we are very thoughtful about not just creating a
narrative and then finding the facts. We are trying to find the
facts and create the narrative based on those facts. What I
just stated about going back to school is, you know, what I
subsumed from being in the presence of the task force. So
whether it is Dr. Fauci or Dr. Birx or others, I think the
message that we are all sending is the same.
Mr. Payne. One last question.
With the rise in cases in Texas and other States, why would
FEMA be closing testing sites as you see an increase in the
need for those sites? It doesn't make sense to me that as a
State is escalating you are pulling out. You did it in New
Jersey at a kind-of nearing a leveling-off time, but we were
still having an issue and you left New Jersey.
But to see Texas and what they are going through in Houston
and other communities, how do you justify closing sites?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. So, again, facts and narrative. So
the facts are, when we first started testing in the United
States, back in March, we had 41 sites, 41 Federally-run sites.
In some cases, we closed sites because they were not needed
anymore. In some cases, we moved sites because where we were
testing was not the place to be testing at, so we moved them.
In most cases, we transferred the responsibility of testing
sites from the Federal Government to the State so they would
run their own testing programs. Again, locally-executed, State-
managed, Federally-supported.
Today, we have 750--more than 750 test sites across the
country. So it is not a single point in time. We have been
flexible and adaptable and innovative as we move along.
Testing will probably change over the next weeks and months
to something different, something more appropriate based on
what we are seeing with cases and hospitalizations. This is not
a static problem. This is a dynamic problem. I think testing is
reflected in that.
Chairman Thompson. The gentleman's time----
Mr. Payne. OK. Well, thank you.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
Mr. Payne. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Pennsylvania, Mr. Joyce, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Joyce. Thank you, Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member
Rogers.
Thank you for being here today, Administrator Gaynor, and
for sharing your insights on emergency response to COVID-19,
truly a novel coronavirus introduced from China to the world
and here then in America.
This virus has challenged us on many different levels.
Thank you and your team for ramping up what has been an
incredible response.
In the face of the on-going needs of personal protective
equipment, which you outlined for us, such as masks, gowns,
gloves, do you agree that bringing protection home to America--
and by that I mean bringing the production of the masks, the
gowns, and the gloves home--will allow us to better respond and
replenish supplies?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I have said it before, it is a
National security issue. This is my own point of view, is that
PPE, life-saving equipment, is just as important as building an
aircraft carrier. We need to have that capacity here in the
United States. We cannot rely on our peer competitors to manage
our destiny. We need to take hold of it, and we need to bring
it back to America and build those things that are important to
the Nation.
Mr. Joyce. Administrator Gaynor, in the face of so many of
these PPE supplies coming from China, would you again agree
that bringing these production lines onshore to America would
allow us not to be beholden to the Chinese Communist Party?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir, I think my previous statement stands.
I mean, it is in our best interest.
Mr. Joyce. Do you feel that the Defense Production Act has
allowed FEMA to better perform your duties?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. We have used the DPA 14 times. We
continue to use it for a variety of challenges that we see.
Again, it is just not as easy as flipping the switch and
moving from making toasters 1 day to making vents the next day.
There is thoughtful consideration about using DPA.
One of our initial beliefs was we wanted to do no harm to
the system, make sure we understood, if we did this, what was
going to be the result of that, unforeseen consequence.
So we use it deliberately. We use it precisely to make sure
that we get what we need at the right amount of time. I think
the production of ventilators is an excellent example of how
the administration used DPA to save lives and minimize
suffering.
Mr. Joyce. You addressed National security and safety. Do
you feel that bringing safely home the production of medicines,
both prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vaccine
production and therapeutics, personal protection equipment that
we have discussed, are all necessary components for an
effective National security and safety of all of our citizens?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir, and I want to thank Congress for
providing a billion dollars to the Department of Defense and
the Defense Logistics Agency to do all those things. You know,
how do we become more resilient by bringing some of those
things back home.
Mr. Joyce. Thank you, Administrator Gaynor, for being here
today, to addressing our questions, and for working hard as we
fight this novel coronavirus. Again, thank you.
I yield the remainder of my time.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from New York for 5
minutes, Miss Rice.
Miss Rice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor, when we held part one of this hearing a few
weeks ago, Governor Pritzker of Illinois noted that Project
Airbridge was--and I am quoting him--``an utter and complete
failure'' in his State of Illinois. I think that this was in
part because Project Airbridge and the medical supply companies
that you at FEMA have partnered with on this project are moving
supplies from overseas to existing customers instead of
distributing those supplies by need.
It is my understanding that Project Airbridge has now
conducted 249 flights. What percentage of the National need for
PPE was supplied by the Airbridge project?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am, and thank you for giving me the
opportunity to once again clarify the--I think the Governor of
Illinois is misinformed about the purpose of Airbridge. If he
is calling it a failure, I will just say that we shipped to his
State, Illinois, a million face shields, 841 million gloves, 60
million gowns, nearly 12 million N95 masks, and nearly 45
million masks. So if it was a failure, then I guess that is a
failure.
The purpose of Airbridge----
Miss Rice. Mr. Gaynor, if I can interrupt you there for a
second. I am asking specifically about Airbridge. I am not
talking about--I mean, I don't know if you saw there was a
report back in May from The Washington Post that reported
overall that Project Airbridge flights had distributed 768,000
N95 masks, which is far fewer than the 85 million N95 masks
procured through conventional Federal relief efforts.
So I am asking you to confine the numbers that you use
specifically to the Airbridge project, not other conventional
Federal relief efforts.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Again, you brought up Governor
Pritzker. I just want to make sure we set the record clear
about what is fact and what is an uninformed narrative.
Airbridge, again, I said in my opening statement, was our
effort to accelerate PPE from around the globe to the United
States to prevent suffering and to save lives. Very simple. We
partnered with the 6 biggest commercial medical grade
distributors in the country, companies like McKesson and
Cardinal and others, to partner with them to bring this PPE to
the United States.
Again, typically, it takes 37 days to put PPE on a
container ship and get from Shanghai to Los Angeles, and we did
this in 1 day with an Airbridge flight.
Miss Rice. So, Mr. Gaynor, let me stop you there, because I
have very limited time. I understand that it sped up the time
it took for stuff to get here. If it is not going where it
needs to go, for instance--for instance--you know, nursing
homes don't have previous relationships necessarily with
medical supply companies. It is my understanding that once the
PPE got here, it was basically left up to the medical
distributors to decide where it was going to go. There was a
requirement that it go in order to justify the subsidized cost
of the flight, that it had to go to States with the most need.
But that is not how it happened because they prioritized people
with whom they had prior relationships.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Again----
Miss Rice. So you can tell the success of how long it took
to get stuff here. But if it is not going where it needs to
go--and we know it didn't--that doesn't help.
Mr. Gaynor. It is not--and, again, I want to be
respectful--but that is not how to worked.
So our agreement, our written legal agreement with the big
6 manufacturers and distributors was 50 percent of all the PPE
that we moved via Airbridge, to include what commercial
distributors brought in on their own, 50 percent of all that
was directed to hotspots.
Those hotspots were prioritized by us, FEMA, HHS, Dr. Birx
with her daily data, to make sure that we are aiming, again,
life-saving PPE to the places that need it the most.
The commercial companies did not--could not pick and choose
where they sent it. A certain percentage, yes, they could use a
certain percentage to service their customers. But for the
majority of that PPE, they directed it, because we prioritized
it to where it was needed the most. We did that every 96 hours
to make sure that we understood where are those places that
need it the most and directed those distributors to do it.
One of the great things about Airbridge and our supply
chain control tower, we can see down to exactly into all the 6
commercial distributors what is on the shelf, what was ordered,
what ZIP Code it went to, and what hospital it went to. We
supplied all that data every week, we still do it every week,
to Governors to show here is all the PPE, whether it is
donated, whether it is Airbridge, or whether it is Government,
it all goes to these exact places. Governors have complete
transparency on the use and distribution of PPE, whether it is
Airbridge or whether it is through the commercial sector.
Miss Rice. Thank you, Mr. Gaynor. My time is up. But I just
think it is important to note, because this was raised before,
I don't know if you answered this or it was a question to you,
about how President Trump inherited the stockpile.
The fact is that he sat on that stockpile, should have been
aware that it was not sufficient, for 3 years. So he can't
blame anyone other than his own administration for not heeding
the warnings that a pandemic was coming and not making sure
that we had the supplies that we needed of PPE well before
March of this year, which is why Project Airbridge even had to
be conceived.
So thank you for your testimony here today.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady yields back.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr.
Bishop, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor, you have been in emergency management for a
long time. Is the morale of the American people important to
successfully responding to the pandemic, in your judgment?
Mr. Gaynor. Is the morale of the American public important?
Mr. Bishop. Yes.
Mr. Gaynor. Oh, I believe so, yes, sir.
Mr. Bishop. Do appeals to panic and recriminations advance
your mission or make it more difficult?
Mr. Gaynor. Panic does not help in any disaster, sir,
whether it is a hurricane or whether it is COVID-19 response.
Mr. Bishop. If appeals to panic and recriminations are fed
by misinformation and distortions, that is doubly so, isn't it?
Mr. Gaynor. It makes the job a little bit harder, sir,
because not only are you trying to deliver solutions to those
most in need, you are trying to fight a narrative that
sometimes is untrue.
Mr. Bishop. Do simplistic criticisms that belie the
complexity of the situation you are dealing with, do those help
you or retard the effort you are making?
Mr. Gaynor. I guess I would have to hear how simple the
interpretation of what we are talking about is. But I think
facts, solid facts based on data, and that is what we have been
doing at FEMA, data-driven decisions based on everything that
we know. I am not saying we know everything, but within our
limits of knowing, we make data-driven decisions. It is our
goal to make sure that data, facts drive the truth and the
narrative.
Mr. Bishop. You testified in response to Mr. Richmond's
question that we have adequate testing in the United States. I
think, I am not sure I am recapitulating your statement
perfectly, whether we need to maximize or we need to maximize
the utilization of it, I think. Something like that.
Would you, if you recall what I am talking about, would you
address that and elaborate, explain that?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. So early on when the testing--even
before the testing blueprint was published, because I was a
member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, we wanted to
make sure that we knew where all the testing platforms are in
the United States, every single one, from doctor's offices, to
universities, to colleges, to veterinarians, who had a platform
that can do testing. Through a lot of hard work by a lot of
talented people, we identified all of the testing platforms
around the country and gave those to Governors. Our goal was to
enable Governors to devise a testing program that fit their
State and their needs.
Not every State is equal. Cases aren't equal.
Hospitalizations aren't equal. ICU use and ventilators are not
equal. So each State had its own unique demand signal on
testing.
Now it has changed. We focused on New England and New York
and New Jersey a couple of months ago and now we are looking at
the Sun Belt. I am not going to say that testing is not
stressed in those, in the Sun Belt, because it is, but we
provide resources to States to make sure they have enough to do
that.
I think it was announced a couple of days ago that the
administration is purchasing testing machines for every single
registered nursing home in the country, 15,400 testing machines
to make sure we take care of our most vulnerable.
So, again, this is a dynamic situation. We adapt as we go.
We learn as we go. If we had a shortfall or mistake we take
that on board and we correct it.
Emergency management and crisis and this historic COVID-19
response, no one has done this before. We learn as we go. I
have 20,000 dedicated employees that work hard every day. There
are 40 other actions that are in support of FEMA and HHS as we
battle COVID. Tens of thousands of dedicated employees out
there making sure we do the best thing. If we fall a little
short, we will pick up, we will adjust, and we will make it
better the next iteration. That is how it works.
Emergency management, responding to crisis is not a perfect
game. There will be mistakes made. But we learn from them and
we adapt and overcome. We will be successful. I have no doubt
about it.
Mr. Bishop. In testimony referred to earlier, Governor
Pritzker of Illinois insisted that if the administration had
just used the Defense Production Act and just taken everything,
it would have been magic, we could have resolved all problems
with respect to the PPE. Is that true or false?
Mr. Gaynor. It is--I believe it is false, sir. Let me give
you an example. I talked about doing no harm with the DPA.
If you remember back, there was a large demand, still a
large demand today, but a truly large demand for N95 masks. So
when you asked the producers who make those to make more, they
willingly did it. So whether they are making them in the United
States or they are making them in China or somewhere else, they
did it.
But the material for N95 masks is the same material for
gowns. So the result of making more masks is now you don't have
enough material for gowns.
So you have to be thoughtful about how you run those levers
on industry. It is just not simple, we are going to turn a
light switch and today it is toasters and tomorrow it is N95
masks. It doesn't work that way. We want to be thoughtful about
it, and we want to make sure we do no harm to a system that in
some cases, when it is medical grade PPE, is under stress.
So we use the DPA very deliberately, we use it very
precisely, and we have great success stories, like ventilators,
to show for it.
Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My time has expired.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
Mr. Gaynor, your testimony to this committee is that we use
the Defense Production Act in a timely manner.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I am not sure I used the word ``timely.''
I am saying we use the Defense Production Act when we
understood when and how to use it.
So, again, this is what I said before, do no harm. So just
to radically use it from Day 1, you don't know what the
consequences are downstream.
Chairman Thompson. Well, I understand what you are saying.
Mr. Gaynor. So conversations with industry, conversations
with our private partners to understand, ``Hey, if you do this,
this other thing will suffer,'' those conversations were going
on with the administration, with the task force, with FEMA,
with HHS, with DLA, DOD, to understand, ``Hey, if you do that,
you may get a negative result on this.''
So when we understood that, hey, we are going to use DPA
for the best result, then we executed it.
Chairman Thompson. So your testimony is that when the
Defense Production Act was used, it was used in a timely
manner?
Mr. Gaynor. Those are your words, Mr. Chairman. I am
saying----
Chairman Thompson. No, I am asking you.
Mr. Gaynor. I just explained how we used it.
Chairman Thompson. I am asking you that in the execution of
the Defense Production Act, was it used in a timely manner?
Mr. Gaynor. From my point of view, we used it when we
needed to use it, when we understood the entire environment
about the pros and cons of executing the DPA, whether it was
Title I, Title III, Title VII. We wanted to understand all of
those things.
Chairman Thompson. Well, you did all of that, yes or no?
Mr. Gaynor. My answer stands as answered, sir.
Chairman Thompson. Yes, well, OK.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr.
