David hawkings is the editor in chief. There are leadership elections. Explain how they go about the two parties electing their leaders and can we see any changes . We will see some so, they meet in caucuses, different causes. No surprise here. The things are happening a little bit differently this year because of the pandemic. The Democratic Caucus which is happening the first of the meetings is happening today. There is a virtual opportunity for members to stay home, stay in their districts and cast the votes in the upcoming leadership elections using a secure app that the democrats have come up with. We wont see any changes at the top. The republican leadership, kevin mccarthy, steve scalise, maybe, maybe not liz cheney, thats staying the same. Were not seeing any changes at the top there either. Remarkably long run of nancy pelosi as the leader and jim clyburn of South Carolina as number three, thats all continuing. Thats continuing for a into a 16th year. Its a remarkably long run. Each of those three is 80 years old or older and so whats what its time to do in the view of the House Democrats is to start thinking about the eventual changeover. We still dont know exactly when thats going to happen. Mrs. Pelosi said that he would only run for two more terms. She backed away from that. But in any case, there is a theres pentup demand for younger members to move up in leadership. The big race is for whats going to be called assistant speaker. Thats Kathryn Clark of massachusetts who is more of the centrist and Dave Cicilline who is more of the progressive. Thats the big contest there. The winner of that would be in line to move up to majority leader or to the number two job in the Democratic Caucus behind the number one person who i havent mentioned yet who is Hakeem Jeffries of new york city who is unopposed to remain whats essentially the number four job in the democratic leadership. Caucus chairman. He thought very briefly about challenging mrs. Pelosi. Hes decided to stay in that leadership job. He at this moment seems to be the leader of the democrats when the Pelosi Hoyer Clyburn trend moves on. Theres a race to run the Democratic Campaign operation for the next two years. Again, its between a two different styles, alex cardin of california, maloney of new york. They will have a difficult job because as your audience probably knows t democrats are going to have one of your narrowest majorities in decades. Next year, we dont know how narrow it will be, but its already in the range of the smallest majority for the for either party in about 20 years and for the democrats in quite some time and theyre looking ahead at a joe biden midterm in two years when generally the president s party would do worse and redistricting when the republicans may make more gains in drawing maps to their favor. The third leadership job is for whats called caucus vice chairman, doesnt sound like much. Democrats have a lot of leadership jobs. But that person could move up over time. Deb holland was thinking of running for a time. Robin kelly of illinois and mr. Agular of california running for that job. What youre hearing there is i should say mr. Jeffries, mr. Agular mr. Jeffries is black. Mrs. Kelly is black. Mr. Agular and mr. Cardnis are both latino. Diversity in the Democratic Congress moving on up. I want to invite our viewers to join us in this conversation. What message do you think the november elections sent to washington. Let me give you the lines. If youre a democrat, 2027488000. Republican, 2027488001 and independent independents 2027488002. Votes for these leadership positions do not take place on the house floor except for the speaker of the house. When does that vote take place and could she see some public opposition . Yes, she will. That vote takes place on opening day. The opening day of the next 117th 118th congress. Where are we . The new congress. It takes place on the very first day. It is the very first order of business. So last time the audience may recall that mrs. Pelosi did face some internal dissent. I think there were 15 of her caucus members who voted for somebody else, who did not vote for her. The rule for being elected speaker is that you have to have a majority of all the people casting a vote. Not a majority of the entire house. If there are people who are sick or stuck in an airport or somewhere, but its the majority of the people on the floor have to vote for you in order for you to become speaker. Mrs. Pelosi has a pretty narrow window here. If there are some democrats who want to vote against her, only a few can. Several of the im not sure of the precise number. Several of the people who voted against her last time were centrist democrats who up ended won in republican seats, won in trump districts and who have now been defeated again. So those people are not going to be clambering for now leadership. So the test here for her is to hold her numbers. She is whatever you think of her, whatever you think of her as an she is good at her leadership job because staying at the helm of just a fractious group, suggests she knows how to count vote, where she can shore up and where to let go. The presumption at this point is she will hang on to her speakership for one more term. We dont hear rumors like we heard four years ago when the expectation was that if Hillary Clinton had been elected president , mrs. Pelosi was tempted by sort of a preliminary discussion that she could become ambassador to rome or ambassador to the vatican. We dont hear that talk this time so we expect shell be around. David hawking, as we hear to wait what message they told us with their vote, what ilhan omar, the congresswoman from minnesota had to say yesterday about why House Democrats lost seats. In many cases there was so much focus, especially from me. I didnt even talk to a Single Person during my general election about voting for me. I was so much focused on defeating trump and making sure biden won. We made, you know, 1. 1. 4 million attempts in reaching our constituents and thats why we ended up having one of the highest turnouts in our district, and i think for a lot of my colleagues weve lost, theyve expressed how, you know, was there a lot of concentration whether it was the volunteers, and the nations attention was on sending trump packing and for, you know, a lot of us that win in itself was the victory that we were after. David hawkings . Well, thats interesting. I would say that is a scaled back in the rearview mirror, that sounds like a scaledback set of aspirations from the congresswoman. Clearly in the days going into the election, there were high hopes of a much bigger blue wave. There was every expectation that the democrats would win seats in the house. I know of no political handicapper including some of my colleagues who were some of the most conservative political handicappers who say pwho predicted anything other than the democratic gains in the midsingle digits to mid teens and the republicans now have won, i think its at least 12 seats. So yes, sending donald trump packing as she said was job number one, but they assumed, Many Democrats assumed that they would not only usher in joe biden with a bigger House Majority and maybe even a Senate Majority, as well. As your audience probably knows, the Senate Majority is still up for grabs and there are still two more seats to be decided on january 5th, both of them in georgia. The outcome of that election, if the democrats win votes theyll have a 50 50 senate and Kamala Harris breaking the tie and the democrats would claim they are the majority, but the outcome of the house is not ultimately going to change and that provides a very narrow window not only on the senate side, but on the house side and we talked about mrs. Pelosi only having a few votes to spare for people who want to cast a vote against her for reelection speaker. After she getting through that shell have a challenge with a very narrow majority that some of her more conservative, moderate, politically scared members might not want to vote for some of the things on the democratic agenda. So its going to be tough. Lets go to calls. Gary, new port, kentucky. Republican. Good morning. Good morning. I think i think with this past election i think elections integrity came up again and with the results from the house that i think it probably leads to more republican even though they had to focus on trump that in the end, democrats are going to lose in the house and the senate because of this election just because of the question marks that popped up. David hawkings. I hear Election Integrity from gary and i assume thats for the reliability of the election and this is what weve paid a lot of attention to, because our new site is about the issue of the challenge of democracy this year and its effect on the election. I guess ill just volunteer here that so far, my team at the fulcrum, we have not seen anything to cast the integrity of the election into doubt. It seems to have been somewhat ironically, because of the pandemic, it was an incredibly wellrun election with not only enormous turnout going back 120 years in terms of the share of eligible voters who could vote, but huge turnout. Almost by my calculation, 45 of all of the votes cast were cast by mail. And people were putting them in the drop box and we have not seen, contrary to what the president continues to say, we have not seen any evidence of anything other than sporadic, isolated problems in a couple of states with a few ballots. We have not seen anything like systemic, organized election cheating. It just has not happened. And any are there enough of these challenged votes to make up the difference between the two candidates . Well, thats also a terrific question, and we a lot of people are now making an analogy to 20 years ago. The famous virtually tied election of al gore and george bush. That one, involved 537 votes which was the width of a sheet of paper in terms of all of the votes cast in florida that year and it was just in florida. Who won . Florida decided who won the election. Thats very different from what were talking about this time. Now the president is challenging the results depending on how you count it four or five states. In each of those state, the margin of defeat at this point is in the tens of thousands of votes and the narrowest is in georgia where theyre not doing a hand recount. I dont know precisely how the recount has changed the number and i do know before