Good. The steering will come to order. I want to thank you witnesses for your efforts as they are wed to the current have to call it a pandemic at this point with covid19 karate coronavirus. I think it is important we put ever in perspective. I asked my Committee Members to include my Opening Statement in the record. Fail towe often recognize and put this in proper perspective. Let me battle off a couple figures. Worldwideal cases ended up being less than 29,000. In the mist of that crisis, we were talking about this spreading and it could be a Million People. Which would have been a huge problem because ebola had a mortality rate of already percent. In the end, because of effective action on the part of the world health organization, Obama Organization administration, we prevented that from spreading. Less than 29,000 people contracted that. We have had other topics of ebola where we are Getting Better at it. We have developed effective vaccines that helped protect Health Workers and we will talk about that. That is a finite resource. We have deadliest virus been dealing with is the 2012 outbreak. Total cases were less than 2500. 850 people died, a mortality rate of 34 . 2003, sars. 8000 people affected, 774 died. Talley rate of 9. 6 . Flu,verage flu, seasonal these numbers are a wide dispersion of what happens, 45 Million People a year catch it. Anybody with Underlying Health conditions, elderly are most affected by it. We will lose there will be 60,000 fatalities a year with just seasonal flu. Virus that reached pandemic levels, it sounded scary, was the and one h one virus. Stats on that is about 60 million americans caught h1n1. Million. , over 200 worldwide, hundred 75,000 people died globally. Fatality rates were not that high. Thousands died in the u. S. But we dealt with these things in the past. That we knowtats about, 81,000 individuals have contracted and tested positive for covid19. Close to 3000 deaths. The latest mortality rate is about 3. 4 . Which is serious. The normal flu is about 0. 1 . A higher mortality rate. I would caution everybody, this is just deaths from people we have tested. The types of test kits or numbers yet, we are developing them rapidly they still reducing government we will talk about that. We want to clarify that situation. Rate,ss is the mortality what we have a sense how many people contract this, where they dont display symptoms or they are mild, i think the mortality rate would come down. Nobody knows. There is a lot about this disease that nobody knows. What i am hoping we can our compass in todays hearing is talk about the administrations response, which i think has been almost immediate. From what i have seen, the accessibility of whether it is acting secretary both, mr. Cuccinelli, members of the cdc, and i ate, i had access to them. I have not abused that access because i want you working to mitigate this problem. They have been accessible. I dont know how many briefings i have attended. We have two individuals here. Why dont we have every agency . I want them to work. They have a job to do. There has been a lot of hearings so you have been accessible. Yet taken a whole of government approach. The have said, i dont see administration under responding. We have taken unprecedented steps. Travel bands, quarantines is this correct . The first time in 50 years . On positive steps. We have not under reacted. But i think this administration is aware of the costs of overreacting. Is fact of the matter chances of the administration getting it just right, reacting perfectly, is zero. It will not happen. Knowledge, interaction, what we have seen in terms of the interaction with the house, this is an all government approach, all hands on deck, this is not being ignored. You can see the billiondollar response you can see the 8 billiondollar response. Congress will make sure the administration has the funds. In terms of priority of action, is important that we are able to test so we know the extent of what the outbreak is. I want to talk about the regulatory issues, the basic issues, the basic signs issues. There is a reason they call it medical practice. This does not happen overnight. This is a new virus that just became known three month ago. It takes time to develop the test to make sure the tests do not produce false positives and you have to manufacture them. I am heartened by what i am hearing. I want to tell the figures now, i want to delve into those so we know what we are talking about in terms of what testing kits are available, how they will be distributed. What he priority is without distribution so we get a sense by being able to test as many individuals as doctors want to. Livid number of tests, there is high criteria to test any patient. Currento talk about travel restrictions. This was Homeland Security committee. We want to talk about cbps role, tsas will, how you are cooperated with cdc, with the screening measures are, what data we are collecting. If we talked about that at you reacted to our conversations, collecting more data so we can trace travelers that may have come in contact with people that are infected. I want to talk about all those issues as it relates to the department of Homeland Security. Testing is a top priority. We want to talk about the Current Issues with the supply chain but also in the future. Once we have this stabilized, hopefully this will prove to be seasonal, although there are indicators it may not be. What we have taken care of this and vaccines are valid and accessible, which will be sometime in the future, we need to take a look at the strategic stockpile, look