Correa, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Correa. Thank you, Chairman Thompson, for holding this
most important hearing. Our Nation is failing in our response
to COVID-19.
Let me, if I can, talk a little bit about Main Street in my
district where today, almost on an everyday basis, I begin to
hear the names of individuals that I know that are dying.
I live in a hotspot, Santa Ana, Anaheim, California, home
to the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland, that has been
closed for a number of months now. A lot of unemployment, a lot
of people suffering, a lot of people dying.
Mr. Gaynor, thank you for being here today.
You mentioned that you are part of the COVID Task Force. Is
that correct, sir?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
Mr. Correa. Would you say that we are still learning about
COVID-19, we just don't have enough data? We are learning right
now, yes?
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I mean, I think one of the Members
mentioned it is a novel disease, right?
Mr. Correa. Yes. So we are still learning.
Mr. Gaynor. It didn't exist on the planet.
Mr. Correa. But little bit that we know of COVID-19, I
mean, can we agree on some basic things, like social distancing
works, face masks work?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
Mr. Correa. I am hoping we have a National message that
actually tells people that these basic things, the little bit
that we know, that face masks work. Because the confusion in my
district, OK, folks dying, the horror stories I hear of people
out there with no face masks at social events is terrible.
You mentioned do no harm, you mentioned watch out for
unforeseen consequences, and you also mentioned that we are
still importing almost all of our PPE.
You are on the planning task force for COVID-19. Can you
tell me when can we expect to be functionally supplied in this
country? When can we manufacture, for our own Nation's defense,
PPE, enough PPE?
My wife is a doc. She came home 2 weeks ago and said,
``Guess what happened last night?'' I said, ``What happened?''
She said, ``Somebody stole my protective equipment.'' She
delivers babies. She is around positive COVID-19 patients on a
daily basis.
When can we, sir, expect to have America manufacture PPE
for our population? When can we be there, sir?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. So let me just go back to the mask
thing, because I just want to--I want to help you.
Mr. Correa. It is a yes or no. Do they help, yes or no? It
is a basic answer to the question.
Mr. Gaynor. No, I explain it--you made a previous
statement. I would just like to hopefully help the dialog about
wearing a mask.
Mr. Correa. Yes. I only have 2 minutes left.
Mr. Gaynor. So wearing a mask really--the message I think
we all want is the mask really doesn't protect me, right? Me
wearing the mask protects you.
Mr. Correa. Does wearing a mask help in the COVID
environment?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Mr. Correa. Yes.
Mr. Gaynor. Wearing a mask----
Mr. Correa. That is all I want.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, wearing a----
Mr. Correa. Social distancing works, yes.
Mr. Gaynor. Social distancing, hygiene, staying out of
bars, crowded places, all those things work.
Mr. Correa. I am going to reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman.
Sir, I am not trying to be argumentative. As a
representative of my constituency I want to know, you are on
the planning commission for COVID-19, when can we expect to
have enough manufacturing of COVID-19 protection gear in this
country?
Mr. Gaynor. I can't give you a date, sir. Again, it is not
a light switch. It is a rheostat.
Mr. Correa. Speculate. I mean, you talked about do no harm.
I am seeing consequences----
Mr. Gaynor. So we are working every----
Mr. Correa. Go ahead, sir.
Mr. Gaynor. I am just trying to answer your question, sir,
I don't want to get into an argument.
But we have been working on increasing industrial
production of PPE for months now. Again, it is happening.
Mr. Correa. I am going to reclaim my time. Thank you very
much.
You know, as I look at post-COVID-19, this is like post-9/
11. We are never going to go back to being the way we were
before. We may have COVID-20 ahead of us.
I am just hoping COVID-19 again teaches us that lesson that
we forgot, that we should have learned from Ebola and Zika. We
are asleep at the wheel. This is not blaming anybody.
But I am trying to figure out, you are in that hierarchy at
the top levels of planning for the next pandemic. Bad guys
around the world have finally figured out a new way to hit us.
Heaven forbid, heaven help us if somebody drops a dirty
biological, a dirty viral bomb on our country. We are not
ready.
That is what you are telling me right now, Mr. Gaynor. You
don't know when we will have that----
Mr. Gaynor. I am not telling you that, Congressman. I am
not telling you we are not ready.
Mr. Correa. I am going to reclaim my time.
Mr. Gaynor. Your question was about PPE.
Mr. Correa. If China again decides to lock down and not
export PPE, where are we going to be, please?
Mr. Gaynor. So, first of all, sir, you know, I said in
response to a Member that FEMA has never been more than ready.
I have said repeatedly this is not just about throwing a bunch
of money at PPE and having it all tomorrow where we want it,
when we want it on the United States. It takes time----
Mr. Correa. In the last 2 seconds, I am going to reclaim my
time, sir.
Mr. Gaynor. I want to answer your question, but I just want
to actually speak.
Mr. Correa. I am out of time, and I look forward to getting
an answer to your question in a written form.
Voice. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Correa. Mr. Chairman, if I can have 15 seconds.
I just want to say this. I do believe that COVID-19 has
brought us to a new environment in this society. We have to
plan for these kinds of attacks either by Mother Nature or bad
guys in the future.
You are in FEMA, and I hope and I pray to God that you are
moving ahead to plan to protect this great country.
Mr. Gaynor. COVID-19 is not an attack, it is a disease, it
is a new disease that we never seen unfold.
Mr. Correa. That is why I said it is Mother Nature.
Mr. Gaynor. It is much different from Zika and Ebola. So
again, 2--we are comparing apples and oranges to this.
So again, I want to tell you there are tens of thousands of
dedicated Americans out there working on this problem today.
Mr. Correa. Thank you. I look forward to hearing your
statement in writing.
Mr. Gaynor. They have been working on the problem for
months. We will overcome it. I can't give you a date, but I can
guarantee we will have enough PPE made in America for the next
crisis.
Chairman Thompson. The gentleman's time----
Mr. Correa. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman.
When do you guarantee to have PPE ready?
Mr. Gaynor. I just said I couldn't give you a date.
Mr. Correa. Thank you very much.
Mr. Gaynor. But we will be successful.
Chairman Thompson. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Gaynor. I have no doubt of the power of the American
public and American industry and American resolve. No doubt
whatsoever.
Chairman Thompson. The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from
New Mexico, Ms. Torres Small, for 5 minutes.
Ms. Torres Small. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Ranking Member.
Thank you, Administrator Gaynor, for being here today and
for all of your work to try to stop the spread of COVID-19.
In preparation for today's hearing we have heard
perspectives from the GAO, from a former FEMA administrator,
and from State officials. Something I repeatedly heard was that
because the administration wasn't able to provide a National
strategy to procure PPE and medical supplies, States were left
on their own to buy these supplies. That pitted States against
each other, creating unpredictable availability and soaring
prices.
I really appreciate you recognizing that in your opening
statement, the same challenge when it comes to States having to
compete to purchase.
Here is the problem for my home State in New Mexico. These
bidding wars that States were forced to partake in put smaller
and rural States with less purchasing power, like New Mexico,
at a disadvantage.
You testified earlier that your role is to help State and
local governments if they have a deficit, and I deeply
appreciate that. You also testified that you support a National
strategy for increasing domestic production of PPE and medical
equipment, and I deeply appreciate that.
Do you also believe that the administration should
implement a National procurement strategy to address this
National emergency and make it easier for States to get PPE and
medical supplies?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am.
So, again, just to go back, we were in global competition
for PPE, 150 more countries, every Governor, every mayor, every
Tribal chief, looking for the same exact thing, global
competition. Where it was made, it was made in China, where
manufacturing was ramped down because they were dealing with
COVID-19 themselves.
So we have a ways to go to make sure that we have a reliant
industrial base that can make PPE in America, not just for
while we respond to COVID-19. This is the trick. We need to do
that and we need to support those industries for the long haul,
right? It is just not for a couple years. We need to support
them so they can stay in business, they can be competitive, and
we can get PPE when we want. So we have to do that.
Ms. Torres Small. Thank you.
Mr. Gaynor. We have to----
Ms. Torres Small. Administrator, I just want to--I know I
have got other questions.
Mr. Gaynor. OK.
Ms. Torres Small. I did want to let you go back, but wanted
to also make sure I get to ask a few more questions.
So I appreciate you recognizing the National strategy for
procurement as well as getting more producers domestically. I
am focused on what we do moving forward. I really appreciate
your comment that emergency management isn't about perfection,
it is about getting better. So moving forward, having that
National procurement strategy, as we see increasing cases,
again, will be very helpful to rural communities, like the ones
I represent.
I also wanted to shift to non-Federal cost share for
Tribes. I really appreciate you recognizing the work that FEMA
has done and you spearheading the work that FEMA has done to
support Tribes.
My State of New Mexico is home to several Tribes and
Pueblos, and they have been disproportionately affected by
COVID-19. In fact, as of May, in New Mexico, American Indians
compose 57 percent of COVID-19 cases, even though American
Indians only account for 9 percent of the State's population.
New Mexico is not alone. In Wyoming, American Indians
account for 30 percent of the cases compared to just 2 percent
of the State's population. In Arizona, the numbers are 11
percent compared to just 4 percent of the population.
Administrator Gaynor, thank you so much for your actions to
serve Tribal governments. Many Tribal governments have
requested a waiver of FEMA's 25 percent non-Federal cost share.
Are you aware of those requests?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am.
[Inaudible.]
Ms. Torres Small. I certainly understand that.
Given the disproportionate impact on Native American and
sovereign governments, have you recommended an increase in the
current reimbursement level for Tribal pandemic response
efforts?
Mr. Gaynor. We have not, although we have had numerous
conversations with the administration and OMB.
One of the things that we are trying to be considerate
about is all the other funding that is out there. I mentioned
it before, I forget what the topic was, but schools, there is
lots of funding out there that may be a--in this case a Tribe
could use that has more leverage than Stafford Act.
Ms. Torres Small. I have got to reclaim my time there, just
because for Native American sovereign governments, there was an
incredible delay in getting the money that was out there from
the CARES Act. There was an incredible delay in getting the
money that was out there from previous funding streams from the
compromise in the earlier legislation.
So now they are being pushed to spend that money very
quickly, before the end of this year. So there isn't money out
there elsewhere. So I hope that you will reconsider reducing
that share.
Mr. Gaynor. So it is under consideration. The President has
the final authority to approve cost shares. So whether it is
something less than 75-25. But we are in active conversations
with both the administration and OMB about how we actually
execute that.
Part of the problem is we are still in response. When does
the--if you are familiar with how a disaster works, there is
the beginning of the incident, and there is the end of
incident. So all those considerations have be to taken into
consideration.
So there is not an end date to this, and we just don't want
to--we want to be thoughtful and meaningful about how we get to
an answer.
Ms. Torres Small. I yield my time.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York, Mr. Rose.
Mr. Rose. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor, I want to talk to you about a comment that you
made earlier where you noted that lab capacity is at sufficient
levels. Am I correctly phrasing what you said?
Mr. Gaynor. So I think Nationally there is capacity. I
think based on where a certain jurisdiction is----
Mr. Rose. Of course. So across the Nation.
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. May be stressed.
Mr. Rose. Right. Across the Nation, if you take into
account laboratory equipment, availability of reagents, as a
Nation we have enough infrastructure to test, it is just a
matter of where the testing is happening, correct?
Mr. Gaynor. Generally, yes, sir. Again, Dr. Giroir is the
testing expert. I don't want to get into his----
Mr. Rose. Of course.
Mr. Gaynor. Generally, that is how I----
Mr. Rose. Based off that proposition then, across the
Nation, what does our capacity allow for us to test?
Mr. Gaynor. I would have to defer on the total.
Mr. Rose. But you----
Mr. Gaynor. Today--I mean, we have tested 50 million so
far.
Mr. Rose. No, no, but that is----
Mr. Gaynor. We are testing about 800,000 a day.
Mr. Rose. I agree. I think that we need more. I would argue
we need much more on a daily basis.
So the numbers are great, especially when you say 50
million. Fifty million, it looks, ``Wow. Oh, my God.''
That is not enough. That is not enough. We need to test 20
million people a day in this country.
So when you come before us and you say that the capacity is
enough, but then when I ask you what the capacity allows for us
to test, and you say, I don't know, it is difficult to continue
the conversation.
Because I want to then talk to you about, OK, if the
capacity is enough, how do we divert tests from one part of the
country to another. I want to talk to you about swabs and the
fact that we don't have enough swabs, and they are glorified Q-
tips. This is the greatest country in the history of the world.
Why don't we have enough swabs?
But my hope is that you can take our questions seriously.
So if you tell us that we have enough infrastructure in this
country, i.e., enough laboratory equipment and enough reagents,
I want to know, how much would that let us test?
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I am not in charge of testing. I would
defer the details of specific numbers of testing platforms and
all that to Dr. Giroir.
Mr. Rose. OK.
Mr. Gaynor. What I am saying, generally, there is testing
capacity. It is stressed in locations that have increased
cases, increased hospitalizations. There is no doubt about it.
We have been shipping--there is not a shortage of swabs. There
is not a shortage of media.
Mr. Rose. So then what is the problem? If what you are
saying is, is that we only have particular hotspots in this
country where there is not enough testing, whereas in other
places there is more than enough swabs, more than enough
infrastructure, what is the problem? What aren't we doing well
enough as a country?
Mr. Gaynor. Well, again, like I said in the beginning, we
learn as we go. Where we started out with 41 testing sites, now
we have 750. As the disease moves from an epicenter like New
York and New Jersey to now where it is seeded more differently
across the Sun Belt, in virtually every county it is different.
So we will adapt as we go.
One of the ways we are adapting is HHS and Dr. Giroir,
another initiative is to purchase rapid testing for 15,400
certified nursing homes across the country.
Mr. Rose. Those are good things.
Mr. Gaynor. So, again, we learn as we go and we adapt as we
go.
Mr. Rose. Those are good things. But you can see from our
perspective how it is difficult to get a specific answer.
What should our goal be as a country? How many tests should
we be doing every day?
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I am not a medical doctor. I would defer
to Dr. Giroir on all those medical kinds of things. Our goal is
to save lives and minimize suffering. That is our goal.
Mr. Rose. So you are telling me that you are not--at your
disposal, you don't have a National target for testing for this
country?
Mr. Gaynor. What I am saying is I am not in charge of
National testing. Dr. Giroir from HHS is. Hopefully, you can
get him to explain in detail about the testing strategy.