the recount started it was 14,000 votes that president elect biden was ahead by 14,000 votes. Even if all those were thrown away. Even if that outcome is reversed, lets say, then president elect bidens margin in the Electoral College would come down from 306 to 290. Thats still 21 votes, electoral vote away from the outcome of the election changing even if you were to win in pennsylvania. Even if somehow miraculously the president s efforts to essentially get the Election Results overturned in pennsylvania which involves hundreds of thousands of votes that hes challenging and 56,000vote margin, i believe. He, im sorry, mr. Biden would still be at 270. In other words, the president s efforts would need to overturn two or at least three states, really, for him to lose and the margins are enormous, certainly by comparison by what happened in florida and yes, theyre narrow and were talking about tens of thousands of ballots. Democratic caller. Im a lifelong democrat going back to my parents who worked on kennedys campaign in 1960. I have my liberal bias and i voted democratic, you know, for 40some years that ive been registered to vote. For me, its a posttrump operation of the government and i believe it has to be a more centrist policy and just as the wing nuts on the right dominated the congress and especially the senate in the past four years we cant let the wing nuts on the left take over or take bidens agenda and replace it with theirs. To get along is the primary thing that has to be done, and i really, truly believe that joe biden will work to make sure there is a centrist policy and hopefully nancy pelosi will be able to rein in her far left members as well as having somebody like Mitch Mcconnell in the senate you know yeah. Understood. Understood your point, chris. David hawkings . So, chris, thats right. So i think that seems to be the challenge for mr. Biden. The clear challenge. Yes, i think i think what we have seen is generally in these incredibly close elections and this was arnother incredibly close election is historically we have seen the parties then move to the center. When theyre at parody, they tend to move together. Haley barber, former chairman of the Republican Party had a good line, generally, parity usually means to move together and now it seems to mean polarization. And unlike whats happened in close elections in the past that our politics are so polarized that both sides will just revert to their corners and not much will get done. I think certainly, you have to say that president elect biden, given his history and given his life in Public Service and given his record in the senate and as Vice President whether you like him or not, and this is not meant in any way as an endorsement of him, but that he sounds like the right type of politician for the moment. Someone whose whole parlor trick and his whole schtick in the sena senate was bringing people together and some kind of compromise. He at least seems on paper the type of person you would look for to have the best possible shot at bringing the wings together. Margaret, lincoln, nebraska. Republican. Good morning. I have been a longtime democrat for years and switched to republican because i didnt like the way the democrats were turning and this election has been pretty bad, and its been bad since the President Trump got in, and i am ashamed of our country and its not because were so divided, and its because the media has allowed it to to be divided and they have never, ever been behind President Trump and thats a sad state of affairs. So, you know, for what its worth this was not a good election. It will go down in history as one that was pretty bad. Okay, margaret. Im going to barbara next, crystal lake, illinois. Barbara . Yes. We finally have a choice in our vote and thats why i turned to independent i voted democrat. Ive voted republican, but now we have a choice, and thats why i changed to an independent, and god bless america. All right, barbara. David hawkings, i want to show you, you probably saw this moment, but our viewers who might have missed it. The headline in the papers is that the president s plans, executive order on afghan troop withdrawal and the majority leader, republican in the president s party went to the floor yesterday to say this theres no american who does not wish the war in afghanistan against terrorists and their enablers had already been conclusively won, but that does not change the actual choice before us now, a rapid withdrawal of u. S. Forces from afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight delight the people who wish us harm. Violence affecting afghans is still rampant, but the taliban is not abiding by the conditions of the socalled peace deal. The consequences of a premature american exit would likely be even worse than President Trumps withdrawal from iraq back in 2011 which fueled fueled the rise of isis and a new round of global are troism. It would be reminiscent of the humiliating american departure from saigon in 1975. Wed be abandoning our partners in afghanistan, the brave afghans who are fighting the terrorists and destroying the governments leverage in their talks with the taliban are designed to end the fighting. Our retreat would embolden the taliban especially the deadly accounting wing and risk plunging afghan women and girls back into what they experienced back in the 1990s. If it had a weakened and scattered al qaeda, a big, big propaganda victory, and a renewed safe haven for plotting attacks against america and it would be welcome news to iran which has long provided arms and support to the taliban and explicitly seeks our retreat to the middle east. A disorganized retreat with a track record of major successes, this administration has worked hard to compile. David hawkings, what do you make of that moment . The republican leader and the president s own party say this move by you could delight terrorists. That was that was remarkable. It was it was not remarkable by historical standards because historically we have had a robust debate in both parties and even within the Republican Party about our role overseas, but this it has been highly unusual over the past four years for Mitch Mcconnell to say anything publicly that critical of a policy of the president s. So this this was a moment. This was an important moment. I dont presume to know what it signals and whether whether this is intended to persuade the president to back off these apparent plans or whether or what it means. I think we are in for many surprises in the final nine weeks of the Trump Administration, it seems, and right i find this fascinating and alarming is too strong a word, but certainly of urgent interest about whether this is the moment that weve been that everybody has been watching the dynamic between the republicans in congress and President Trump over the last four years whether this becomes the moment at which they openly break. Scott in new hampshire. Independent. Yeah. How are you doing . Good morning. Good morning. How would you like to find out more about the ballots . When you go in to vote your ballot is not registered to your name. Once you stick it in the machine or even sign on, your name or i. D. Is not introduced on that ballot, and how did we know that the ballot for the person that actually sent it. I dont understand how we dont have some type of an i. D. On our ballots for registered voters. Not that wed have to have a name on every ballot, but that it is i. D. Some way to i. D. The ballot. So that, scott. You dont have what . So that you dont have people voting more than once . Whos to say you dont have ballots that were switched or left in the machine . Technology has a past humanity and if we rely on technology to count our ballots, then i think weve got the wrong idea of who came, who signed what ballot. Okay. David hawkings . Scott, this is interesting that youre paying this close attention, its terrific and let me say if i can do this quickly, but clearly. First of all, after 20 years ago, the election we went tech nol oblgicily fast into touchscreens and they were entirely reliant on computers and memory chips. And come to find out thats vulnerable to hacking. Since the 2016 election voting in this country has become quite old school where Something Like 93 of the ballots that were cast in this election had some kind of paperbackup. Old school paperbackup so they could be traced and recounted. They have paper copies of the votes that theyre going over. So reliance im a technophobe myself and having paper ballot copies is quite reassuring to me. In terms of your connection to your ballot. Its obviously of paramount importance that the secrecy of your vote that your privacy in the voting booth be protected. Theres a potential of a third vote now which we wont know until a half hour from now whether thats happening, but maybe we can work it so we can tag team the chairmanship or i can senator blumenthal i think is back with us and ill make certain that maybe he and i can trade positions so we can both vote at different times if that happens. The committee has reconvened. Mr. Gilman, if youre available you have about a minute and a half time left. I think we heard your testimony to the point to that last point, and would love to hear your concluding remarks. Mr. Gilman . Yes. Can you hear me . Yes, sir. Okay. So im going to pick up my testimony from where i left off . Yes, sir. Okay. I was determined to make isolation gowns because we had the equipment to cut and sew them. I quickly got a sample from a local hospital designed my own pattern, researched the materials the gowns were made of and built a prototype. I sent it to yale, new Haven Hospital and they evaluated it and awarded me my first big order. I was able to get business because there was surge demand. The hospitals needed more gowns than they had in the supply chain and they needed me to bridge the gap. The hospitals wanted the gowns fast and they wanted them cheap. To meet the aggressive supply schedule i had to invest in new machinery and hire more employees. We went from making 200 gowns a week to making more than 12,000 gowns per week, pricing was an even more difficult hurdle. The hospitals were reluctant to pay more for the product exported from china. I couldnt match that price unless i moved my factory to china. My gowns are 100 American Made. Im at a competitive disadvantage, my labor costs are higher and my material costs are higher. Im able to mitigate