at the supply , why are sourselves many of these precursor chemicals produced in india . Which is now blocking exports to some of these chemicals. I see no reason for manufactured drugs approved by the fda or u. S. Use that those should be manufactured overseas. We have to learn from these situations and put in place regulations or laws so we are better prepared for the next pandemic because there will be a next pandemic. I rattled off the ones we already had to deal with. I want to thank the witnesses. I hope this is a good discussion. I hope it is a clarifying discussion. This is about transparency. You dont have all the answers because there are things that are unknowable. Thank you for your work. Thanks for up your in before our committee. I will turn it over to our ranking member. Thank you to our witnesses for being here. The top priority of this committee and your agencies is simple. Keep americans safe. The coronaVirus Outbreak is not currently widespread, but it does pose a significant threat to our Public Health and Homeland Security and we have to take it seriously. I am grateful for the efforts of your agencies and officials across the country to limit the spread of this virus. While we have seen growing numbers of cases in the United States, we have thankfully not seen widespread outbreak yet in this country, it is the job of this administration to work with local governments to limit the spread of this virus. It is clear that we should prepare for a worstcase scenario and widespread infection. Assessing clear information about coronavirus has been a significant challenge for the public. The American People have a lot of questions. Informationliable about the virus spread and what the government is doing to protect their health and safety. Academicsn from past past pandemics, it requires a comprehensive response as well as timely and trusted, useful guidance from Public Health officials as well as security officials. In the coming weeks, your agencies will play a Critical Role in containing the outbreak, educating americans about the virus, and protecting Public Health. Whether your response is effective will be a matter of life and death. I appreciate you joining us today. By constituents in michigan at the American People want clear answers to some of the most pressing questions that they have. I look forward to hearing what steps your departments are taking to wet sure we have the right plans and that you have adequate resources to execute those plans to stop the spread of this contagious disease. Thank you for taking time to be with us today. Is the tradition to swear in witnesses. If you will stand and raise her right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give will bill will be the whole truth . Please be seated. Our first witness is ken cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of the home security. Director ofthe immigration services. He previously served as attorney general from virginia. Mappers of thed committee, it is my honor to a peer before you to testify about the work of dhs at what we are doing to respond to the outbreak of coronavirus, known as covid19. I am proud of the work of the andand women of dhs department of health and Human Services are doing to contain the spread of the disease, slowly spread, and prepare for a domestic response. The Department Top priority is the safety and security of the American People and we are committed to a proactive and preemptive response in fulfilling that mission. As required by congress in 2018, President Trump side of the first bio Defense Strategy to build upon our ability to respond to and limit the impacts of the by coincidence like the one we are facing now by bio incidents like the one we are facing now. Airportsking action at to support hhs in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Dhs is working to decrease the workload of Public Health officials, expedite the processing of u. S. Citizens returning from china, and ensure resources are focused on the health and safety of the American People. Customs border protection, Transportation Security Administration to work closely with our partners at cdc to route admissible persons who had been in china and iran in the previous 40 days to one of 11 designated airport of entry where the federal government has focused Public Health resources. Its antiadmissible person who was been in the Hubei Province of china is subject to 14 days of mandatory quarantine cdc has made arrangements with local authorities to ensure they are provided medical care and Health Screening any admissible person and the rest of china or iran within 14 days undergoes Health Screening at one of the airports and if they are a some thematic, 14 days of selfmonitoring to make sure they have not contracted the virus and do not pose a health threat. Dhs continues to facilitate and hold screenings of travelers entering the United States who had recently been in china or iran. Travelers identified by cbp officers during their primary inspection are then referred to see wmd medical screamers. We have 500 contracted and 95 on duty at any given time. For those who through medical screening are identified as particularly at risk, they are referred to cdc personnel who are onsite and have made arrangements with local health authorities. Involved 53,000 air travelers to date. We realize these actions could prolong travel times for some individuals, however experts do agree these measures are necessary to contain the spread of the virus and protect the American People. To minimize disruption, the air carriers are working