I know what our role from FEMA is about supplying material
like swabs and media to Governors to run their very unique
testing programs.
Mr. Rose. You are saying that we have enough swabs right
now?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. We shipped 42 million swabs in less
than 3 months, and we have shipped 32 million media in 3
months, and we can do more than that.
Mr. Rose. How many more can you do?
Mr. Gaynor. It depends on the demand.
Mr. Rose. Well----
Mr. Gaynor. How many more can we do?
Mr. Rose. Yes.
Mr. Gaynor. We can do millions more.
Mr. Rose. Could you do a hundred million? I mean, do you
have a number for what--what is our capacity for swab
production right now?
Mr. Gaynor. I would have to defer to HHS, who runs the
testing program.
Mr. Rose. OK. So for all testing issues go to HHS. Is that
the point that you are making?
Mr. Gaynor. Other than what FEMA's role is today.
Mr. Rose. What is FEMA's role in terms of testing?
Mr. Gaynor. Shipping swabs and media to States so States
and Governors can run their testing programs.
Mr. Rose. OK. So I just asked you, how many swabs can we
ship in this country?
Mr. Gaynor. I can tell you what we have shipped,
Mr. Rose. But how many could we? That is my--it is just a
basic number.
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I mean, I would have to go to the supply
chain [inaudible] to get those numbers.
Mr. Rose. By the way, it is an acceptable response to say
you will get back to us. I am OK with that. What I am not OK
with is the hot potato here. I am trying to ask you very simple
and----
Mr. Gaynor. There is no hot potato. It is just a matter
that that is not my role at FEMA, is testing. It is HHS's role.
There is no hot potato here. I am just telling you the way it
is.
Mr. Rose. But I--and I understand my time is up. But just
to review the conversation, you said HHS is testing----
Mr. Bishop. Mr. Chairman, point of order. The question is
answered.
Chairman Thompson. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute.
Mr. Bishop.
Mr. Bishop. Mr. Chairman, this is the third Member of the
Democratic Majority that has exceeded by some distance their
time in questioning and persists in asking questions after
their time has expired, not only not letting the witness finish
their answer.
Chairman Thompson. Let me be clear. I have been very, very
tolerant with every person who asks questions, and I plan to
continue.
Mr. Bishop. Well, I will bear that in mind.
Chairman Thompson. The gentleman from New York may
continue.
Mr. Rose. Mr. Bishop, thank you for your diligence. I will
try to be better.
Chairman Thompson. Let me just for the record indicate
that, Mr. Rose, we invited HHS to be a part of this committee
hearing so we wouldn't have the absence of information for
testimony.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York, Mr.
Katko.
Mr. Katko. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am taking
the mask off.
I want to just start by saying thank you. This has been a
once-in-a-century pandemic that has hit this country. There
have been mistakes made, there is no question. Before we start
pointing fingers, I just want to say thank you, because we have
done so much to try and get it right. It is not easy, and there
are mistakes. There is no question about it.
I can tell you some bright spots. In my district, a
plastics manufacturer shut down his factory, 1 of his 6
locations, and is converting it into a test manufacturing
facility. By the end of this month, he will start producing 1
million tests a month.
That is happening all over the country. We are responding
to something that--I credit what you say. It is a moving
target. Things are changing quickly. We thought up until
recently that once you got--once you tested positive for COVID
and if you have the antibodies, you are OK. Now we are finding
out the antibodies might not be lasting. That is another
wrinkle we didn't test and we could not foresee.
So there have been mistakes. Clearly FEMA has made some
mistakes. Clearly, everybody has. Clearly, we have. But the
bottom line is I want to say thank you to all the men and women
who are on the front lines, like my son who is running a
testing center for the National Guard who put his life on the
line every day and his kids' life on the line that he is
commanding, and the FEMA people out there on the front lines
trying to do the right thing.
So thank you, and thank you to everybody in the United
States, everybody, who has done their job and is trying to
fight this awful pandemic. I know nurses who have given up
their jobs and careers and walked into nursing homes that have
100 to 150 positive patients and volunteered to go in there.
There are so many great American stories out there. I would
like to just pause for a second and emphasize some of those
great stories, because that is what makes America great. Can we
be better? There is no question about it. So let's keep it
balanced here.
Now, I just want to take a step back. I am sorry, I got
here late. I don't know if this question has been answered.
Could you give me the status of what is going on with the
Airbridge? Is it still going on? Are there still flights coming
in? What is going on with that?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. Just to go back and thank you for
saying that there are successes. But I like to say there are
many more successes than there are mistakes or shortfalls. I
want to be on the record.
Mr. Katko. Yes. Understand, it is our job to commit
oversight. So I commend my colleague from New York for probing.
But the bottom line is let's keep the balance here, let's keep
our eye on the big ball. We have done a tremendous job under
unbelievable circumstances. No one could have foreseen what has
happened here. So all the front-line workers, just thank you.
Mr. Gaynor. Thank you, sir.
Airbridge concluded with 249 flights around the 1st of
July, bringing back critical supplies from China and other
places to the United States. This was a--again, Airbridge is a
way to speed, accelerate those critical resources to front-line
workers so we can protect lives and minimize suffering.
So Airbridge has been sunsetted. That time that we ran
Airbridge has allowed manufacturing overseas to catch up, to
get more greater quantities on shipping container ships. So
that typical mode of transportation pre-COVID on container
ships is now more intact and more frequent and has allowed
commercial producers to distribute more PPE across the country.
Mr. Katko. Great.
Now going forward, I just want to kind-of ask you, what do
you think we should be concentrating on to assist you in doing
your job? What are some of the things that haven't been done
yet that maybe we can consider in the next package?
Mr. Gaynor. I want to thank Congress specifically for
funding the Disaster Relief Fund. This has allowed FEMA to fund
PPE and staffing, alternate care sites, all those kinds of
things that Governors and mayors need. So I thank you for fully
funding that.
I think the challenge for FEMA right now, especially with
the outbreak in the Sun Belt, is making sure we have enough
adequate staffing. Again, I took a tour of the Gulf Coast last
week. The demand for PPE, we didn't hear that. The demand for
ventilators, we didn't hear that. The demand for alternate care
sites or beds, we haven't heard that yet. The demand is really
for medical professionals in hospitals to kind of backfill
those kind of needs.
You know, 50 percent of all the cases now are Florida,
Texas, California, and Arizona. So that is kind-of our focus.
So getting volunteers from other parts of the country to go
down and help would be helpful to us to increase that
bandwidth.
Medical doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, they are a
high-demand, low-density asset. You have to be really careful
about where you get them from. In some cases you would say,
well, just we will activate the National Guard or we will
activate the Reserves. But those doctors that are in the
Reserves are doctors in hospitals today. So there is a delicate
balance that we are trying to maintain.
But right now our concern is making sure we have enough
medical professionals in those 4 States to deal with rising
cases and rising hospitalizations.
Mr. Katko. You mentioned the Disaster Relief Fund. The last
I heard--and it was a while ago, forgive me, I don't know the
numbers now--I know it was pretty well-funded. There was at
least $75 billion in it. Where are we now with the fund?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. So Congress appropriated about $45
billion extra. This is in the beginning of our response, so
about $80 billion. We have spent about $8 billion obligated so
far, but there is more to come. Again, expenditures lag,
because there is----
Mr. Katko. But also that fund has to be used in case there
is a hurricane or whatever else.
Mr. Gaynor. Correct. So it is for COVID response, it is for
natural disaster response, whether it is a hurricane or a
tornado or flooding. It funds recovery across the country. So
as far back as Katrina that fund is used for that.
Mr. Katko. Thank you.
Thank you for indulging me, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much. Let the record
reflect that you were 1 minute 30 seconds over.
Mr. Katko. I was 1 minute and 29 seconds. Come on now.
Chairman Thompson. I did not call time on you.
Mr. Katko. Thank you very much.
Chairman Thompson. We try to make this thing work.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Illinois for 5
minutes, Ms. Underwood.
Ms. Underwood. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor, thanks for testifying today on the
administration's response to this pandemic.
As a former senior adviser at HHS, I know that a successful
response to a global public health crisis of this scale
requires a whole-of-Government response with clearly-defined
leadership. I would like to get a better understanding of how
this administration approaches that.
Yes or no, is it your understanding that FEMA, as of today,
is charged with leading the operational coordination for the
Federal interagency response to this pandemic?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am, we are still leading the
coordination for the response.
Ms. Underwood. So with FEMA leading the Federal response,
do you report directly to the President on coronavirus matters?
Mr. Gaynor. Did you say--can you just say it again? It is
very faint.
Ms. Underwood. I said with FEMA leading the response, do
you report directly to the President for coronavirus matters?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am, both the President and the
Coronavirus Task Force with the Vice President. Absolutely.
Ms. Underwood. OK. So according to your testimony, FEMA has
been, ``coordinating the whole-of-Government response,'' to the
pandemic since March 19.
Let me be clear, FEMA employees have worked incredibly hard
in the 4 months since. But the truth is that FEMA was not
designed for this type of crisis. A pandemic that impacts every
State simultaneously and lasts a year or longer is very
different from a localized disaster like a hurricane.
So in the 4 months that you have led the response have you
asked the President for additional resources or support that
you have not received?
Mr. Gaynor. Well, ma'am, I disagree that we are not
designed for this pandemic. I absolutely disagree. FEMA is
designed exactly for this, which is interagency coordination.
So no matter if it is a hurricane or COVID-19, that is exactly
what we do. We problem-solve and we act and we deliver
solutions to those most in need. So I disagree with your
premise that this is not what we were designed for.
The second part of your question, again, I have trouble
hearing what you are saying.
Ms. Underwood. In the 4 months since you have led the
response have you asked the President for any additional
resources or support that you have not received?
Mr. Gaynor. From the beginning--and, again, I want to make
sure that facts drive the narrative--the President and the Vice
President and the Coronavirus Task Force were very clear with
me that anything I needed, whether it is a Federal agency that
typically didn't respond, whether it is money, whether it is
staffing, whatever I needed was at my disposal as we battle
COVID-19. That was made clear explicitly by the President and
the Coronavirus Task Force when he declared a National disaster
on the 13th of March.
Ms. Underwood. OK. So did you ask for anything that you
haven't received?
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I have gotten--so, I have great partners
on the task force. So from Dr. Giroir on testing, Dr. Hahn from
FDA, Dr. Birx, who leads the data----
Ms. Underwood. I appreciate it. We are familiar with the
task force, sir. I am asking you, have you asked for something
that you haven't received? If the answer is no, that is fine.
Mr. Gaynor. Absolutely. No, ma'am, I have gotten everything
I have needed from the administration. Everything.
Ms. Underwood. OK. So the coronavirus has been in this
country for at least 6 months, and we still have PPE shortages.
So I have a hard time with you saying you have received
everything you have asked for. I shouldn't still be hearing
about nurses reusing single-use masks, and yet they have gone
on strike this month because they don't have the basic supplies
they need to do their job safely.
Yet in your testimony, sir, you write that FEMA is,
``returning to steady-state.'' DHS defines steady-state as,
``normal operations.'' You also write that FEMA's role in the
coronavirus response are moving to other agencies, and that
FEMA's coronavirus task forces are being downgraded.
With FEMA shedding responsibilities and moving back to
normal operations, who in the Federal Government is taking over
leadership of this on-going crisis? Who is in charge of getting
the testing where it needs to be? Who is in charge of making
sure teachers going back to school have PPE?
Mr. Gaynor. So there is a lot in that question, ma'am.
So, first of all, the President is in charge of the
coronavirus response through the Vice President on the
Coronavirus Task Force, through the many members, including
myself. We execute those priorities and those decisions. I am
not sure where the ``steady-state'' came from. I think maybe
that may be a little bit dated.
Ms. Underwood. That came from your testimony, your written
testimony today, sir.
Mr. Gaynor. Because, again, this is a a dynamic situation
that changes from day to day. We still lead the Coronavirus
Task Force. I have many great partners, to include HHS.
It is correct that some of the functions have transferred
back to HHS because it is more appropriate, because it is
medical. Early on, again, we adapted. As we become more
confident, we have better systems, we have better data, we
understand the problem more, some of those functions have
shifted back to HHS.
But let me be clear, FEMA is still in the operational lead
for operational coordination. We are glued to the hip with my
HHS brothers and sisters. We still meet every day on making
sure we can deliver the resources to the Nation, especially
those that are most at risk and most under stress of COVID-19
cases and hospitalizations.
Ms. Underwood. Well, Mr. Chairman, I just have to tell you,
Mr. Gaynor's testimony seems to directly contradict his written
testimony that he submitted. At the end of page 8, beginning of
page 9, he talks about FEMA returning to the steady-state
normal operations. Now he is saying that they remain in charge
of the operational response.
I have tried in my 5 minutes, sir, to get an answer, a
direct answer to this very straightforward question and, like
Mr. Rose, seemed to be getting a little bit of a looped,
circular response here.
We are seeing almost 60,000 cases a day, health care
workers don't have the PPE that they need, and no part of our
Federal Government can be in normal operations at this time. We
need an aggressive, coordinated Federal response to contain
this pandemic and reopen safely, and it has been lacking from
this administration.
I yield back.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Just to kind-of follow up on some
of your comments.
Chairman Thompson. Mr. Gaynor----
Mr. Gaynor. This is an ever-changing situation.
Chairman Thompson. Mr. Gaynor, you don't have to answer.
She was just making a comment. She wasn't asking for a
question.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr.
Crenshaw, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Crenshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Administrator Gaynor, for being here and being
so patient in the face of what are often disingenuous
criticisms and accusations. A lot of good questions, I think a
lot of reasonable questions, but also a lot of the opposite.
I would like to think that this hearing is about learning
lessons and constructive criticism. It should be. We could ask
good-faith questions about how to improve our response, taking
into account that imperfect results are inevitable in the face
of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
It shouldn't be about levying unfalsifiable claims. See,
the critics can never be wrong. No matter how much PPE was
delivered, no matter how many Airbridge flights were flown, you
can always claim it wasn't enough. Perhaps it wasn't.
But if we are going to do constructive criticism the
critics should point to pivotal decisions where everybody said,
``Do this,'' and instead you did something else. I have never
heard that criticism. Interesting that we haven't.
When it comes to these problems of, say, nurses or doctors
not having PPE in their hospital, those are certainly
concerning claims. I believe we are lucky in the Houston area,
we rarely hear that, if ever.