some of the cost disparity with technology, but at the end of the day my American Made gown is two to three times more, pensi expensi those made in china however, my americanmade gown is of a Higher Quality and meets a higher level of protection, but in the pp emarket an isolation gown is considered a commodity item and theyre looking for the cheapest price. Emarket an isol gown is considered a commodity item and theyre looking for the cheapest price. Im here with an urgent plea to the federal government to help the private sector sustain the p ppe business in the United States. China dominates the market for ppe. The Chinese Government has made manufacturing ppe a priority not only from a National Security standpoint, but also with a view to creating domination over a globally critical marketplace. The Chinese Government has implemented the strategy by taking the following measures. First, factory owners get cheap, courtesy of the Chinese Government. Second, factory owners get loans and subsidies. Third, chinese hospitals are told to buy local, giving chinas suppliers a vast and captive market. The federal government can play a vital role in sustaining the United States companies that have pivoted to making ppe if it will do the follow, first, implement a buy american preference across all federal agencies that purchase ppe. Second, create a subsidy for Companies Investing in new plants and equipment for manufacturing ppe. Third, establish a tax credit for every job created to manufacture ppe. Im not looking for a handout. We want, to use a football term, a level Playing Field so we can compete with china. Whats at stake here is the future of manufacturing ppe in connecticut and for that matter, across the United States. If we let china dominate the market for ppe and if we let them control the supply chain for ppe, doesnt that compromise our ability to cope with this pandemic . Do we want to be at the mercy of china when and if there is a pandemic in the future . Whats at stake here is jobs. The 50 jobs we support at gilman gear are precious. If we lose them to china they are not coming back. Whats at stake here is our ingenuity and ability to pivot on a dime from a mature business, making football equipment to making ppe to serve the medical community. We evolved and we reinvented ourselves during a National Emergency and sustained 50 jobs during the worst economic downturn in our history. Help us to sustain this critically important Business Today and in the future. Thank you. Mr. Gilman, thank you for your testimony and for the response that it describes that you provided to covid19. Mr. Kreska, mr. Rick kreska is our next witness. Mr. Kreska, you are recognized for five minutes. Okay. Im the founder of ink cycle located in kansas and i would like to thank senator moran and senator blumenthal for letting me share my testimony. We started ink cycle in 1992 in the basement of our kansas farm home. My wife carol and i embarked on a new quest to bring manufacturing jobs to kansas by starting a business which was and remains focused on four primary principles. Number one, operate with the principles of servant leadership. Two, serving our clients with highquality products, voted significant business that positively impacts a significant number of people internally and externally and struggle to gain employment and Economic Development. Prior to starting the business, my partners and myself were working for alliedsignal where we were involved in the production of components to naked weapons and we loved the engineering and quality roles we served in. With the end of the cold war the demand for the products to climb and we, like thousands of others, found ourselves looking for a job. So we found a sense of purpose. We all had a deep love for manufacturing and we had the desire to apply to as many jobs as possible. After all, we have personally experienced first hand what a Large Employer down sizes. We began manufacturing printer cartridges and it became one of the largest toner cartridges in the usa. Three years later weve become fourth out of 500 companies and we begin to expand in the growing market. So two years later by 2005, weve become the largest inkjet cartridge maker in the world with people in kansas and the remanufactured cartridge were with skyrocketing growth with laser and inkjet printers and both in the office and at home. Two, consumer savings of 25 or more versus namebrand and three, the realization of hundreds and millions of empty names were ending up in landfills and a more sustainable solution was needed. So there was a demand for remanufactured products continue to increase, they caught the eye of the chinese and many of the manufacturing components were starting to be developed in china. China had become a dominant source of remanufactured components and probably five to ten short years later the largest producer of newly built, compatible aftermarket cart ridges in the world and at this early stage they were knockoffs of the original cartridges that were exported to the usa and absolutely no respect for intellectual property and patent law. China quickly began to flood the market to make it impossible for the u. S. Manufacturer to compete. Over time, china using infringing products built such a size and scale that they were becoming impossible to compete with and u. S. Patents were inspiring while chinese manufacturers were developing their own intellectual property. They began paying attention to patents and by that time there was so much scale it was unbelievable. We found ourselves in a position where the chinese product that was available in china for 5, the same product manufactured here would cost 20. So by around 2015, 90 of the 5,000 u. S. Manufacturing companies and the manufacturing jobs are gone. Today that number are companies that are viable is estimated to be no more than 100 companies in the u. S. That are still left. So although we continue to remanufacture, they were forced to choose between buying and reselling a line of chinese products or go out of business. Im proud to say over the last five years, somewhere around twothirds of the products that we sell still continue to be remanufactured in our factory, but we do supplement that with chinese products in some areas where we just cant compete. Today the two chinabased companies now control over 80 of all aftermarket cartridge chips which, of course, is a Technology Barrier and they set the global price and what we see is those two companies in china do things where they collaborate on the pricing and im sure theres a different name for here in the u. S. And china had apex and it is not the producer of newly built aftermarket cartridge and chips in the world. Ive decimated purpose with, as wellsa the last Manufacturing Companies and they were frustrated with chinas choke hold on the industry, but we were committed to producing what we could even if it meant buying some products in china. Fast forward to this year, early 2020, late in january, we were returning from a sourcing trip to asia that started in wuhan china. We obviously witnessed first hand the beginning of the global covid pandemic. This inspired us to begin exploring how we might serve and do a business pivot into manufacturing ppe supplies. After all, wed filled hundreds of millions of classic objects with highquality fluid and powder. So quickly, we found that most of the ppe products came from china. As was mentioned in earlier testimony, the first product that we launched in our factory was a Hand Sanitizer that we used our manufacturing experience and i have to say, much of our equipment here, too, to bottle this Hand Sanitizer in kansas. Ironically, as we ramped up we found that we would need to buy some of our materials from china once again. The u. S. No longer has any real small bottle Manufacturing Capabilities so we had to go to china to get the bottles. We continue to create opportunities for u. S. Manufacturing jobs, we are now engaged in a new and exciting endeavor, a production and bottling of ultra effective and very safe surface disinfectant called hydroclorous acid known as hoco. This is very safe for humans, pets and plants for the environment and 80 times more powerful than bleach against the viruses and all of the pandemic votes out there including covid19. So we are partnered up with another Kansas Company here called data light and using our operations background in making preparations to produce and bottle hoco in our factory, and weve been doing that now for some time. Our goal is to grow our company and bring in more production jobs and even in this area, we are still facing pressures from china with classic production and located primarily in china. I am not here to complain about china. Theyre smart and ambitious people. One cannot blame them for taking advantage of the opportunities in front of them and the political realities. It has been my observation from spending much time in china that the top Manufacturing Companies in china are strongly backed and supported by their government. If we bring manufacturing and critical supply chains to the u. S. It would require strong support and new policy from washington. Moving forward, we welcome any discussions about how to help bring manufacturing back to the u. S. And our core team con sisters of experienced manufacturing engineers and production teams and labor. In short, we have a huge passion from Manufacturing Products in kansas, and thank you for your time. Mr. Kreska, thank you for what you do in kansas, as you mentioned. Miss Tiffany Stovall is the chief executive officer of the kansas manufacturing solutions. You are recognized now as well for five minutes. Good afternoon, chairman moran and ranking members was subcommittee. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you to discuss the manufacturing and the communitys response to the covid19 pandemic. I am Tiffany Stovall, i am the ceo of kansas manufacturing solutions, and have as senator moran said we are the center for kansas. Im sure theyre familiar with the Extension Partnership also called edp and as a remainor, were the nations only Program Providing handson indepth support to small and mediumsized manufacturers to help them compete more effectively in the global marketplace. As a Public Private marketplace, weve got one in every state plus puerto rico, and it also has 1300 manufacturing experts on staff and a hundred Service Locations and nearly 2100 thirdparty Service Providers and partners. We interact with over 28,000 manufacturers per year. Mep centers clearly are the experts for advancing manufacturing. Its because of this history for working with a manufacturer with a trusted advisor that kms, kansas manufacturing solutions, and the network are uniquely positioned to support the manufacturers when they had to adapt to this exceptional challenge that was presented to them during the covid19 pandemic. Manufacturers have had to respond to covid19 challenges within their own facilities like weve heard about today, but theyre also helping our nation respond to the covid19 pandemic by producing critically needed personal protective equipment, ppe and ventilators and other goods essential to the nations Public Health efforts. We heard stories today of manufacturers shifting their capabilities to meet u. S. Ppe needs and the stories that weve heard are very similar to whats happening all across kansas as well as all across the United States. When the lockdowns began in march manufacturers across the country had to close their doors. The suppliers couldnt supply them. Their customers couldnt buy from them and they faced a series of mortal threats none of which had been seen before. Kms and the other Centers Across the National Network have been here for them and are here for them now as manufacturing continues to lead the way towards economic recovery. I would like to acknowledge and thank congress for providing temporary cost share relieves to the 2020 fiscal year and ordinarily the cost share requirement is the federal funding with the nonfederal match and the temporary cost relief has allowed kms and the other mvp centers to provide for the unprecedented times. Over the course of the last several months thanks to the cares act funding or temporary cost share relief that the centers have done that incredible work with manufacturers and modify their processes and procedures and to adapt to the health and safety protocols. They remain working remotely to protect their own staff and adjust to the changing protocols that are happening with manufacturing plants and theyre trying to protect their own staff as well. So again, thank you, congress, for the temporary cost share relief. The supply chain issues because of the pandemic, and believe it or not, was there no National Supply chain database so organizations were struggling to go where to get materials and ppe and theyre around the clock in the early days of the pandemic and beyond to keep manufacturers viable by matching companies to suppliers and getting them the supplies they needed. We were Building Supply chain databases particularly around ppe and critical need equipment as we went state by state and had them through the National Supplier scouting system. An example of that and his work in kansas, thats the evp the manufacturer for the industries and they produced disinfectant, Hand Sanitizers and soaps and other industrial strength janitorial products and cleansers. They also had dispensers for soap and sanitizers. And these dispensers had previously been sourced overseas before theyre suddenly facing long lead time, short supplies and delivered as product to clients along with medical centers after the onset of the pandemic. We were able to quickly match them with another manufacturer in southeast kansas that can help with the production of the sanitizers, not only back to the United States, but inhouse. So by connecting kansas manufacturers, we are able to keep this supply chain going. We just heard from rick at the ink cycle about the issues with bottling and thats another thing that we are working across the National Network with connecting manufacturers to those that are manufacturing bottles and those that expanded their capabilities of the bottling needs of their manufacturers. Workplace safety is also a huge concern for manufacturers during the best of times, and its really heightened during the covid pandemic. While a portion of the u. S. Workforce could shift to remote work, manufacturers could arent do that. So any piece would help them and help manufacturers the safety protocols and all of the way to the production floor and shipping facility yous and beyond. Helping manufacturers respond to getting, and to keep their workforce steady, as we know, manufacturers are driving economic recovery while also suffering an economic hit and uncertainty themselveses. So the role of kms and the entire mvp National Network is to help manufacturers get back on their feet and to deliver the tools to them to address the uncertainty while they help our country continue to get back on its feet by providing the critically needed equipment as well as continue Everything Else that we need to have produced from our food supply to Everything Else that the manufacturers in the United States make. In t in the face of so much Economic Uncertainty we have really worked hard to help manufacturers move for washward kms and it helps to help manufacturers sustain profitability throughout the pandemic while building for their future and it provides a threepart framework, delivering expert consultancy, and comprehensive manufacturing assessment and a strategic road map for manufacturers to ensure the future of their facilities as well as the future for their employees. I hope that what ive shared today has given some insight into how kms has responded to these unprecedented conditions here in the United States with covid19 and have the mvp National Network as responded across the United States. In a strong and coordinated response to this pandemic, together, were partnering with manufacturers under top covid19 concerns, and i certainly appreciate the opportunity to appear before the subcommittee today and i look forward to answer anything questions you might have, thank you. Ms. Stovall, we appreciate your testimony and your willingness to appear and our final witness is mr. Michael wasel and the security review commission. Mr. Wasel. Ranking member blumenthal and member of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear here today. My name is Michael Wasel and im appearing with the china security and review commission, but as a noted washington disclaimer i am only speaking for myself. The pandemic has put stress on supply chains and our Manufacturing Base and has started debate about our preparation, the availability of Public Resources and Public Policy responses. We need to address todays needs and prepare for a possible future pandemic. Early on in the pandemic i was contacted by manufacturers wanting to control or confront the crisis much like my colleagues on this Panel Discussed earlier. The federal government was overwhelmed and it became easier to match some of these firms up directly like states and Hospital Systems to meet their needs and the l. New Haven Hospital and its suddenly there, it is a great debt of gratitude to meet the critical needs of our sick and our healthcare workers, First Responders and our entire population this time of crisis. Today, as we all know the supplies are more available there are shortages and Health Care Workers and others are having to reuse equipment stressing safety protocols and putting their health at risk. America must do better to support our Manufacturing Base to help them protect our citizens. The Chinese Communist partys industrial policies and our own short sightedness in some ways have an unacceptable and dangerous reliance on china with pharmaceuticals and the active pharmaceutical ingredient, apis and medical devices and equipment including ppe. The virulent breadth and impact of the coronavirus was unexpected, but our increasing dependence o dependency on china is not news and china is willing to use and abuse their manufacturing power. For example, the ccp leadership was willing to engage in quote, unquote, mass dip lop see by using shipments of ppe to garner Political Support and foster diplomatic gains. The ccp has been willing to weaponize supply chains. We cannot allow the Health Safety of our people to be held hostage with diplomatic, and military confrontation. We are overly dependent on china for our medical needs. We no longer have the fermentation capacity in the u. S. To make penicillin and are completely dependent on foreign sources. 80 of the apis come from abroad with a substantial portion coming from china. Of the ten active ingredients in remdesivir, one of the therapeutics for treating covid19, eight come from china. For many others products we are partially or entirely dependent on china. One dod official testified that, quote, the National Security risks of increased dominance. Chinese dominance of the global api market cannot be overstated, end quote. Since china joined the wto, u. S. Business operations have expanded dramatically. Chinas policies are designed to promote that. The trouble is not the loss of production and the expansion of rnd. U. S. Multinational firms increed their spending in china at more than twice the rate of their domestic rnd spending. Rnd expenditures in china have the improvement of the chemicals including pharmaceuticals surged nearly 30fold between 2000 and 2017. Chinese state directed have engaged in massive cyber intr intrusions with many focused on the Health Care Sector to include vaccine information. Actors in china have used legal and illegal means to obtain the Longitudinal Health of u. S. Citizens that may allow their firms to dominate the increasingly important biosynthetic sector. Today, the focus is on medical supplies, but our dependence on china for many products and some of them critical products is broad and deep. In certain areas this dependence reduces our potential resilience. Congress should evaluate supply chain ricks and what the potential impact is for our national, health and Economic Security. Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Your work on these Critical Issues will help make sure that we never face these challenges again. Mr. Wasel, thank you for your testimony. I know you speak for yourself and not the commission, but i understand that in a short period of time there will be a first of all, i agree with your assessment that chinas predatory economic policies undermine u. S. Economic health and National Security interests. I appreciate you saying that and agree with you, but your commission is expected to release this years report in the next few weeks. Can you describe any formal recommendations that you would expect to be included in terms of assessing and improving Production Capacity in the United States, Manufacturing Industry and producing ppe medical supplies and even pharmaceuticals . What would those recommendations . What do you expect them to be . Thank you for your question and let me point out that, in fact, we have heard already a public report on this matter. Former senator jim talon of missouri and i cochaired a hearing on this issue in 2019 and the China Commission unanimously, six democrats and six republicans released its report in 2019 and were unanimous behind a number of recommendations regarding this sector. Let me quickly review just three of those, if i could, which is, you know, congress has the ability to dive deep as you are doing today and as we have all been forced to as we look to address this pandemic, but you can harness federal procurement policy through medicare, medicaid, Veterans Affairs and dod to buy american products, to use our existing authority ands leverage those to try to bring these supply chains back to the u. S. Secondly, we have to do a better job of having the fda use the existing authority to help protect americans for many of these products and you are well aware of the products that caused a number of deaths here in the u. S. Coming from china. Two years ago, we found that the Blood Pressure medicine v valsartan were tainted with rocket fuel because they were both being produced in the same facility and that product made its way to u. S. Consumers. The fda should be allowed to go into every facility in china that is sending their products to the u. S. And we need to make sure that that happens or that those products are unable to come here. Finally, we need to disclose where essential drugs and products are coming from and, again, we can do that through federal procurement standards and officials. Nowhere are they lenked where the products are coming from and how we can best prepare and protect. Inked where the products are coming from and how we can best prepare and protect. Thank you very much for explaining that to me. Let me ask mr. Musu and mr. Kerska and mr. Gilman. Your companies have worked to create ppe manufacturing facilities here in the u. S. In response to covid19 with the goal of creating a homegrown american product, however, not only does china dominate global ppe production. They also dominate ppe component and manufacturing equipment sectors. You have described some of those circumstances or at least that fact or those facts to us in your testimony. I wondered if you could go into more detail describing the challenges in finding ppe components and manufacturing equipment. Mr. Kerska, you mentioned the bottles that are unsourceable in the United States. I just want to hear more about the challenges that you face. I would tell you that we had numerous kansas counties, hospitals, Nursing Homes and others call our office and ask for help in locating ppe often when it was discovered that what was purchased was sitting in a port in california waiting to be approved by the fda which was in many instances denied based upon quality. So i also would give you the chance to tell me and our committee about the quality of the nature of your competitors and their products from china. So one of the stories that i had in my testimony, but my testimony was too long already, and i cut it out, but when we started our bottling operation we starred looking for bottles in the u. S. And we couldnt find manufacturers of it, and the distributors were all sold out for three or four months. So having a lot of experience in china, we did go to china and start looking and narrowing down the field to find the right company, but heres an example of to give you an idea of the situation we ran into. We have a bottle manufacturer in china and we inspect them and the same as were trying and were starting to buy the bottles and we were currently purchasing a label from the kansas label manufacturer for 15 cents. The chinese bottle manufacturer offered to make the label, print the label and apply that label for one penny. So those are the county headrins that we introun and we have to change the blade and how we source and invite these products and it will take some sort of a government environment. It all boil down to the mighty penny, right . And so if we get some type of help from our politicians that help us with this, i think it could change that. Anyway, that was an example that i wanted to share earlier. Here weve got a bottle that were buying and a label that we sourced in the u. S. And weve been buying it in kansas and here they offered to print the label, a plight label for one penny compared to 15 cents. I think those are pressures that you run into. But what you would tell me is they would be more expensive . Yes. Okay. Mr. Mr. Gilman . What i was saying earlier, sorry, was that the bottles were not available in the United States at all. So this was just kind of an extension of that process of buying the bottles and then getting into the process of you know, buying the label, first the labor and the extra process to apply the label here the chinese supplier was able to do it for one penny versus spending 20 cents in the United States to do it. Thank you. Mr. Wusu you may need to turn on your mike. Sorry. I have two different aspects. The first one, which is right now the most critical aspect is that anecdotally, what i understand from our county parts and some of the best Testing Facilities in the u. S. And nelson is that the testing lines are clogged up right now and if we take a product and we are on top of it, and as another testing cycle to complete on it takes months and that slows us down. Part of the reason why is because theres so much product that has been tested which is not necessarily manufactured in america, is is what i hear not a very good quality, but its constantly clogging these lines. The net loser is the American Consumer and the american product will not get to them faster and two, whatever product they get will continue to be of inferior quality and this is not good, and the second aspect im going to touch on is the abuse of dominant position. Back when we started about six to seven months back, the machines that we were trying to procure were available at at least five to ten times the precovid prices. A typical machine which would cost 70,000 precovid from china was costing us 75,000 and that was a bargain, by the way, to have 50,000. We still went ahead and the other thing is the raw material and raw material precovid that used to cost 3,000, were being sold for 115,000, i might even have, if i remember right i may have seen 135,000 price on it, which is 65,000, 67,000 times more. The worst part, while i cannot really claim to put my finger on this is as we watched these prices go up day after day after day and week after week is we wanted to get into the market quickly because we didnt want to be priced up was that every day these prices went out, no matter we spoke to one vendor or to half a dozen vendor, the prices were almost within a band. Are these guys marching to a beat . I dont know. But they were definitely very synchronized and will Market Forces alone really achieve that kind of synchronization . I dont know. Thats an open question ive not been able to figure out, but these are the kind of things that we have to brave and we were still putting our faith in the american our faith in the American Consumer and we continue to believe that the American Consumer, while they know what a bargain is, they still prefer quality. Thank you. Let me turn to senator blumenthal for his questions. Senator, im on my way to the senate floor to vote. Okay. I will be shortly as well. Senator sullivan is here, senator blumenthal, if we need to turn to him to chair the hearing while both of us are gone. Okay. I will be brief in my questions because we do have a vote that is ongoing. I just want to make a quick point about neil gilman and gilman gear, just to impress some of my colleagues, including my friend from kansas. Gilman gear actually led the nation in developing a product that was developed with the with espn which is a part of every nfl and College Game Day broadcast. And in 2015, mr. Gilman designed and brought to market the role tackle ring which revolutionized the way tackling and blocking are taught in high school and elsewhere for the game of football to prevent concussions from being as prevalent as they have been. So he is a highly talented designer and manufacturer in that area of sports equipment. But then had to pivot using what we know in connecticut as good old yankee ingenuity. But certainly innovative and inventive spirit, and began making the isolation and surgical gowns, isolation hoods, hair net caps and other ppe which is now serving to protect countless Health Care Workers across connecticut and the country. I want to thank, again, neil gilman for being here and i want to ask him and other members of the panel whether they think the defense production act would be useful in developing the supply chain and providing the kind of support that you have made reference to . Because it would in fact help to develop and make more robust that supply chain and perhaps even reduce the cost of the Raw Materials and equipment that you need to produce the equipment that you do. Senator, i dont see mr. Gilman responding, so let me jump in very quickly and thank you for your question. I think the dpa is a critical part of what the solution needs to be. I think we saw in this pandemic that it was not utilized quickly enough, effectively enough, and there has been a lack of transparency and accountability. For many of the small businesses, all the way up to the big businesses, small businesses, as you heard today, are in need of Quick Capital and can be effectively deployed to meet many of the gaps that exist in the supply chains to retool and do what they need to do. Dpa, i think, is a critical tool that needs to be enhanced for the future. Thanks for that comment, mr. Wessel. I dont know whether mr. Gilman is on. Probably not. I apologize those technical difficulties have prevented us from connecting. Mr. Krska, i dont know whether you have any comment on the dpa . I like that idea. When youre competing with businesses that have a lot of volume, its hard to figure out the pricing even, the expense, how can it be so cheap, right . When i first started going there, the cost of labor was 80 cents an hour. Now in some