to identify qualifying passengers before their scheduled flights. Dhs is supporting the enhanced screening efforts through ems publicwith health at a First Responder personnel. That is where those 500 contractors come from. See wmd establish this capability and response to the anda threat last summer make sure a workforce was ready to deploy to support cdc with airport screening operations. Dhs was able to adapt this capability to address the covid19 threat. Support toing collect passenger information at all 11 airports allowed cdc to provide information to facilitate contact freezing effort. See wmds efforts have increased the accuracy of the data collected. The u. S. Coast guard continued their work to recognize and attack individuals are vibrate through our land ports and waterways who may be carrying the virus. All in coordination with cdc. The coast guard continues to review advanced notice of arrival. This is a notice they get before a ship comes to an american port. It gives a full accounting of the medical status of everyone on the ship. The captain will communicate concerns stemming from sick or deceased crew or passengers to their postcard chain of command and the cognizant quarantine station who will coordinate with health authorities. To ensure continued facilitation of international trade, nonpassenger commercial vessels that have been in china or iran in the previous 40 with no sick groomers may be permitted to enter u. S. Waters and offload cargo, reload, and depart the board. My time is up. I will stop with the Opening Statement we submitted, covering this territory and i am happy to answer your questions. Thank you. Our next witness is dr. Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response for the u. S. Department of health and Human Services. He served as staff director for the u. S. Senate select committee on intelligence and special assistant to president george w. Bush for bio defense policy. He served in the air force for 20 years and was named Flight Surgeon in 86 1986. I want to read more. He was instrumental in drafting the pandemic and hazard. Bill to he served in the white house as a director for bio defense on the Homeland Security council where he is responsible for conducting assessment which culminated in drafting the bio defense policy for the 21st century and served as special advisor for policy at the office of secretary of defense, efforts to counter radiological, Nuclear Threats in the wake of 9 11 and contributed to fbi anthrax letter attacks. What an appropriate witness you are for this hearing. I appreciate it. That is a nice way of saying im a one trick pony. Chairman, ranking member, thank you for the opportunity to testify before do on how hhs is supporting the whole of hhs and u. S. Government response to the 2019 coronaVirus Outbreak. This morning, i want to take a few minutes to discuss how we are addressing this issue from a point of strategic anticipation. Working with my colleagues at cdc, cms, and across the government must supporting authorities, we are working to contain this Virus Outbreak to save lives and protect americans. There is a four pronged approach to domestic response. This includes development, supporting Health Care System, incident management, and direct support to local entities. In the area of cutter development, we are establishing a task force that includes partners across hhs, department of defense, and other agencies and private sector to identify therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines that can be brought to the pipeline to address the coronavirus threat. We are looking at point of care diagnostics, Public Health in rapid detection and guide treatment. Your identifying therapeutics to support the treatment of infected persons. We are working with nih, multiple potential vaccine candidates. All our efforts are pushing platforms and candidates forward as fast as possible to aid the overall response. Turning to have we supported Public Health system, and coordination with the Public Health emergency program, we have improved coordination between hospitals and Public Health sector and other entities. Leverage the ebola treatment network, an idea that was created by congress, and establishes a response to the 2014 Ebola Outbreak to support the treatment of repatriated persons. As the Health Care Systems prepare for the coronavirus, this network has and will continue to link experts with quarantine and isolation experiences, treatment efforts at the state and local level. Shifting to overall response instructor, since repatriation efforts began, we had been managementh the agency to put in place a Management Network that is based on the National Response framework. This is the first type we have formally implemented the structure. Thisacticed activating instructor during previous exercises, we are doing it for real now. We can leverage the capacities of female and Emergency Support functions that may be necessary to deploy responders to assist states and local authorities. Few briefend with a updates how we are providing support to state and local entities. Our repatriation efforts, we had 1100 americans from wuhan and the diamond princess cruise ship on your difficult circumstances. There are no additionally planned repatriation efforts at this time, but should the need to be raised, we are Planning State Department or other authorities. We shifted our efforts to now to provide support and aid states. In washington, we use the stockpile to provide protective equipment. A second shipment is arriving today. 28are planning to send Public Health