Do they have a direct line to FEMA? Is that how this works?
Again, let's talk about what is the proper lesson learned here.
Are they ordering directly from FEMA? If they don't get it, do
they call your hotline and request the PPE? Or is that not how
it works?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. Great question.
So I am going to start with the premise that to be
successful in an emergency, it has to be locally-executed,
State-managed, and Federally-supported. I spent 8 years as a
local emergency manager and I spent almost 4 years as a State
director. Now I lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency in
this response.
There is a system that we use at FEMA for National
disasters, and it is the same system that we decided to use
from the beginning of this, a system that people were familiar
with from the localest level, mayors and Governors, Tribal
chiefs. If you needed something from FEMA, we had a system
designed to address that.
I have 10 regions across the country as far west as
American Samoa and as far east as the U.S. Virgin Islands,
9,300 miles, 10 very talented regional administrators that are
the tip of the spear for FEMA, making sure we address every
need that we get from States. So it is----
Mr. Crenshaw. I am trying to quicken the answer here.
Mr. Gaynor. It is local, State, Federal.
Mr. Crenshaw. It goes to regional, it goes to regional
offices.
Mr. Gaynor. If there is a need from a hospital for PPE,
they can easily contact their local government and it will get
through the pipeline.
Mr. Crenshaw. Right.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I mean, that is typically how it
works.
Mr. Crenshaw. Understood.
When it comes to nursing homes, there was a priority of
delivering PPE to nursing homes, delivering more than 29,000
packages of supplies in 53 States and territories. You saw the
vulnerabilities in nursing homes.
In hindsight, is there anything more FEMA could have done
to stop Governors in, say, New York, Michigan, and Colorado,
from putting infected patients back into confined nursing home
facilities? We know in hindsight that was a terrible idea.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. So I am not a medical doctor, so I
will leave the medical considerations about what you do with
patients to those that have an M.D. at the end of their name.
What we do at FEMA and through the----
Mr. Crenshaw. I don't know what is so funny about that. It
is not funny. People died because of that decision.
Mr. Gaynor. But what we do at FEMA is, again, no matter if
it is COVID-19 or it is a hurricane, is we support elected
leaders. So whether you are a Governor or a mayor, and you have
a disaster, we fully enable you to execute what you need to do
in your specific State or locality.
Again, Federally-supported, not Federally-managed and not
Federally-executed. The system only works when all those things
work together and, of course, when citizens are prepared also.
So we enable Governors through a variety of different
systems, to include funding, materials, technical assistance,
to address those needs by their constituents.
Mr. Crenshaw. Talk to me about Project Airbridge. Is it a
success? Is it a failure? What could be done better with it?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
So it was an absolute success. Again, it was about speed.
It was about, at the direction of the President, go find every
piece of PPE around the globe and bring it to the United
States. Pretty simple mission order, right? Go do that.
Airbridge allowed us to do it.
It is one of things we typically do at FEMA. We have a
pretty vast logistics arm. We have used planes and boats before
to transport material to disaster sites.
This allowed time so we could, again, build that industrial
base, get more produced on-shore, find more confident farm
producers that we could rely on, and, again, get that specific
PPE to where it was needed the most, those front-line workers,
nurses, doctors, caregivers, CNAs in nursing homes where it
mattered the most.
So, ultimately, it was about saving lives and minimizing
suffering. That was ultimately what it was all about.
Mr. Crenshaw. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Michigan, Ms.
Slotkin, for 5 minutes.
Ms. Slotkin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Director, thanks for being here, and thanks to you and
your work force for the really unprecedented challenge that we
have ahead of us--or that we have been dealing with and we
still have ahead of us.
I am glad to see there is wide bipartisan agreement that
the idea that we were buying like over a barrel with the
Chinese Government and Asian suppliers on PPE, the fact that I
am negotiating for a 78 cent mask with a Chinese middleman in
the middle of rural China, means the chickens have come home to
roost on manufacturing.
As the State that does the most manufacturing of just about
any of them, we have been talking about this since the 1980's,
long before this crisis.
Certainly because of GM and Ford and what they did to
invest in ventilators, we know personally how hard it was to
get the administration to use the DPA. I am glad they are using
it now, but we should just acknowledge that it took longer than
it should.
But if my colleagues are interested in actually doing
something to make sure you are not in this situation again in
future pandemics, there is a bipartisan bill, Strengthening
America's Strategic National Stockpile Act, so that we can
actually not just use the DPA, which should be an emergency
authority, but incentivize American companies to want to make
these supplies for you all. So I am glad we are in strong
agreement on that.
Let me just ask you about testing. You have briefed us on
March 20, April 17, May 8, and again today, and each time I
believe you have said we have the supplies we need for everyone
who needs a test.
As someone from Michigan, where we went through a really
strong, like, March and April, was where our wave was and now
watching my peers go through this, is it your testimony that
since March 20 everyone who has needed a test has gotten access
to a test unless there was a local implementation problem?
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I would defer to--testing, specifics and
details--to Admiral Giroir because he is the test--again, our
role is to enable Governors, like Governor----
Ms. Slotkin. Whitmer.
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Whitmer, thank you, to run her
testing program for her State.
Ms. Slotkin. So is it your testimony that you got her all
the reagent and all the swabs that she needed for every test
that was required by the State of Michigan?
Mr. Gaynor. So I can't say 100 percent, but I can say--I
could give you details about exactly what we delivered to each
State, swabs and media, and if there was a--and so each--just
to step back, through Admiral Giroir and his engagement with
States and Governors, had engagement with every single State
Governor about testing and their goals, designed what their
testing percentage and goal needed to be by State, and then,
with supplies, swabs, and media, applied that number to their
program.
Ms. Slotkin. OK. But----
Mr. Gaynor. If a Governor exceeded their goal, then we had
enough slack in the supply chain to give, in this case Governor
Whitmer, more. So, again, I would have to go back and look at
the record about, you know, did she meet her goals, or did she
exceed her goals?
Ms. Slotkin. It just--it does feel like, especially as we
look at other parts of the country having the same problems
that we had early on, that we are just--it feels like passing
the buck, and we can't just learn from our experience.
There is no way that you can still say as you did on March
20 that we had all the materials we needed to test everyone
that we needed to test then, in April, in May, and now today.
We don't have to answer that. It is hard to think ahead to
another wave.
Mr. Gaynor. Well----
Ms. Slotkin. That is my next question, sir.
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Again, March 20 is months away.
Ms. Slotkin. No, please, my next question is for the State
of Michigan. We are watching our peers have the same problems
in Texas, in Alabama, in Arizona that we went through. I am
asking your question as a planner, are you currently planning
for a second wave in the States that got hit hardest the first
round?
Mr. Gaynor. You are talking about Chicago, Detroit----
Ms. Slotkin. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gaynor. So there is constant planning and strategizing
about what the next 30, 60, 90 days look like. That is what we
do. Right now, we are looking at, again, what is closest to us
in front of us is those 4 States that have 50 percent of----
Ms. Slotkin. Wave one.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, it is wave 1.5, right. You know, because
we thought we would have a little lull between August--or July
and August, and that didn't happen, so, again, we are dealing
with what is in front of us right now.
Ms. Slotkin. I guess, the question is, help me understand
and explain to the public that what happened to us with the
shortages on PPE is not going to just keep happening again in a
second wave for places like Michigan.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. I think time makes PPE better. We
had just recently completed a--with the supply chain task
force, Admiral Polowczyk and the team actually went out to
every single State, talked to them one-to-one about, how much
PPE do you have on hand?
I will just speak in general terms, not every State is
equal, but for the most part, the majority of States have 60,
90, 120 days of PPE stockpiled in their State warehouses. That
is a really good sign. I am not saying that is the ultimate
solution. We still have to work on making sure we have enough
in the Strategic National Stockpile. That is a whole 'nother
initiative.
Ms. Slotkin. Totally.
Mr. Gaynor. So there is lots to do. We need to ramp up
production so we can have bigger numbers. So there is lots of
facets to all this, but I think we are in a much better
position today than we were on March 20 when it comes to PPE.
Again, every day we get a little bit healthier because we have
done all these initiatives along the way. So I have confidence
that we will have enough PPE for today and for if there is a
second wave in the fall.
Ms. Slotkin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr.
Cleaver, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Cleaver. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for being here, Administrator. I appreciate your
presence and so forth. I think it is good, and I know your job
is hard. But in April, FEMA published a new civil rights
bulletin entitled ``Ensuring Civil Rights During the COVID-19
Response.'' The bulletin went on to emphasize FEMA's legal and
moral obligation to deliver COVID-19 pandemic relief and
disaster assistance to communities irrespective of race, color,
religion, national origin, sex, and so forth.
But in spite of your welcome bulletin on civil rights,
COVID-19 disparities remain. So I am not saying you are doing
anything deliberately--I mean, I don't even want to almost
suggest that because I think that would be irresponsible for
me--but what I want you to address as best as you can please
is, do you think that the agency is doing enough of the right
things that would reduce the disparity between the people of
color who are disproportionately affected by the pandemic? What
else could you do, or is there something you should be sending
to the public or those who are out fighting this deadly
disease?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. Thanks for the question.
So I have been an emergency manager for a few years now,
about 13 years at every level of government, and what I have
learned is that all the challenges a community faces before a
disaster, whether it is poverty, homeless, unemployment, the
disaster--and you can use COVID-19 as the disaster--makes it
all worse, and it lays bare where the gaps are. I think that is
where we are in some of these communities.
I understand there has been, you know, long-standing
inequities in health care access, service, and outcomes, but
let me tell you what FEMA is doing to try to offset some of
this disparity.
Again, thank you for mentioning the equal rights bulletin.
It is actually the first time we have ever issued one of these
for a disaster, and I think probably it is going to be standard
fare. Again----
Mr. Cleaver. Yes, I appreciate that too, sir. Thank you.
Mr. Gaynor. Fifty-six major disasters on 1 day, March 13.
So we have never been here before, but we focused on things
that are in our authorities and things that we get a demand
signal from States, things like food, help with food.
So we have a program where we can use Stafford Act money to
provide feeding in a lot of innovative ways. I am going to use
a couple examples. In California, using Meals on Wheels to
deliver food to those that can't get out of their home or are
COVID-positive. We have never done that before. So we want to
try to be innovative.
Things like housing, homelessness in California, getting
them off the street and putting them in a non-congregate
sheltering if they are positive, again, to drive down the curve
on COVID.
Testing sites, 750 or so community-based testing sites
today. Seventy percent of those testing sites are in socially
vulnerable communities, and that is deliberate. That is not by
accident, and I give great credit to my partners at HHS for
driving that. So we continue to do those things. Just like
everything else, we can do much better, and we look for every
opportunity to do so.
Mr. Cleaver. OK. Thank you.
My final question, and it is personal, but it is not
because I think there are millions of people would ask you the
same question if they were here: I have a grandson who is 5
years old and a granddaughter who is 7, almost 7 years old, and
I have got to tell you, Administrator, I am scared to death for
them to go to school in a few weeks.
I mean, what can I tell my daughter and my son-in-law, what
can I tell my wife, and what can I tell my constituents when
they want to know, you know, how can schools open safely if
they can't get air filters or PPE?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I am going to use the mitigation
fundamentals that work no matter if it is a school or it is
here testifying at Congress, it is all the things that matter.
These mitigation fundamentals work no matter where you are, and
we have seen that across the country.
First is wearing a mask, right. So drive the transmission
down by wearing a mask and having somebody that is across from
you wearing a mask. You wear your mask not for yourself; you
wear your mask so you protect the person across from you. So
that is one.
Next is hygiene and hand washing, very simple things. You
know, every time I walk by an alcohol pump, whether I need to
wash my hands or not, I do it today just because it is good
habit. Don't wear rubber gloves. It doesn't help with
transmission. Actually, it goes against transmission, so just
don't wear rubber gloves. Keep your hands clean.
Mr. Cleaver. Well----
Mr. Gaynor. Then social distancing. Stay away 6 feet, and
we are all doing it here today. Then, last, don't go into bars
and don't go into crowded places like overcrowded diners.
Mr. Cleaver. Yes, but my grandson is 5. He is not going to
go to a bar.
Mr. Gaynor. If the American public can do all those things,
we will crush the COVID wave today.
Mr. Cleaver. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas for 5
minutes, Mr. Green.
Mr. Green of Texas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the witness for appearing today. Mr. Administrator,
you are a former military person. Is this correct?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I am a U.S. Marine.
Mr. Green of Texas. Lieutenant colonel.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
Mr. Green of Texas. Do you believe in chain of command?
Mr. Gaynor. Absolutely, sir.
Mr. Green of Texas. Respect it?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. It is one of our core values.
Mr. Green of Texas. Mr. Administrator, I will come back to
this at the end of my questions. But, Mr. Administrator, please
accept this as a heartfelt statement with no desire to demean
you in any way. But you indicated earlier that we will overcome
it, and you are talking about the virus. We will overcome it,
but, Mr. Administrator, at what cost? That is the question. At
what cost?
Harris County, Texas, according to the intelligence that I
have a few days ago, 37,095 confirmed cases, 545 deaths. July
20, 2020, as it relates to the country I love, the United
States of America, 3.9 million cases, 143,000 deaths. At what
cost?
News article, Texas Tribune, dated July 19, 2020: 85 babies
under 1 year old in Nueces County have tested positive for
coronavirus, and this is since mid-March. Then it goes on to
say that a baby younger than 6 months old died. At what cost?
At what cost?
We have a President who has talked about injecting persons
with disinfectant, who has indicated that the virus will simply
disappear, a President who won't wear the mask that you just
said we ought to wear. I respect you, and I believe you are
sincere, but when the President of the United States of America
won't wear the mask that you and I know will protect people and
save lives, you have to ask, at what cost?
No reflection on you, Lieutenant colonel. I respect you. I
appreciate what you have done for your country. But the
question is, at what cost? How many lives? How many more? What
is wrong with this man? You and I know that masks protect
people, and it is just yesterday that he seems to have come
around.
Now, back to the chain of command. I expect you to do what
you are doing, to be quite candid with you. You are a Marine.
Once a Marine, always a Marine. You have to do what you do.
This is how the country functions. So I appreciate you.