areas its 7, 8 an hour but the pricing is so low that you cant make sense of it. If we were to have some environment, some part of the economy that was set aside to allow us to achieve momentum and get leverage, right, in all parts of the supply chain, it would go a long way to restarting many of the industries to get them going. Thats my impression. Those commends are very, very pertinent and timely because as you know, theres no reason you should know, but weve been pushing the president to use the defense production act, in fact, in the hero. E. R. O. S. Act, therea specific measure that has been led by our colleague, senator baldwin, that would compel the president to use the dpa which for reasons difficult to comprehend, he hasnt done. But the points that you make and others, mr. Krska, are very, very powerful. They relate to unfair competition from china. Some of us have been complaining about it for years. They effect kansas, they effect every state in the country, including connecticut. We hear the same kind of complaints and using the defense production act is a central part of the picture and developing the Skilled Labor that is needed to provide the Human Resources that you need. It isnt only parts and component that is are in the supply chain. Its very much the men and women who do these jobs and have to learn new skills when you convert to new ppe, when you reengineer your assembly lines, i think thats an important part of the picture. So thank you, all, for being a part of this panel. I have to go vote. You can see that just like you, we as senators have to multitask. Im going to turn, i think, the gavel over to, i guess im being told that were going to have to take a short recess. Thats the last direction from our chairman who is now on the floor voting. But he has communicated to me through the wonders of a text that im instructed to declare a recess. So well be in recess, i hope, for just a few minutes. Thank you all. Thanks for your patience and thanks for being a part of this hearing. Senator rosen . Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being with us or being near us at least in the technology sense. As chairman of the commerce committee, i welcome all of you to todays hearing examining the response to the covid19. The subcommittee will come to order. As the nation continues to fight the unprecedented Public Health crisis brought on by covid19 pandemic, americans have worked to protect against the further spread of the virus while trying to maintain a certain degree of normalcy, including maintaining a job and earning a paycheck. There is not a corner of the United States economy that has not felt the impact of the pandemic and todays discussion will focus on harmful effects that this Public Health emergency has had on the manufacturing sector. During this pandemic, many in the Manufacturing Community have adapted their operations to help provide products needed to help fight the spread of the virus. Whether its a successful printer cartridge manufacturer making Hand Sanitizers, we have Companies Taking the lead to compete globally and to assist in meeting the needs that arrive with the pandemic. There are a variety of federal programs intended to provide assistance to our nations manufacturers and in response to the pandemic, congress and the administration took action through the c. A. R. E. S. Act to improve existing programs and to create a few new ones. As chairman of the appropriations committee, i am involved in the oversight of the National Institute of standards and technology which distributes resources to 51 states designated centers to assist small and mediumsized manufacturers. The c. A. R. E. S. Act provided an additional 50 million to augment support in response to the pandemic. The law provided additional assistance by waiving the cost match requirement for all funding for that fiscal year. The comprehensive response package offered assistance to the paycheck protection program, the treasury main Street Lending program, and the Economic Development administrations recovery assistance grants. Congress must uphold its oversight responsibilities to determine what work in administrating these programs. In addition to resources the Manufacturing Community the committee will reconvene. This is the most clunky hearing ive ever participated in, let alone chaired and thats saying a lot for the United States senate for clunky. So i apologize to our witnesses in particular. But to all who are paying attention to this hearing, how challenging its been with the series of votes. I think that senator cantwell who is next to question. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for inviting a witness that is both a Business Owner in kansas and a Washington State resident to boot. For you and i to work closely together. Exactly. And i want to work with you on the manufacturing workforce issue that youve introduced as it relates to helping keep the supply chain in aviation manufacturing. I appreciate this hearing and i know that were all dealing with an increase in the number of cases and the challenges that we face, im proud that our state has kept our rates of infection and hospitalizations down and appreciate the ongoing efforts there. But im also impressed by the manufacturing efforts in our state. Everything working together. Outdoor research converted one of its facilities into surgical masks. They used to make outdoor equipment. Now theyre making 400,000 surgical masks and 60,000 n95 respirators per week creating 200 new jobs. A company in tacoma worked with medical expert designs to help with the shields. At one point in time, i know boeing was creating face shields as well. Kentbased Flow International produces highpressure jet cutting systems and that has delivered over 200,000 medical grade face shields to the face and 40,000 different distributors im sorry, distillers, including the tribe that had just opened up this great new facility, switched over immediately to Hand Sanitizer. So i feel like the american spirit is alive and well by these manufacturers who had adjusted their production levels. I wondered if our witnesses, mr. Bulusu or any of the others could talk about, obviously, weve had a lot of frustration here on the defense production act. What do we need to do to give clear indications to manufacturers that we still need this production level and how can we gain their help now that were seeing a spike again on the necessary equipment. Could you please repeat the first part of the question . What do we need to tell manufacturers, what kind of guidance directive do we need to give them to get these production levels up that we need because of the change in conditions were now facing for the next several months . If i may take this opportunity, the biggest challenge that we face is being able to sell. The way the two different channels that we pursued, one, was to go after the opportunity to sell to governments, the local levels or the federal level, the biggest challenge we ran into was by default, the policy favored the lowest price which by which just meant that the product that is being dumped into the United States is the default choice. I wouldnt say that we cant necessarily compete. And im not going to necessarily say that the American Consumer has to pay a higher price. But before we achieve that level of economies of scale, there is a need for the american Manufacturing Industry to be supported. Thats not going to happen over a day or two. Its going its a process. It will help us through which we have to build up scale to achieve the economies of scale. But the first helping hand could come from modifying policy to at least set aside a part of the procurement funds to go to american manufacturers. That will help us put our roots in. And one that is affecting us significantly is our organic growth is given the fact that we cant advertise directly to the consumer. The prominent search engines, google, bing, facebook, none of them allow us to advertise because theyre worried about price gouging. And the barrier that is are established are making it difficult for us to put our roots by reaching out directly to the consumer at least. Im pretty sure this mask im wearing right now, im sure it was gotten off of amazon. What do you mean, there are manufacturers that are producing supplies and theyre unable to sell them because so the modern way, in general, if i wanted to reach the customer would be to advertise on google, make it available on amazon and send a link for it to appear on google and put an advertisement there or maybe on facebook. And i come from the technology industry, initially. I worked onto some extent on bing with microsoft. All of these opportunities are blocked. Because the companies are worried and rightly so that there is pricegouging practices that due to false advertisement and everything. So but the matter of fact is, american manufacturers, once we have a company on american soil are completely traceable. So anything its not like were worried we should be scared of or were not so prone to or we cant easily abuse the ability to sell to american customer like maybe others could. Basically, we need something of a clearinghouse. Yes, maam. Besides the funding. I know of another case, mr. Chairman, of a point of Care Technology that just needed a little bit of funding to get to go to scale on what would be, you know, an airport test within 20 minutes which, you know, for aviation would be incredible important. We have these manufacturers i agree with your first point about the funds. We should help with some sort of clearinghouse on making you feel comfortable that you can advertise these products. You need to know that they meet a standard. Was there a third point on this . That was it. And i tried, by the way, by reaching out to executives at amazon. My partner, he actually worked for very long if for 3 1 2 to 4 months we find it difficult we cant get to amazon, theres a problem. Okay. So thank you. Basically funding and some way to make sure that you feel comfortable that youre meeting the standards and then advertising, that people will feel comfortable that you are meeting that standard. Okay, great. Thank you mr. Chairman. Senator thune. Thank you. Commissioner wessel, weve seen the United States supply chain and Manufacturing Industry face a number of challenges to keep up with the command of certain resources, particularly personal protective equipment. What steps should the United States take today to ensure we have a more resilient supply chain . Thank you for your question, senator. And i think we face it all too clearly in this sector, ppe, medicines, et cetera, that has raised public attention. But this exists across a broad crosssection of industries. First of all, in this sector, i think we need to make sure that we have a Strategic National stockpile that is adequate to the task. Again, as i said earlier, nonexpected the virulence and breadth of this pandemic, but i think we have to understand that similar situations could arise in the future and we need to make sure that we are prepared. That means have been Domestic Production available, including surge capacity. It may be idle, but we need to support it potentially with federal funds, and we need to make sure that we have the stockpiles necessary to quickly deploy to meet needs. The fact is, our Health Care Workers, those on the front lines, should not be having to search for equipment, having to potentially use substandard equipment or having to reuse that equipment. The d. O. D. Has been looking at how to make sure that our Industrial Base is able to meet surge needs for any of a number of defense procurement needs. We need to focus more on our own security and what types of Manufacturing Capabilities must exist here to support our National Economic health and agricultural security. Thank you. Mr. Stovall, in your testimony or i should say, ms. Stovall, you highlighted at the beginning of the pandemic, several manufacturers struggled finding suppliers to support their business needs. What other issues did you see with the supply chain and how has the manufacturing Extension Partnership program been able to help alleviate some of those issues . Thank you for the question. Like i mentioned in my testimony, there is no National Supply chain database. And so early on in the pandemic, we all were looking around. We all were saying, where can we find ventilators . Where can we find more masks . Where can we find hospital gowns, hospital curtains, all of the things that were critically essential needs to help this Public Health emergency. So what we did very early on, im reminded of a story that happened ill never forget it. It was a sunday afternoon back in march. And we got a call across the National Network got an email from our from our executive director of the program carol thomas. There was a request from the white house looking for what manufacturers across the United States could manufacture ppe equipment. We were very early in this pandemic. Everybody was still trying to figure out what this was and what the needs were going to be. We had two hours to respond on a sunday afternoon. And within two hours we at the National Network were able to look in our own state they were able to look into our own states, see what was being manufactured, even though there was not a national database, even though we didnt have frankly at the state levels databases of who manufacturers ppe equipment in our state. Because of the relationships we have, because of the work that we had done in our state and across the National Network, we were able to come up with a pretty exhaust live that just within a couple of others on what manufacturers across the not just in kansas, but across the United States could meet these ppe needs. Thats one of the things weve been doing. One of the other things weve been doing, we heard earlier from ink cycle, from mr. Krska, talking about the need from bottles. We hear those kinds of needs all over the place. Manufacturers have invested on their own to pivot their production to critical need ppe goods, but there are still gaps in the supply chain. And so what we at the state level as well as linking across the National Network have done are really build an understanding of what capabilities are in our state. What capabilities are in our states that can help meet these meet this crisis. And thats anything from bottles and caps to dispensers, Hand Sanitizers, masks, n95 masks, all of the things that might go into any part of the supply chain. Weve been doing this state by state, but weve also been linking that throughout through the National Network that we have. So we were able to help meet the needs not just in our state but across the country. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, my time is expired. Thank you. Ill perhaps have some questions to submit for the record. Senator thune, thank you very much. The next senator to inquire is senator klobuchar, youre recognized. Thank you very much mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of the witnesses on this really important topic of manufacturing. I just actually a few days ago talked to a number of manufacturers in my state, Smaller Companies who are struggling in the pandemic because of the employees with coronavirus, quarantines, everything. And so i urge all of my colleagues that its time to do pandemic relief in the next month, that we cant wait until a new president comes in. I really think we have to do it now. Thats my only political statement here, mr. Chair. Ill start with you, mr. Gilman. People who didnt actually think they were going to lose their jobs and then were going to i think, when we get to the day of tomorrow when a vaccine comes out, we will have a different type of job availability and were already seeing we didnt have enough people in manufacturing to fill some of the jobs. We still have openings right now, actually, in my own state. So we have a bill for a skills training credit. Its bipartisan with senator sasse, booker and tim scott. And it can be applied to cover the cost of a wide range of training programs. Mr. Gilman, do you believe that increasing a workers skill set through appropriate training will help workers to reenter the workforce now or after we get on the other side of this . Hello . Im not sure, senator, that mr. Gilman is still there. Let me just say thats critical. If we dont have the skills, we cant meet the needs of the manufacturers to get things back on line, get people back to work and meet our needs. Very good. Anyone else want to chime in on this . This is Tiffany Stovall, i would like to comment on that as well. One of the things that so we know that the workforce issue is one thats ongoing. Its not new to the covid pandemic, obviously. Finding a Skilled Workforce has been a challenge for manufacturers for quite some time and i think the manufacturers on the call would agree with that. One thing that was a particular it has been a particular challenge and a particular concern during this covid pandemic is as manufacturers have had to navigate how they keep operations going, one of the things that they are really worried about is keeping their workforce. Okay . So people are home and they could go and especially for smaller ones, its hard. Yeah. Absolutely. And so they dont theyre trying to avoid layoffs at all costs. As we we have helped and i know its not just us, the kansas manufacturing but other naps across the network, weve been handson trying to get manufacturers access to the ppp and other resources that are available to them so they can stay open, keep their folks employed. All right. Very good. Thanks and im a big fan of that n. A. P. I have one last question. Back in july when you testified before the full commerce committee, you talked about the importance of standing up to a legal and unfair trade practices such as steel dumping, particularly important to my state. My grandpa was an ore miner. Thats a large part of the workforce up there. Were going to have a new president coming in who i believe can usher in a more strategic era of u. S. Trade policy, go away from the goitalone approach. What should congress do to best work with a new administration to stand up to unfair trade . Well, thank you for your question. That is the 64,000, or 64 trillion question, i guess. First of all, not move quickly to dismantle what this administration has put in place. As you noted, theres questions about strategy but that strategy must be based on a longterm approach and not simply responding to the tactics of the day. As you know clearly, overcapacity in steel, in aluminum, in fiberoptics and 15 or 18 other Industries Mostly caused by chinas economic policies is what is threatening so many industries. We need specific disciplines that are enforceable and those need to be done in a multilateral setting. But we have not had enough support from our allies and partners in the past. Weve had, as you know, the Global Steel Forum committee. I think they now understand that america is serious about addressing unfair trade. We want to do so with their support and in cooperation and i believe congress is going to be a strong bipartisan partner with the Incoming Administration to do that. But no one should be, you know, confused by americas resolve to support our producers and our workers. That is steadfast. The question is, what the longterm strategy is. Okay. Very good, thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, senator klobuchar. I now recognize senator baldwin. Thank you very much, mr. Chair. Commissioner wessel, i im going to ask some questions but i also just want to note for the record as ive been shuttling back from the floor to take notes, these may be things that youve tackled already, but thats okay. Were nine months into this pandemic and im still hearing on a routine basis from wisconsin Health Care Workers who cannot get a reliable supply of n95 masks that they need to protect themselves and provide care for their patients. And that is absolutely unacceptable in the United States of america. Since the pandemic began, ive been calling on the Trump Administration to use the full power, all the power of the defense production act, to alleviate these supply shortages, including the shortages of ppe that our essential workers need. So far, its my observation that the Trump Administration has only used it sporadically, well short of its full potential. Failing to use all the tools that are available under the defense production act. Also ive been concerned that supposed dpa contracts have gone to shady middlemen and when priority orders were issued to major u. S. Companies under title i, they failed to utilize the full wait of the u. S. Government backing to incentivize these companies to truly expand their manufacturing capacity. So commissioner wessel, what would it have meant and what would it mean Going Forward