But I just want you to know that the cost is too high. It
is too high for minorities. It is too high in Houston, Texas,
where I have a community known as Sunnyside, one of the hot
spots. Minorities are the people who drive the trucks. They
pick up the trash. They bag the groceries. I am talking about
Latinx. I am talking about African Americans. The cost is too
high.
This is why I came to the hearing. I want to thank the
Chairman for having the hearing. I appreciate what you said
because I agree with you: We will overcome it. But the question
is, at what cost? It is a rhetorical question that you need not
answer, my dear brother. I hope you are not offended by my
saying ``my dear brother.'' There is only one race, human, and
we are related. But at what cost? You need not answer.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Thompson. The gentleman yields back his time.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from New York for 5
minutes, Ms. Clarke.
Ms. Clarke. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Administrator Gaynor, I am pleased that you have joined us
today. However, I am not pleased by the administration's deadly
mismanagement of this pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of
Americans have died, countless small businesses have shuttered
because of the Federal Government's failure to address this
crisis with the appropriate amount of urgency. To this day, the
urgency has not risen to the level of--to meet the level of
distress and destruction that this pandemic is reeking across
this Nation.
I would like to turn to the strategic stockpile. The
Strategic National Stockpile is the Nation's supply of life-
saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for the use in a
public health emergency. Throughout the pandemic, leadership of
the stockpile has moved back and forth among CDC, HHS, and
FEMA. In March, control of the stockpile was shifted from HHS
to FEMA, and in late June, control reverted back to HHS.
So, Administrator Gaynor, could you please describe why
control of the stockpile has shifted multiple times, and how
does FEMA continue to support the Strategic National Stockpile?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for the question.
So, just to be clear, again, FEMA was never, to the best of
my knowledge, in recent history, the owner of the Strategic
National Stockpile. I think you are correct: Ownership had been
between CDC and ASPR. It now resides under the control of ASPR,
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Under
Secretary Azar at HHS.
Ms. Clarke. So you don't know--just to be clear, so you
don't know why they keep shifting the control of the stockpile
between agencies?
Mr. Gaynor. I don't, and, again, I would defer that
question to the Secretary about why those decisions were made.
Ms. Clarke. OK. No problem.
At a White House press conference on April 2, Jared
Kushner, speaking about the Strategic National Stockpile, said
the notion of a Federal stockpile was--around the notion of the
Federal stockpile was: It is supposed to be our stockpile. It
is not supposed to be the State stockpiles that they then use.
This directly contradicted the description of the
stockpile's purpose on the website, and shortly thereafter, the
text on the website changed to better fit Mr. Kushner's
remarks.
Administrator Gaynor, what is your understanding of the
purpose of the Strategic National Stockpile?
Mr. Gaynor. So, again, not being an expert in the history
of it, but from my general understanding of the stockpile that
we used today, now we are building the next version of that
next generation stockpile, but as it existed going into COVID-
19, it was really designed--it was not designed for a pandemic
of this scale. It was really designed for, again, as I
understand it, for an anthrax attack in a very small couple
cities in the United States. It was really used to----
Ms. Clarke. So my question is, my question is: What is the
purpose of the stockpile, not what is its usage?
Mr. Gaynor. So, again, I think the traditional purpose, the
way it was designed for was, again, a biological attack in a
city, and so the stockpile has many different things in it to
include pharmaceuticals and vents and PPE.
It really was and is designed to buy time, you know, get
that stuff out the door to where it is needed the most until
you can ramp up production or ramp up imports--and, again, I am
not talking about COVID-19. I am just talking generally in an
anthrax scenario--and then get it through the normal channels.
But, again, not designed for COVID-19. It could not be used as
a single source for all things PPE across the country, and that
is one of the reasons we designed the Airbridge because we had
partnerships----
Ms. Clarke. Thank you for your response, Administrator.
On April 27, as the virus spread to more than 900,000
individuals in the United States killing more than 54,000
Americans, Dr. James Mahoney, a pulmonologist died of
complications related to COVID-19. Dr. Mahoney worked for more
than 30 years at the SUNY DownState Medical Center, an
underfunded, publicly-financed hospital that serves my district
in Brooklyn, New York.
Dr. Mahoney was set to retire. Then the pandemic struck.
Deferring retirement, Dr. Mahoney, as his brother put it, ran
into the fire, continuing to care for patients battling COVID-
19. Like other hospitals that served economically disadvantaged
communities, the hospital where Dr. Mahoney worked didn't have
enough PPE as the virus spread. This occurred back in April. It
distresses me to see my colleagues going through the same exact
trauma. Here we are, 3 months later, going into the fourth
month.
Dr. Gaynor, the failure of the administration to provide
PPE to hospitals, to nursing homes, particularly those serving
economically disadvantaged communities counts amongst its
consequences the loss of many dedicated front-line workers.
What specific steps is FEMA taking, if any, to ensure that
front-line workers receive the supplies they need to fight the
on-going pandemic?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Again, you know, we are built as an
emergency management agency with a primary goal to save lives
and minimize suffering. So, with you, I agree that with one
life lost is one life too many. So, you know, it is an
indiscriminate disease. It knows no borders. It knows no
boundaries. It doesn't care what you look like or where you are
from. So just to go back on making sure that we have enough PPE
to protect our front-line workers, that has been the goal from
the beginning.
To go back on further statements about global competition,
not just in the United States but across the globe, everyone is
looking for the same exact item, like N95 masks, and we were
not managing an abundance of resources. We were managing at
FEMA the lack of resources and making hard decisions about
priorities about where do these very limited--at the time--very
limited resources go to do the best to save lives and minimize
suffering.
So those decisions were made at the highest level within
FEMA. My partners on the Unified Command group at FEMA, Dr.
Giroir and Dr. Calick, we agonized over all those decisions
about where do the vents go, where does PPE go. Again, no small
task, you know, hard decisions to make, but our goal was to
make sure that we had PPE where it was needed the most, and
that remains our goal today. We are in a much better place
today with PPE than we were in March and April.
Ms. Clarke. Mr. Chairman, I know that my time is expired,
but this has been an abysmal failure, for anyone to try to
justify the lack of urgency and the lack of continued
preparation for this pandemic across this Nation and to justify
by saying that we are managing the best way we can, this is
unexpected. We know what we are dealing with now, and this
administration continues to fail the American people at the
cost of lives and livelihoods.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Nevada, Ms. Titus,
for 5 minutes.
Ms. Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Administrator Gaynor, you know, I represent Las Vegas, and
we have a mask requirement, and we closed and then opened
gradually, but now we are seeing a spike in cases. I want to
ask you a couple of questions about that.
I think you are probably aware that the State of Nevada
made a Title 32 extension request. We sent that in on July 9.
We want to continue to use our Nevada National Guard for the
mitigation activities. They have done a great job and we need
to continue that.
I have a letter from the Governor and an additional support
letter from the entire delegation asking for this extension.
With unanimous consent, Mr. Chairman, I would like to enter
these into the record.
Chairman Thompson. Without objection, so ordered.
[The information follows:]
July 13, 2020.
President Donald J. Trump,
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Dear Mr. President: We write today as a unified, bipartisan
Congressional Delegation on behalf of the State of Nevada to request an
extension of 502(f)(2)(A) of Title 32, U.S. Code funding for the Nevada
National Guard in support of the fight against Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) through December 31, 2020. The current funding for these
efforts was approved on April 11, 2020, and an extension is critical to
ensuring the safety and health of Nevada citizens as we confront and
recover from the pandemic and put our State back to work.
The Nevada National Guard has been critical to our State with their
direct support of Nevada's State and local response efforts, and their
continued support is more important than ever as we begin to see
increases in positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Hundreds of
National Guard service members have been providing valuable support for
community-based collection sites, logistics, warehouse distribution,
homeless isolation/quarantine shelters, COVID-19 mapping work sites,
operations centers, and much more. All of these efforts leverage State
and local efforts and are essential to mitigating the impact of COVID-
19 on Nevadans.
Nevada is currently experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases. Our
cumulative test positivity rate has been increasing since June 17 (5.2
percent) and is currently 7.6 percent; hospitalizations of confirmed
and suspected COVID-19 patients experienced its highest single day
increase (13.5 percent, combined) on July 6; and Nevada's effective
reproduction rate has leveled out to a degree, however it remains
significantly more elevated than during the State's sheltering order.
These and other indicators suggest that Nevada could be following a
similar trend as Arizona and Southern California, both areas of which
have seen increases that have stressed critical capacity.
Nevada has an aggressive plan to reduce the spread of this disease,
preserve critical care space, and protect vulnerable populations.
Extending members of the National Guard as requested would allow us to
provide essential support for local service providers, particularly in
our high population areas of Washoe and Clark County. If approved,
these Guard members would be deployed to support all lines of effort
associated with testing (sample collection, laboratory testing, and
contact tracing), as well as providing support to local and State
government entities in providing logistical support for food and
essential services to remote and vulnerable populations in our State.
We expect the need for National Guard support to persist through
the summer and a possible resurgence in the fall months and share
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak's concern that prematurely easing Federal
funding for National Guard COVID-19 support operations will hinder
Nevada's ability to respond. This could contribute to a possible second
wave of infection. In addition, Nevada is already shouldering dramatic
economic impacts, and limited State resources are available to support
the listed Nevada National Guard missions.
Therefore, we request that you extend the 502(f)(2)(A) funding
authorization through December 31, 2020, with required monthly
assessments, in order to allow the Nevada National Guard to continue
supporting these mission critical tasks.
Thank you for your consideration of this important matter.
Sincerely,
Catherine Cortez Masto,
United States Senator.
Dina Titus,
Member of Congress.
Susie Lee,
Member of Congress.
Jacky Rosen,
United States Senator.
Mark E. Amodei,
Member of Congress.
Steven Horsford,
Member of Congress.
______
July 9, 2020.
President Donald J. Trump,
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Dear Mr. President: Thank you for the support you have shown the
State of Nevada. You have approved 2,000 members of the Nevada National
Guard in Title 32 status through August 31, 2020. These personnel are
performing critical support in response to the COVID-19 public health
emergency. I write to request your authorization to retain 600 Nevada
National Guard Personnel in a Title 32 status through December 31,
2020.
Since your initial authorization of National Guard Forces, Nevada,
in coordination with our Federal Partners, has made great progress in
combating the virus. Because of this partnership, Nevada has seen
remarkable increases in our ability to conduct community-based testing,
lab capacity, contact tracing, and other critical capabilities for our
effort to reopen and keep open our State in a safe and responsible
manner. The need for close cooperation and mutual assistance between
the Federal Government and Nevada remains greater than ever.
Nevada is currently experiencing a significant uptick in COVID-19
cases. Our cumulative test positivity rate has been increasing since
June 17 (5.2 percent) and is currently 7.6 percent; hospitalizations of
confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients experienced its highest
single day increase (13.5 percent, combined) on July 6; and Nevada's
effective reproduction rate has leveled out to a degree, however it
remains significantly more elevated than during the State's sheltering
order. These and other indicators suggest that Nevada could be
following a similar trend as Arizona and Southern California, both
areas of which have seen increases that have stressed critical
capacity.
Nevada has an aggressive plan to reduce the spread of this disease,
preserve critical care space, and protect vulnerable populations.
Extending members of the National Guard as requested would allow us to
provide essential support for local service providers, particularly in
our high population areas of Washoe and Clark County. If approved,
these Guard members would be deployed to support all lines of effort
associated with testing (sample collection, laboratory testing, and
contact tracing), as well as aid with logistical support to State and
local government entities that provide Our Soldiers and Airmen have
played a vital role in Nevada's response to COVID-19. The extension
will enable Nevada to continue to take aggressive action to maintain
testing sites, stage and distribute medical supplies, and position the
State to transition to a regional reopening of the economy. Simply put,
the continued support of our National Guard members is essential to our
long-term effort to ensure that Nevada can fully respond and recover
from this pandemic.
Accordingly, I ask that you approve and direct the Office of
Management and Budget, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the
Secretary of Defense to extend Title 32 502(f) authority and funding
for up to 600 members of the Nevada Army and Air National Guard through
December 31, 2020. I will do everything possible to size our response
force based on critical needs and to only use Title 32 502(f) authority
and funding as absolutely necessary. I will continue to reassess the
State's capacity as the situation unfolds and may request additional
support, as necessary.
Thank you for your consideration of my request.
Sincerely,
Governor Steve Sisolak,
State of Nevada.
Ms. Titus. Thank you very much.
Right now, our use of the National Guard is to end in
August, and I wonder if you have any idea when we are going to
hear from you, when we will know if that is going to be able to
be continued, what the status of that request is?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for the question.
I can't say I have seen that exact letter from Nevada, but
we will make sure that we have that. Many Governors, most every
Governor has asked for an extension past August 21. We have
been discussing that at the administration, DOD, and FEMA, and
hopefully we make a decision here shortly because I think we
all know how valuable the National Guard has been in helping
Governors across the country do many things, heroic things. As
a valuable asset, we want to make sure that we appropriately
adjudicate all those requests. So hopefully shortly we will
have a decision from the administration.
Ms. Titus. But I hope it is a positive one because they had
been very helpful, and we would like to see them continue to do
that as these cases increase.
My second question goes back to the issue of test kits. We
have just been getting mixed responses from the administration
in this area like in so many others. First, we were told that
they would be provided by the Federal Government. I think the
CDC coordinated by you, through June 30.
Then as July 1 approached, we got word, and I think Mr.
Rose referred to this a little bit that, no, not to worry;
indeed you would be continuing them through the end of the year
to January 1. We really need these test kits, and I wonder if
you can give me anymore specifics. Are they going to be
continued? Can we count on that, or do we need to provide our
own test kits?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. When you say ``test kits,'' and,
again, I would defer--there is different machines with
different requirements, and so, generically, FEMA is providing
testing supplies, swabs, and media to Governors. If there is a
specific ask from Nevada about a specific kind of kit, I will
engage HHS and Dr. Giroir to see if there is a shortage that we
need to correct or adjust.
Ms. Titus. Well, thank you. So it is not cut it off now
because we are in July, that we are going to continue to have
this relationship?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Production is much
greater than it was, you know, 90 days ago.
Ms. Titus. Well, now, for one more just kind-of more
general question. Yesterday, I joined some of my colleagues,
the Chairman on this committee, and the Chairman on the
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and I have asked
you about this before, but I will ask you about it again, see
if the situation has changed.
We are very concerned about the number of vacancies at the
top level in FEMA, especially as we try to deal with and
coordinate and figure out and take charge of what is going on
with the pandemic.
But on top of that, now we are into hurricane season and it
looks like this is going to be a pretty vicious season. What is
happening with these different positions? Are you filling them?
Can you not find people? Are you covering it all by yourself?
Can you give us some idea?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. In general, just on--so a couple
different categories of vacancies. So, generally, vacancies
across FEMA, we have hired in the past 6 months--actually from
fiscal year--this fiscal year, from 1 October to now, we have
hired 22 percent more people than we have hired ever before.
So we have on-boarded more people in the past couple months
than we have done historically, which is a great sign. We have
done that while responding to COVID-19, through virtual on-
boarding and telework. It has been quite amazing.
Vacancies on career SESes, as of today, there is only 1
vacancy for an SES out of about 105 or so SESes in FEMA. There
is only 1 vacancy that just came up a couple days ago. The rest
either have a selected individual, or they are in a process of
selecting individuals. So, again, we have never been in this
spot before. We have virtually had no career vacancies. We are
pretty proud of that.
Then the last category is politicals. So I think we have
lost some politicals, Dan Kaniewski, who ran resilience,
resigned early January, as did Jeff Byard, who ran operations.
But let me assure you: We continue to fill political spots. We
continue to fill career spots. We continue to do hiring.
Again, the pool of talent that I have at FEMA is quite
breathtaking. I have no lack of confidence about our ability to
perform, respond to COVID-19 or to a hurricane or anything in
front of us. We have never been more ready as an agency, and
that is a belief I take with me, having worked through COVID-19
response over the past 140 days or so.
Ms. Titus. So you feel like you have enough of a senior
leadership team to make some of these key decisions that we
have been asking about through the course of this hearing?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. We have been making decisions, and,
again, where there was a vacancy, you know, we are designed to
have deputies. Again, I will put up any one of my politicals or
careers against anyone else when it comes to talent and
dedication and enthusiasm for the mission. They have been
outperforming even my expectations, so I think we are--you
know, obviously we need a couple more politicals and we will
work on that, but I think, as an agency as a whole, we are in a
really good spot.
Ms. Titus. Well, Mr. Gaynor, I know you are a professional,
and I think you are doing a good job, but in so many of these
agencies we see people appointed who come to the agency that
they have tried to get rid of when they were in Congress or
they would come to the agency from an industry that they are
supposed to regulate.
So, when you talk about having politicals, I hope you will
look for experts who know how to handle this problem and you
will make some policy decisions based on science and good
crisis management and not just on somebody who is a friend or a
connection or has a business interest with Mr. Kushner.
Mr. Gaynor. Ma'am, I cannot speak more highly of the
politicals that I work with today. Absolutely talented
emergency managers, never worked with a greater bunch, whether
that they are here now or that, like Dr. Kaniewski and Jeff
Byard, no better men and women that I have worked with here at
FEMA when it comes to politicals.
Ms. Titus. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from New Jersey, Mrs.
Watson Coleman, for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Watson Coleman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Gaynor, for your testimony today and for the
hard work that you all are doing.
I want to share some information that I have because we
have talked about the fact that we are at this place and we are
doing the best we can trying to catch up with things as we
move.
But the understanding I have is that we had an indication
that we had a problem as far back as November 2019, and even
though the President refused to deal with any of this
information, we knew that this was coming, and we knew that he
was given this information even in his daily briefings as early
as January.
I also want to take note of the fact that there were
independent research studies done, one by Columbia University
and one by another organization that said, had we implemented
social distancing guidelines as far back as March 1, we would
have possibly decreased the death rate from COVID between 80
and 90 percent. So it is not like we didn't have earlier
information upon which to act.
I know that my colleagues on the other side have asked you
questions like are there--the appeals to panic and
recriminations, is that in any way having an impact on how our
citizens are reacting to the space in which they live right
now? Now, what about the confusions that may have been shared
between what the experts are saying and what the administration
is saying?
Well, my question is, well, how about the conflicts and the
lying that have been shared from the White House and the head
of the task force, the Vice President of the United States. You
all said that you make your decisions based on facts and data,
your data-driven decisions.
So I want to ask you a couple of responses to things that
the President of the United States has said and you tell me
whether or not they are or are not true. On May 8, the
President said that coronavirus ``will go away without a
vaccine.'' Mr. Gaynor, yes or no, is that true?
Mr. Gaynor. Something about a vaccine. I didn't hear your
whole question.
Mrs. Watson Coleman. On May 8, the President said that the
coronavirus ``will go away without a vaccine.'' Is that--yes or
no, do you believe that? Yes or no.
Mr. Gaynor. Again, ma'am, I think the administration is
working hard for----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. I just need you to----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. To identify----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. Do you believe that this is going to
happen? I am not asking you to defend the administration with
this incompetence. I want you to answer my question. Yes or no
or I don't know. Yes, no, or you don't know.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, yes, ma'am, but, again, I think this
question deserves more than a yes or no answer, and, again, if
you could just----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. I don't really care what you think it
deserves. This is my time that I am reclaiming, and I need you
to say yes, no, or I don't know.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. What I would like to say is that
the administration worked hard to identify therapeutics and
vaccines----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. Do you think----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. NIH----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. So then are we going to acknowledge
the fact that it needs a vaccine moving forward?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. The administration and NIH early
on, within days----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. On June 17, the President--Mr. Gaynor,
I reclaim my time from you. I reclaim my time.
On June 17, President Trump said the coronavirus is ``dying
out.'' Is the coronavirus dying out right now, Mr. Gaynor? Yes
or no.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I think if you look across the country,
it ebbs and flows. You know, the epicenter in March and April
was----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. It might be ebbing and flowing, but is
it dying out is my question?
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. In New York and New Jersey,
Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington State, and now----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. Now we are seeing spikes all over,
particularly in the West and in the South. So is the answer to
that question yes or no? Why are you finding it so difficult to
say what you are seeing? Yes or no?
Mr. Gaynor. Because, again, ma'am, I think your questions
deserve an answer that is just more than yes or no.
Mrs. Watson Coleman. I really don't care what you think. I
don't care. Let me just ask you this question----
Mr. Gaynor. Ma'am, I am just here trying to share the facts
as I know them.
Mrs. Watson Coleman. At one point, the President of the
United States said, anybody that wants a coronavirus test can
get a test. Is that true? Can anybody that wants a coronavirus
test get one right now?
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I will tell you my own experience. I was
just on the Gulf Coast----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. Is that a yes or no? You are the head
of this outreach and support to the States and the communities.
You know the answer to the question.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I am just trying to give you a real-life
example. I was on the Gulf Coast last week.
Mrs. Watson Coleman. I don't want an example. I want an
answer.
Mr. Gaynor. I traveled to Louisiana. I traveled to
Mississippi and I traveled to----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. I don't want your----
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Alabama. I came in contact with
a----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. Mr. Gaynor, if you are going to refuse
to answer my question, this is almost a futile interaction
between you and me.
Let me just put one more question out there, and you can
say whatever you want to say with the little bit time I have
left. Because the President said, on June 8: ``So we want the
continue blanket lockdown to end for the States. We have some
embers or some ashes or we may have some flames coming up, but
we will put them out. We will stomp them out. We understand
this now. We will stomp them out, and we will stomp them out
very, very powerfully.''
Have we stomped out these embers or ashes of the
coronavirus?
Mr. Gaynor. Ma'am, I am sure that you can see through,
across the Nation, there are hot spots, places like Florida and
Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, California that have flared up. If
you look back to March and April to New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, those States have it under control.
So, again, this is a dynamic situation. It changes from day to
day. Mitigation works and so, again----
Mrs. Watson Coleman. It requires leadership. Yes. Thank
you, sir. This requires leadership, no question about it. We
are doing so well in New Jersey because my Governor saw it
spiking up just a tiny bit, and he delayed the opening of
certain businesses. So we definitely need leadership, something
that we have not had from the President of the United States.
Let me just say in closing--and, Mr. Chairman, I am going
to yield back--when I listen to where you are, when I listen to
what FEMA has had to deal with, when I have listened to how
this country in general, this leadership has responded to this
pandemic and failing to keep our hundreds of thousands and even
millions of citizens safe or alive, I don't believe that you
are ready for both the coronavirus that is going to take place
during the hurricane seasons and the States in which we are
going to have these devastating seasons.
I want to say to you that you need to ask for what you
need. You need to understand what you need, which I think you
do, Mr. Gaynor, but you need to be bold enough to ask for it,
and you need to be bold enough to let us know whether or not
you are getting it.
With that, I yield back. Thank you.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from California for 5
minutes, Ms. Barragan.
Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
important hearing.
Administrator, when did FEMA--when did you get involved
with FEMA in addressing the coronavirus? Was that roughly
around the end of January?
Mr. Gaynor. Are you asking when did FEMA get involved with
the virus response?
Ms. Barragan. When were you brought in to help FEMA with
the coronavirus response? What month was that in?
Mr. Gaynor. So we had been partnering with HHS early
February and then----
Ms. Barragan. Early February, OK. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Gaynor. Then on 10 February----
Ms. Barragan. Sir, you have answered my question. I really
appreciate that. I have a series of questions I want to get to.
Thank you. So----
Mr. Gaynor. But I would just like to more fully answer it.
So we were in support of HHS on 10 February. I sent over 30
FEMA experts in logistics, planning, coordination----
Ms. Barragan. Mr. Administrator, my question is about
March. Thank you.
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. External affairs to support
HHS's----
Ms. Barragan. I want to reclaim my time.
Chairman Thompson. Mr. Administrator, she is fine with your
answer. She is fine with your answer.
Ms. Barragan. Mr. Administrator, thank you. So roughly in
February. In March----
Mr. Gaynor. February 10 exactly.
Ms. Barragan. No. Understood. Thank you, sir.
So my question is about March. In March, the U.S.
Government found 1.5 million N95 masks sitting in a warehouse
in Indiana, and the Department of Homeland Security had to
decide what to do with these masks. Did you play any role at
all on where these masks would go?
Mr. Gaynor. I am not familiar with this story, ma'am.
Ms. Barragan. OK. Well, in March, Homeland Security had 1.5
million N95 respirator masks. They had to decide where to go.
The Department of Homeland Security did not send them to the
hardest-hit hospitals and front-line workers across the
country.
At the end of the day, they decided to send these masks to
TSA and CBP and other places instead of our hospital workers
and our front-line workers that really needed it. Very
unfortunate. I was hoping to hear that you, who was at FEMA,
would have advocated to have access to those masks and to have
advocated to have those go to our hard-hit hospitals.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes. Although I am unfamiliar with this story--
--
Ms. Barragan. Sir. Sir.
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. I would say that my----
Chairman Thompson. She hadn't finished.
Ms. Barragan. I am going to reclaim my time.
Chairman Thompson. She hadn't finished asking her question.
Ms. Barragan. OK. Mr. Administrator, I am going to move on
to FEMA's help with California on housing. First of all, I want
to thank FEMA for working with California on providing housing
for those who really needed shelter during COVID-19.
Now, FEMA has committed to reimburse 50 to 75 percent of
expenses for shelter and temporary housing through the public
assistance program category B. One of the problems, however, is
FEMA is waiting way too long to let the State know whether that
program will continue to be funded so they can't plan for the
next month.
Is there anything FEMA can do to speed up the process in
letting the State know whether the funding will continue so
they don't get left with a large bill and not have any
assistance of FEMA?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, ma'am. I don't know the specifics of this,
but to date, we have obligated $1.1 billion to California. I am
not sure where the hold-up is on getting that money out the
door from the State. We run our programs on reimbursement so we
actually have to spend money before you get money from the
Federal Government. So, if there is a specific issue, locality
issue, I would be happy to connect with you and your staff on
that item.
Ms. Barragan. OK. I will follow up. Thank you. There are
instances where local governments have been waiting for years
to receive FEMA reimbursement. So I definitely will follow up.
It doesn't sound fast at all, and States need to be able to
plan on when FEMA is going to continue the partnership.
Mr. Administrator, conventional disaster response
strategies, such as congregate sheltering and voluntary
recovery and supply distribution efforts require re-examination
during the pandemic. Administrator, how is FEMA working to
prepare sheltering guidance with the need for individuals to
socially achieve--to have social distancing? I am sorry.
Mr. Gaynor. In the beginning of my testimony, I shared with
everyone that FEMA created the COVID-19 pandemic operational
guide for the hurricane season. Although it has the title
``hurricane'' on the front cover, it can be applied to any
natural disaster or any incident because the lessons in there
apply to all of it. So things like more space for sheltering.
So, having been a local emergency manager for almost 7
years and then a State director, the responsibility for
managing sheltering is on the local official. The local mayor
owns that responsibility. Again, I go back to how this system
of emergency management works, locally-executed, State-managed,
and Federally-supported.
We provide technical assistance if needed to States and
locals if they need extra planning considerations, but the
guidance is out there. It is best practice from many different
agencies, to include CDC and ASPR, about, you know, how to
adapt your traditional, and I will use sheltering challenges to
COVID-19 response.
So those resources are out there. There is actually an
exercise program where locals can test their plans to make sure
that the assumptions that they have made for dealing with
COVID-19, again, for sheltering or evacuation holds up when
actually put to use. So that is how the program works.
Ms. Barragan. Well, thank you, administrator, for your
attempt in answering questions. It has been a little
frustrating in your inability to provide specifics or to answer
questions directly.
We have seen that you and FEMA were involved in February.
The number of deaths were not very high at that time. Because
of this Trump administration's failure and really the failure
across the board, the lack of leadership has led to over
135,000 Americans being dead, and that is just not a flare-up
in certain parts. That is a continued failure and not having a
National strategy.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Florida for 5
minutes, Mrs. Demings.
Mrs. Demings. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Administrator Gaynor, thank you for being with us today. I
also want to begin by thanking you and the men and women who
work with you for the work that you do every day to get us
through some very tough times.
But I have to say that this has been pretty exhausting for
me. As a first responder, I have worked out in the field with
FEMA on many occasions. To listen to my colleagues on the other
side of the aisle--I would think that this would be one of the
areas that we could get our act together, but to hear my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle focus more on
defending the inactions of our President than on the 141,000-
plus Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19. I was
also pleased to hear them say that facts matter, that solid
facts based on data are important because we know that the
President is the biggest offender in that area.