to fully unlock the power of the defense production act, specifically from a manufacturing perspective . Thank you for your question, senator. Also, thank you for your leadership on this issue. You have helped provide some Critical Thinking and policy approaches to address this issue. I think it would have been immeasurable benefit to americans, to the economy, to our Health Care Workers, First Responders, as well as patients avoiding sickness and worse, if we had utilized dpa effectively and quickly with accountability and transparency. Its not only about getting the funds, which youve been a leader on. Those authorities should have been triggered early. There was no accountability, no transparency as to where contracts were going for production or where the products were being deployed. And that needs to be fixed. We need legislation to make sure that never happens again. I appreciate that. I will note that in may of this year i introduced the medical supply transparency and delivery act with my colleague senator chris murphy and many others which does lay out a framework for effective an effective covid19 response by federalizing and adding critical oversight and transparency to the supply chain for critical medical supplies and equipment. It also unlocked the full array of authorities under the defense production act. I certainly hope that when president elect Biden Takes Office in january that hell use executive action to implement this framework and unleash that power as we will still have work to do. I know i have just a few seconds left, but commissioner, the Trump Administration claims to prioritize Economic Security as a National Security issue. Peter navarro in a 2018 oped in real clear politics stated here in an era of tense competition and into this breach comes donald trump with a new organizing principle for strategic policy, Economic Security is National Security. In april, acting director of dhs tweeted that it is Homeland Security and made similar statements in testimony to congress. Can you elaborate on how well, however when push comes to shove, it was a lot of talk and little action. While china views economic and National Security as inextricably linked as you note in your testimony, President Trump has failed to underpin his economic policies with the National Security concern. Can you elaborate on how this failure put us at a strategic disadvantage in relation to Great Power Competition with china. Thats a thats a great question. Thank you. And a potentially long answer, but i will shorten it. Those interests in intertwined and the workers in your state who provide countless benefits for making sure that we support a strong economy, that were able to support industries critical industries, critical infrastructure, their interest, their abilities to support america has been undermined by chinas noneconomic predatory policies over a long period of time, but the impact of those is accelerated as china has passed its industrial policies, made in china, 2025, its fiveyear plan which will be updated in march. We have seen tactics applied to chinas policies but not a longterm strategy to address the overall problems. Tariffs, which i have supported, are not a longterm strategy. We need to, again, multilateralize our responses, make sure theyre sustainable and make sure we have the ability here, manufacturers and others, to compete on a level Playing Field. So it is an alloftheabove strategy that needs a coherent framework which we join with our allies on and where congress is a true partner. Thank you, commissioner. And i yield back. Senator rosen is the last senator. This Committee Room is to be occupied again and the preparation to do so needs to take place soon. Senator rosen. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank everyone here for being here, for what youre doing. I want to build on what my colleagues have asked you about workforce training and retraining. During the pandemic, American Ingenuity has been a bright spot and our nation has exhibited, many of your companies and those in my state, the ability to tackle these insurmountable problems. For example, when the pandemic hit, there was a plastics manufacturer in nevada, they started making face shields and safety partitions for casino, restaurants and government agencies. The Innovation Center teamed up with our States Center to produce gowns for local Health Care Workers. This august, i had the opportunity to visit with a distillery. They make whisky and bourbon and they shifted to produce Hand Sanitizer. A and so i want to thank you for addressing some of the challenges that we have doing this for ppe and some of the other things workforce training, because we know having a Skilled Workforce that is able to be nimble and readily aat that particular time adapt. I also believe that we have to build Consumer Confidence for going back indoors. Were worried about the quality of our air, Indoor Air Quality is what stops us from going to restaurants, arenas, concerts, hotels and casino like i have in nevada. So, ms. Stovall, in your experience do you know companies that are working to produce the very important type of he pa filters, the electronic air cleaners that will help jump start our economy and make us feel more confident to go back indoors through this pandemic . Thank you for the question. Yes, as a matter of fact. One of the things in your comments you referenced ingenuity and the ingenuity of manufacturers. Manufacturing is built on innovation, right . Were a country of makers. We make things. And so it is in times like this where we have critical needs. Needs that may be a little bit different than they were six months prior to that, that companies are looking to say, how can we do better at meeting the need . Thats where the this innovation comes from. Companies are doing this on their own. I keep pointing that out because i want you all to really understand that the time the dollar investment, the what companies what manufacturers are doing on their own and what we need to be able to do to support them. To your question of are there companies that are looking at Indoor Air Quality, absolutely they are because that is a need. While theyre looking at what are our needs right now, masks, ventilators, those kinds of needs, were looking at what gets us back to some sense of normalcy . Right, which is what would make the public comfortable with going into buildings and retail spaces and Office Spaces and that is a an increased focus on air quality. Yes, that is something that is being looked at by manufacturers. Not only in kansas, but across the country. Well, i thank you for that. I would like to speak a little bit more about that, but i know theres another committee coming in right after us. So i will submit those questions for the record. I think it is really important that we talk about Indoor Air Quality because it is key to getting folks back to sports and school and all of the things that we all miss so dearly. I will yield back my last few seconds and thank you all for being here today. Thank you for your cooperation. Thank you for your participation today. We are just about to conclude this hearing, but its my practice to ask any of our witnesses if they have anything they want to clarify or something they wish they would have been asked, something they wished they would have said . Very good. Thank you all for joining us this afternoon. This is a very important topic and we need to figure out the policies that are necessary to strengthen and grow our manufacturing economy, creating jobs in kansas and the United States but a better way to protect our citizens from a pandemic and other emergencies and crisis that will occur by having access to various manufactured products that are necessary for our countrys wellbeing. Mr. Chairman . Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, i note that neil gilman is back on the line. I want him to know that i was bragging about him. He may not have heard it. I want to say to him how much i admire what hes done and all the entrepreneurs and manufacturers on this call. I think this hearing has really been very inspiring to see the kind of ingenuity and creativeness and innovateness that is the hallmark of america. The chinese can exploit our workers and try to undercut us, but i think in the long run, our system will beat theirs and we will be safer in terms of our health care and our economy because of the patriots that we had at this hearing today. You and i had a chance to talk about it on the floor and i think that your leadership here has been very important. I hope that you and i can Work Together in continuing showing how manufacturing ppe and these Health Care Supplies is so important to our country. My thanks to you for holding this hearing and to all of our witnesses. Senator blumenthal, thank you for your assistance, your leadership and i look forward to continuing our efforts to pursue this topic and others within this subcommittees jurisdiction. Were going to conclude. The hearing record will remain open for two weeks. Senators are asked to submit any questions for the record. Upon the receipt of those questions, the witnesses are requested to submit their written answers as soon as possible. That concludes todays hearing. I thank our staff and i apologize for the on again off again nature of todays hearing. We just had a disjointed chance to have the testimony told but it was very compelling and very useful and im grateful for that. With that, the hearing is now adjourned. Week nights this month, were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, former u. S. Senator sam nunn reflects on the cold war, 75 years after it began. Senator nunn served until 1997 as a democrat from georgia and as Senate Armed Services Committee Chair from 1987 to 1995. After leaving the senate, he cofounded the Nuclear Threat initiative. Senator nunn talks about his experience during the cuban missiles crisis, foreign leaders who influenced events during the cold war, as well as the continuing threat of nuclear conflict. Watch tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3. Facebooks Ceo Mark Zuckerberg and twitter Ceo Jack Dorsey spoke to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Earlier today. You can watch the hearing tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. You can also watch it on cspan. Org. Next, a portion of the hearing
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