This administration, unfortunately, is always looking for a
villain to blame. America's response could have been better had
China allowed us to have a better response, but then, as we
look at other countries, somehow other countries were able to
find their way to being better able to control the virus and
save more lives, despite China's actions.
Administrator Gaynor, how would you explain that?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes. I am not sure I understand the question,
but what I can tell you from my point of view is my job in the
role of leading the Federal coordination for operations is to
make sure that the full weight of the Nation, all departments,
with all the things that they bring to the table, like DOD and
the National Guard and HHS, we maximize those again, and I have
said it time and time again, to prevent loss of life and
suffering.
My role----
Mrs. Demings [continuing]. I believe your goal is to
prevent loss of life and suffering. You said earlier to protect
the lives of the American people, the health and safety of the
American people. Is that what--that is what you said, right?
How do you do that?
Mr. Gaynor. That is what I just said.
Mrs. Demings. Not what your job is, but how do you protect
the health and safety of the American people?
Mr. Gaynor. In many different ways, and I will use----
Mrs. Demings. Just give me 3. How do you do that? As we
respond to COVID-19, how do you, as the FEMA administrator,
protect the health and lives of the American people?
Mr. Gaynor. So the first example I will give is the
initiative to create more ventilators in the United States. So,
when we first took over operational coordination in the
stockpile about 16,000 of----
Mrs. Demings. So to create more ventilators. Give me No. 2.
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I would just like to tell the success of
the story.
Mrs. Demings. Administrator Gaynor, let me just----
Mr. Gaynor. Sixteen thousand ventilators, and today we have
almost----
Mrs. Demings. What is No. 2? So equipment, to make sure
that there is enough equipment. What is No. 2?
Mr. Gaynor. We almost have 60,000 ventilators, and by
September, we will have 110,000 ventilators in the stockpile,
by September.
Mrs. Demings. OK. You said that----
Mr. Gaynor. Eight times more ventilators than----
Mrs. Demings [continuing]. This was a global competition
for personal protection equipment. Is that not correct?
Mr. Gaynor. Absolutely.
Mrs. Demings. OK. But yet we have seen bidding wars between
States, the Federal Government, and other countries. Since this
is a global----
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, I disagree with that premise.
Mrs. Demings. Since this is a global competition, isn't
that the reason why we would need a Federal response in terms
of--as opposed to allowing States to basically fight for
themselves or fend for themselves?
Mr. Gaynor. Again, I think, you know, having been a State
director, I think I would do the same that all----
Mrs. Demings. Well, you have worked at the local, State,
and Federal level.
Mr. Gaynor. That is right. So, just using my experience at
the local and State level, you know, I think one of my goals--
and we will just talk about PPE--is to get as much PPE as I
could, even if I didn't need it, just to make sure I had enough
because I wasn't sure what was going to happen next.
So my role, and, again, at the direction of the President
and direction of the Coronavirus Task Force was simple----
Mrs. Demings. So, since you made the decision to leave it
to local jurisdictions, has FEMA taken the initiative to look
at best practices?
Mr. Gaynor [continuing]. Was go scour the globe, all the
PPEs, and bring it back to the United States.
Mrs. Demings. Has FEMA taken the initiative to look at best
practices through any States who were doing it better than
others and maybe give guidelines to States who were struggling?
Mr. Gaynor. We have. We have engaged--and maybe you missed
it earlier, but we have engaged with every single State when it
comes to PPE. We have----
Mrs. Demings. But have you developed--you have looked at
best practices----
Mr. Gaynor. We always have the best practices. We always
do----
Mrs. Demings [continuing]. Some States doing it better than
others and presented guidelines to States that were struggling?
Mr. Gaynor. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Mrs. Demings. OK. Finally, Mr. Gaynor, let me just say
this: I am from Florida, and you know the situation in Florida.
Yesterday, we added 9,000--over 9,000, 9,400 new COVID-19
cases.
So, based on your many years of emergency management
experience at the local, State, and Federal level--because I
heard a conversation earlier about people panicking and all of
that, when the President uses fear every day to keep my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle from doing their jobs
and others, but anyway, what message would you send to Florida
when we look at those numbers and what is going on in Florida,
Texas, and others?
Mr. Gaynor. I will go back to the fundamentals. Masks work,
right. Wear a mask. Don't wear it for yourself; wear it for the
person that is across from you. Keep your hands clean. Every
time you walk by an alcohol dispenser, clean your hands. Don't
wear rubber gloves. It doesn't help. It actually makes things
worse. Stay out of bars, stay out of crowded restaurants, and
use social distancing. If we do all those things----
Mrs. Demings. Finally, Administrator, what grade----
Mr. Gaynor. If every American did all those things----
Mrs. Demings. If we look at the overall--the Nation's
overall response to COVID-19, what grade would you give the
Nation?
Mr. Gaynor. I don't do grades. Historians and after-action
reports can grade me. I am not----
Mrs. Demings. But you do feel like you have done a good
job, and the Nation has done a good job responding to COVID-19?
Mr. Gaynor. So I think all the hardworking career men and
women----
Mrs. Demings. We know they work hard. We know they work
hard. But when the murder rate was high in my city, I did not
celebrate until the numbers went down. Do you believe that this
Nation has done a good job?
Mr. Gaynor. I am not celebrating. I am just talking about
the hard work that everyone has done, and the hard work
continues.
Mrs. Demings. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. The gentlelady yields back.
The Chair recognizes for submission to the record the
gentlelady from Texas.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your kindness
and indulgence and making mention of Tony Robinson of Region 6.
Ask unanimous consent. Dr. Persse, emergency management of city
of Houston, begging for the extension of National Guard and
more testing, again in the State of Texas in Houston. Trump
article, July 20, Trump said, ``More COVID-19 testing creates
more cases. We did the math.'' Then this is on the website in
Texas. I am going to work with them about it, but it tells
people that they have to pay, and that discourages people. I
ask unanimous consent for that to be in the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your indulgence. We are
fighting to save lives. I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Without objection.
[The information follows:]
Letter From City of Houston, Health and Fire Departments
July 16, 2020.
The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee,
U.S. House of Representatives, 2079 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515.
Dear Congresswoman Jackson Lee: As a member of the House Committee
on Homeland Security, the city of Houston asks that you submit into the
record this letter to the Committee regarding the continued need of
testing in our city, which is experiencing an unprecedented rise in
infections and hospitalizations. On behalf of Mayor Sylvester Turner, I
am respectfully requesting that the Federal Government continue its
full commitment and support of the public health containment and
mitigation strategies in Houston Texas through the FEMA COVID-19
testing sites.
As you know the city of Houston is the fourth largest city in the
United States with a population of approximately 2.4 million and home
to the most diverse metropolitan community in the Nation. The critical
infrastructure and key resources unique to Houston are paramount to
numerous industries affecting the entire nation to include supply
chain, medical research, and energy services. With two international
airports, a port critical to the supply of goods and services, and the
hub of energy production and services for the Nation Houston's health
is important not only to Texas, but to America.
The Federal support of testing sites has been critical to our
largely successful efforts to protect our families, neighbors and
infrastructure from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic till now. We
have been able to delay the projected peak of COVID-19 cases for the
fourth largest city in the United States since mid-April. However, the
number of new cases and admissions to local hospitals continues to
rise. We have seen a nearly five-fold increase in hospital admission
not only within hospitals in the city but across Harris County since
June 7th. Yesterday we set a new record for COVID-19-related deaths
reported in Houston. We are rapidly increasing our response efforts to
include hiring, training and deploying new personnel to investigate new
cases, track contacts and try to effect isolation and quarantine of
those persons. We do understand that Federal support cannot last
forever, however the testing sites are operating at a high rate and are
very efficient in their processes.
Consequently, it is my request and hope that you will continue your
full support and recommendation that FEMA support for the testing sites
in Houston and ideally Harris County Texas until August 31, 2020.
In closing, I want to thank your entire team for your support to
date.
David Persse, MD.
______
Trump said more Covid-19 testing `creates more cases.' We did the math
By Sharon Begley @sxbegle, July 20, 2020
https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/20/trump-said-more-covid19-testing-
creates-more-cases-we-did-the-math/
The counter-narrative began almost instantly. After the U.S. count
of Covid-19 cases began an inexorable rise in June, the White House
sought to assure Americans that the increase was, basically, an
illusion, created by an increase in testing for the novel coronavirus.
In a June 15 tweet, President Trump said testing ``makes us look
bad.'' At his campaign rally in Tulsa 5 days later, he said he had
asked his ``people'' to ``slow the testing down, please.'' At a White
House press conference last week, he told reporters, ``When you test,
you create cases.''
And in an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday, Trump could
not have been clearer: ``Cases are up because we have the best testing
in the world and we have the most testing.'' Basically, the president
was arguing that the U.S. had just as many new cases in June and July
as it did in May but, with fewer tests being done in May, they weren't
being detected; with more testing now, they are.
A new STAT analysis of testing data for all 50 States and the
District of Columbia, however, shows with simple-to-understand numbers
why Trump's claim is wrong. In only seven States was the rise in
reported cases from mid-May to mid-July driven primarily by increased
testing. In the other 26 States--among the 33 that saw cases increase
during that period--the case count rose because there was actually more
disease.
May had brought signs of hope that the U.S. had gotten its Covid-19
outbreak under control, with about 20,000 new cases reported per day
after April highs closer to 30,000. But by late June, the daily count
climbed to about 40,000, and now it's at about 70,000. The STAT
analysis shows that spread of the virus, far more than testing,
explains that increase.
Epidemiologists and infectious disease experts have disputed the
White House claims for weeks, citing rising hospitalization numbers and
deaths. It's hard to argue that extremely sick people, let alone dead
people, had been obscured by low levels of testing but suddenly
revealed by higher levels.
Without a doubt, many cases of Covid-19 in March, April, and May
weren't picked up. In late June, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention Director Robert Redfield told reporters that as many as 90
percent of cases had been missed; that is, although there were 2.3
million confirmed cases in the U.S. then, some 20 million people had
probably been infected. But that reasoning applies today, too: Despite
months of government claims to the contrary, not everyone who wants, or
should have, a test is getting one.
Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than
any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would
show fewer cases!
Simple math belies the ``it's just because of more testing''
claim--with some fascinating exceptions.
Using data from Covid Tracking, STAT looked at the number of people
tested and the number who tested positive for the disease (cases) in
every State and Washington, DC. We did that for three dates: in mid-
May, mid-June, and mid-July. (Due to reporting anomalies, the dates
selected sometimes differed by a day or two between States.)
For each date, we calculated the number of cases found per 1,000
tests--a measure of the disease's prevalence. For example, in Florida
on May 13, that rate was 32. On June 13 it was 75. On July 13 it was
193. On May 13, Florida tested 15,159 people; on July 13, it tested
65,567. So indeed, the number of tests has increased.
But the number of cases per thousand, which is independent of the
number of tests, has skyrocketed. On May 13, Florida recorded 479
cases; on July 13, it found 12,624. If the prevalence of Covid-19 were
the same in July as in May, Florida would have found only 2,098 cases.
In other words, 10,526 of the July 13 cases are not due to increased
testing, but, instead, to the increased prevalence of disease.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, however, echoes Trump's explanation,
telling a Saturday press briefing that his State's soaring caseload is
largely the result of more testing of people with no or minimal
symptoms. ``We're now capturing a lot of those folks,'' he said.
In fact, Florida has seen a sevenfold increase in cases in the past
month, said Youyang Gu, who developed a well-respected, machine-
learning-based model of Covid-19 whose projections have been quite
accurate. ``In the same time span, the number of tests only increased
by a factor of two,'' he said. ``Obviously, if you double the testing
but the number of cases increased sevenfold, then the virus is clearly
spreading.''
Other States with soaring cases tell the same story as Florida.
In Arizona, the case-finding rate rose from 90 in May to 140 in
June to 208 in July. Of its 2,537 cases on July 12, 1,441 were due to
increased prevalence.
South Carolina has also experienced a steep rise in prevalence as
its case count quintupled: Of the 2,280 cases on July 9, 1,869 were due
to rising prevalence, not more testing. Texas and Georgia are similar:
rising case counts well beyond increases in testing. In all, 26 States
that did more testing in July than in May found more cases because
Covid-19 was more prevalent. In 15 of them, the number of cases per
1,000 people tested had more than doubled.
Seven States (Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North
Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin) meet the three criteria needed to
support Trump's claim that we're seeing more cases only, or mostly,
because we're doing more testing. The criteria are doing more tests in
July than in May, finding more cases on a typical day in July than May,
but seeing the number of cases per 1,000 tests decline or remain
unchanged from May to July.
Take Missouri. It's reporting more cases, but not because the virus
is exploding there (despite those crowded holiday scenes at Lake of the
Ozarks). Its case finding rate has been pretty stable or even
declining, from 48 in mid-May to 44 in mid-July. By tripling its number
of daily tests, Missouri is finding roughly triple the number of cases.
California comes close to meeting the three criteria, but doesn't
quite. Its number of daily tests more than quadrupled from May to July,
from roughly 32,000 to 137,000. But the rate of cases being found has
risen, though only about 10 percent, from 55 to 61 per 1,000 tests. So
a big reason--but not the main reason, as in Missouri--more cases are
being found is that more testing is being done. Washington is similar:
more testing, more cases, but also slightly greater prevalence of
disease in mid-July compared to mid-May; its worsening situation is
real.
New York tells the opposite story: more testing found fewer cases.
The State nearly doubled its daily tests from May 13 (33,794) to July
12 (62,418). But its cases fell from 2,176 to 557. If the case rate had
not dropped (by 86 percent), New York's expanded testing would have
found 3,995 cases on July 12.
In fact, 16 States plus the District of Columbia are like New York.
They tested much more but found fewer cases in July than May--in most,
not only ``fewer'' in the sense of fewer cases per 1,000 but fewer in
absolute terms. New Jersey reported 10,246 tests and 1,144 cases on May
14, and 20,846 tests with a mere 393 new cases on July 14. Again, the
virus hasn't disappeared, but the expansion of testing, far from
``creating'' cases, has brought good news: In these States, it's much
less prevalent than it was 2 months ago.
______
Chairman Thompson. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Mississippi for 5 minutes, Mr. Guest.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gaynor, I want to thank you and the men and women that
serve under you. In your written testimony, you talk about the
fact that you all are doing a very difficult job in really
unprecedented times. You say that we are currently under 114
concurrent major disaster declarations, one for every State in
the union. Five territories are also under major disaster
declarations. You also talk about the Seminole Tribe of Florida
and the District of Columbia.
I know in mine, the Chairman's home State of Mississippi,
that there have been 5 Federal declarations since January of
this year. We currently have a pending declaration that we are
working on approval on that.
I know you had the chance to visit Mississippi last week to
meet with our Governor and meet with some of our first
responders and discuss some of the unique challenges that we
are facing. One of those challenges is an upcoming hurricane
season, that all the States along the Mississippi, along the
Gulf Coast as a whole, are concerned about and those challenges
in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So could you just take a few moments to kind-of share with
this committee some of the things that you shared with our
Governor about those upcoming challenges and what FEMA is doing
to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. It was actually a
great visit in Mississippi. We got to travel with the Governor
around the State, mostly across the Gulf to visit fire
departments, talk about grants, and preparedness. Really
fantastic day, so I thank him for his hospitality, along with
the emergency management director, Greg Michel.
You know, one of the things that we wanted to check on this
season is obviously, you know, how have States adapted their
existing plans for things like evacuation and sheltering, using
the guidance that we have provided back in May, and how they
adapted. So we wanted to go down there and take a temperature
check to see how it is all going.
So, you know, this year is going to be a year like we
haven't had before because, when it comes to simple things like
ordering an evacuation, it is going to take more time. If you
need transportation; it is going to take--maybe it is going to
take double the transportation. If you go to a shelter, maybe
it is going to take double or triple the shelter space, and how
have locals and States and counties adapted to that.
So it is a challenge. I want to report I am completely
impressed by all the effort that Mississippi emergency
management has done and the dedication of the Governor to make
sure that it is a priority.
So it is always a moving target, right. You have always got
to do more, and the clock is running against you. So I
encourage all my emergency managers across the country is, you
know, prepare now. You don't know what the next thing is to hit
you, so whether it is a hurricane or flooding or a fire, use
this time now to prepare to respond while also responding to
COVID-19.
That is kind-of the message, you know. That guidance is
available on-line. We put it out in May and made a big
announcement. So we encourage all States and locals, Tribes,
and territories to embrace our responding to a traditional
disaster while responding to COVID-19.
Mr. Guest. I wanted to ask 1 specific question as it
relates to COVID-19. On page 5 of your written testimony, there
are 2 paragraphs there that are titled ``Managing Worldwide
Critical Shortages.'' We have talked a little bit about global
competition.
You state there in your written testimony, ``From the
outset, a key element of FEMA's response has been managing
shortfalls of medical supplies.'' You go on and give a list of
those supplies. Then you say, ``We have been further challenged
as most of the manufacturing for PPE occurs in Asia.''
I know that The Wall Street Journal recently reported that,
prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, that China exported more
respirators, surgical masks, medical gloves, and protective
garments than the rest of the world combined.
So my question to you is, how big of a challenge has been
the fact that many of the items that we are in need of today
are not manufactured in our country, that China has, if not the
exclusive, manufactures the large majority of supplies world-
wide as it relates to medical supplies, critical drugs, and
things that we need?
How big of a challenge has that been? Does Congress need to
focus our attention going forward on enticing those
manufacturers to return to the United States so that those
items are produced here?
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. I said previously that we have to
look at the shortages we have had, and I use PPE as an example,
as a National security issue. Maybe today it is a pandemic, but
maybe tomorrow it is something different that requires N95s or
another critical item that we today rely on another foreign
power to provide to us. Maybe when the time comes, they will be
unwilling to do that.
So we need to take a critical look on a host of different
items that are produced overseas and connect them to our
National security.
I know there are lots of efforts going across Government.
DOD and Defense Logistics Agency are great partners and help us
bring manufacturing back to the United States, or entice U.S.
manufacturers to expand their product line or change their
product line. The CARES Act provided a billion dollars for a
lot of these initiatives.
That is only a start. We need to think long-term, because I
think what we do historically is we will put a lot of money
into it and it will last a couple years, and maybe that
business struggles to survive because the U.S.-made mask is $2
and the Chinese mask is 70 cents. You know how the American
public is about, ``I want it cheap and fast,'' and maybe that
is where it goes.
So we need to support our industrial base in the United
States to make sure we can do this for the long-term and again
take a holistic look about all those items that are important
to the U.S. National security.
Mr. Guest. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you very much. The gentleman
yields back.
Mr. Gaynor, before we close the hearing, as you know, I
have sent numerous letters to you around this topic. Before we
adjourn, I need your commitment that all outstanding
correspondence to you relative to this pandemic and any other
issues by this committee will be answered.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir. You have my commitment. I think we
talked previously about it. Unprecedented requests for
information from many different people, Members of Congress. So
we are working through all of them.
Some of the challenges--and I am not trying to give an
excuse--but some of the challenges, some of the information
that you and other Members are looking for resides in other
agencies. So trying to get that information cleared and up to
you takes a little bit of time.
We are still responding. So, again, we are trying to
balance our response and all the other things that we must do.
But I commit to you today that we will answer all letters
fully.
Chairman Thompson. Within? Can you give us a period of
time?
Mr. Gaynor. Well, I think there is a backlog of letters. So
I think I am trying to answer the oldest ones first, and then
as we work through that pile, we will get to answering.
But, I mean, we are answering letters every day. It may not
seem like that, but we do get them out the door. Again,
unprecedented requests for information, 300 or more letters
from Members of Congress, and we want to make sure we answer
those thoroughly. Again, the information in some of those
requests comes from other agencies. So it is a back and forth.
Chairman Thompson. Well, there are just a couple of
committees of jurisdiction that I think would have priority for
your response that I hope you would give it.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
Chairman Thompson. Some of the responses are several months
old. So the information you have, just send that and say,
``Look, I am trying to get the rest,'' but just not send
anything else.
Mr. Gaynor. I think we just did that. We answered some. It
may have been incomplete, but I think we tried to get what we
knew out the door. So we will continue to do that.
Chairman Thompson. Well, I am glad you mentioned that. We
just got a letter from you Monday, and it had no documents that
we requested.
So I think you would need to either talk to your team and
say, ``We need to do better,'' because we are trying to do
oversight, and in that role we can't do it without the
information.
Mr. Gaynor. Yes, sir.
Chairman Thompson. We are just trying to get the
information.
Mr. Gaynor. Loud and clear, sir.
Chairman Thompson. Thank you.
The other issue is, for a lot of us, 140,000 Americans have
died. That is a God-awful number. I think we are positioned for
that number to go higher. But a lot of Members have come to the
committee and said it just appears that we could do more to
mitigate so much of what is going on, the wearing a mask, the
social distancing that we are practicing here today. A lot of
things.
But it is the clear and coherent and consistent message
that I think we need to get from everybody, that is from the
White House to that reservist that worked for FEMA in the
field. It is when we don't get that clear, consistent message
we have a problem.
I thank you for your service. But that 140,000 deaths is
nothing any of us can be proud of. We have to address it.
So I thank you for your testimony and the Members for their
questions. The Members of the committee may have additional
questions for you, and we ask that you respond expeditiously in
writing to those questions.
Without objection, the committee record shall be kept open
for 10 days.
Hearing no further business, the committee stands
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Questions From Chairman Bennie G. Thompson for Peter T. Gaynor
Question 1. Has FEMA set aside PPE and other critical pandemic
response supplies for evacuee and emergency response personnel in
conjunction with the agency's response to a natural disaster?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 2. What is FEMA doing to ensure ample isolation sheltering
facilities are available for COVID-19 patients during a natural
disaster?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 3. Has FEMA recommended an increase in the current
reimbursement level for State and local pandemic response efforts? If
so, why has the level not been increased?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 4. Given the current state of the pandemic, and FEMA's own
suspension of in-person trainings, what metrics is FEMA using to
determine when to resume in-person training?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 5. What support is FEMA prepared to provide to schools
across the country that reopen?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 6a. As part of their requests for major disaster
declarations, many States have requested FEMA turn on its suite of
Individual Assistance programs, which include things like disaster
unemployment assistance and disaster legal services.
Has FEMA provided a recommendation to the White House on turning on
Individual Assistance programs other than crisis counseling, and if so,
what was that recommendation?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 6b. Has the President officially made a decision on
States' requests for Individual Assistance? If not, when will a
decision be made?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 6c. Are there specific factors that FEMA is using to
determine whether other Individual Assistance programs will be
necessary during this pandemic? If so, what are they?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 7a. On April 30, President Trump said that, ``FEMA will
send supplemental shipments of personal protective equipment to all
15,400 Medicaid- and Medicare-certified nursing homes in America.''
Did FEMA send supplemental shipments of PPE to 15,400 nursing
homes?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 7b. Are there any nursing homes that are experiencing any
PPE shortages at the present time?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 7c. If so, in what States are supply shortages occurring
in nursing homes, what specific supplies are in shortage, and what are
FEMA's plans to help alleviate these shortages?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 8a. On June 11, CNN ran a story entitled, ``Nursing homes
receive defective equipment as part of Trump administration supply
initiative.'' Has FEMA received any complaints from any nursing homes
regarding the quality of the supplies sent to them?
How many complaints has FEMA received and from how many nursing
facilities?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 8b. Who procured these supplies and why was the quality
not inspected before shipments were sent out?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 8c. Has FEMA provided replacement supplies to any nursing
home that received faulty supplies?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 8d. What steps has FEMA taken to ensure that all supplies
it provides meet quality standards and do not have flaws?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 8e. Is FEMA planning to provide additional support to
nursing homes?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 8f. How is FEMA planning on holding contractors
accountable for supplying unusable PPE, including PPE that was
distributed to nursing homes?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 9a. In June, FEMA announced that it was phasing out
Project Airbridge because the supply chain for PPE in the United States
was stabilizing. However, hospital workers are still reporting PPE
shortages and having to reuse masks--sometimes for days--that are
intended for single use. Industry experts have also warned of severe
shortages in the raw materials needed to manufacture critical PPE,
especially N95 masks and medical gowns. What analysis did FEMA conduct
to assess the stability of the PPE supply chain?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 9b. What data did FEMA rely on to conduct its analysis?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 10. At the hearing on July 22, you stated the
administration had used the Defense Production Act (DPA) ``deliberately
. . . to make sure that we get what we need, at the right amount of
time.'' Yet there has been no transparency into which DPA authorities
have been invoked, by what agencies, and for what purposes. Provide a
breakdown on how the Federal Government has used the DPA to procure or
to increase the domestic production of PPE and other critical supplies,
including details on the type, quantity, and production schedule of the
supplies and where they are intended to go.
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 11a. Is there a comprehensive strategy in place to
coordinate the use of DPA authorities across the Federal Government in
response to COVID-19 and future pandemics?
If yes, provide a copy of the strategy to the committee.
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 11b. If not, why not? How is the administration
coordinating DPA actions across the Federal Government without a
strategy?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 12. During the July 22 hearing, you acknowledged there was
global competition for PPE. Had there been a National procurement
strategy, the United States could have competed as one purchaser rather
than all States, Federal agencies, and other entities competing
separately against other nations. Why was procurement of PPE and other
supplies not consolidated under one Department to leverage the
purchasing power of the Federal Government?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 13. By the time the United States had wide-spread
community transmission of COVID-19, every Federal agency was trying to
procure pandemic supplies. FEMA, by its own admission, had no
experience in procuring medical-grade equipment yet began its own
campaign to acquire PPE alongside HHS and the Departments of Defense
and Veteran's Affairs. Why did FEMA start making purchases when HHS and
the Department of Defense and Veteran's Affairs already have expertise
in purchasing medical equipment and could likely better navigate the
market?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 14. In May, FEMA announced it was shifting procurement of
PPE to the Defense Logistics Agency. However, FEMA told committee staff
in a briefing in July that this shift was to consolidate and leverage
the Federal Government's purchasing power, but purchasing of equipment
is still spread across agencies. For example, the Defense Logistics
Agency is buying face shields, gloves, and gowns; HHS is buying
domestically-produced N95 masks; and FEMA is buying foreign-produced
N95 masks. Why is the procurement of supplies still not consolidated
within the Federal Government?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 15a. FEMA has struggled with awarding contracts in
response to past disasters and has again awarded contracts for COVID-19
supplies to inexperienced or unreliable companies. For example, FEMA
canceled a $55 million contract to Panthera Worldwide--a tactical
training company with no history in medical supply manufacturing or
distribution--after it failed to deliver N95 masks. FEMA also had to
warn States not to use testing equipment acquired under a $10 million
contract because it was believed to be contaminated. Reports indicate
that the company that produced the equipment--Fillakit--was formed just
6 days prior to getting the contract by an ex-telemarketer who had
repeatedly been accused of fraudulent practices over the past 2
decades. Why is FEMA continuing to award contracts to companies without
proven track records?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 15b. What steps is FEMA taking to help its contracting
officers properly vet companies?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 16. Jared Kushner has touted contributions made by a group
of non-Federal ``volunteers'' he brought in to locate and vet vendors
for various pandemic supplies on behalf of FEMA procurement officials.
However, news reports indicate this led to confusion with industry
because his volunteers were communicating through personal email
accounts. In a whistleblower complaint filed with the House Oversight
Committee, one of the volunteers indicated that the group was
overwhelmed by its assignment, given little instruction, and ultimately
had little to show for their almost around-the-clock work. What
guidance and oversight did FEMA provide Kushner's volunteers? Do you
have copies of the correspondence they made on behalf of FEMA using
their personal email accounts?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 17. The committee has been advised that non-profits
conducting disaster case management work in Puerto Rico are not being
paid for services rendered. Non-profits, such as Endeavors, are still
awaiting payment for services rendered that exceeded the initial grant
funds resulting in multiple long, drawn-out bureaucratic appeal
processes, jeopardizing critical services while putting them at
unnecessary financial risk. What is FEMA's plan for quickly resolving
these appeals and for ensuring that non-profits are paid for the work
they complete?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
questions from ranking member mike rogers for peter t. gaynor
Question 1. Has FEMA considered designating industrial laundry
facilities as essential services after natural disasters including
earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and during pandemics?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
Question 2. Has FEMA considered guidance or policy changes that
balance the capabilities of reusable and disposable products in
building stockpiles and other emergency preparedness measures,
particularly to address supply chain issues?
Answer. Response was not received at the time of publication.
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