First actions of the committee is we are going to take over the roles and Means Committee to make this a rules committee but first let me say that i appreciate, wanted to say this from the beginning i appreciate the flexibility of our Ranking Member mr. Cole. Im incredibly proud of how we have worked together here in this congress. We have examined a lot of things in the committee and no matter how politically alike we are doing things in the constructive when and i look forward to working with you mr. Cole in a bipartisan effort that was announced today and we will examine how congress can better adapt to the emergencies of the coronavirus pandemic pandemic. I know we both care deeply about this institution in one way or another congress is going to have to adapt to whatever the future may bring. The cdc said this fall could be worse than what we are going to right now. And we need to be prepared and that may mean working remotely. Changes when we operate should be done whenever possible in a bipartisan collaborative way and i know we can get there together but i really believe that maintaining the status quo is not an option. Let me turn to matter at hand. Today we are considering the measure to stand up to House Select Committee of the Coronavirus Crisis. In the u. S. Alone thereve been 840,000 confirmed cases and as we speak more than 45,000 lives lost. And more than 22 million initial unemployment claims in just the past four weeks. Some have lost as many jobs in last month as they did during the worst year of the great recession. These arent just numbers on a page for this virus has touched every community in the nation affecting her neighbors, our families and their friends. Congress has responses with lamb provided over 2 trillion of emergency relief. We need to make sure these dollars are being well spent and that means saving lives rooting out fraud fighting for all our Small Businesses and that is just what the select committee will do. Before i turn to our Ranking Member i want to ask congresswoman and our good friend mark decided continues his recovery. We hear from his staff for these anxious to get back pretty look forward to welcoming him back here just as soon as he is able. As all of you may know congressman matsui has served on the committee previously including the opening days of this congress and her insight and leadership will be viable as we continue our work. Having said that im happy to turn to our Ranking Member mr. Cole for his remarks. With me start with a couple of remarks and i first joined you obviously been in sending our best wishes to our good friend and we hope he is back. We are pleased with their placement that was chosen of course but we all want mark back and working with us. Hes a valuable member and a very good friend to everybody here. I want to also thank you mr. Chairman for your kind words. We dont always agree on every issue or the nature of this business but youve been forthright and i appreciate the manner in which you have worked with us and included us at a very difficult time with changing decisions of having to adjust this committee. I appreciate your leadership and i appreciate your friendship. Without mr. Chairman todays hearing is on speaker pelosis proposed select committee on the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this months bigger pelosi announced she would create such a select committee conveniently ignored that and committee has to be established to the rules committee predicted the rules committee is being asked to essentially retroactively rubberstamp the actions for this is particularly egregious considering up until an hour ago we had absolutely no details but the speaker gave our side though not as if the plans and no indication of rationale or vision ends frankly radio silence since the announcement except for the occasional media mention. This is not the way to operate on something they want to do in a bipartisan fashion. I will also say mr. Chairman im not sure what the goal of such the committee will be paid the speaker claims the select committee will examine all aspects of the federal response of the coronavirus pandemic and will prove provide oversight for federal dollars being spent on the spot that congress has significant oversight tools at our disposal. The cares act established a fivemember Congressional Oversight Commission specifically for this purpose. They note my good friend from florida representative shillelagh is the house majoritys designee on that commission. This commission is in addition to congress as other oversight tools which include the House Committee on oversight and reform and the oversight subcommittee that exists on most other permanent House Committees. Off already have a separate Oversight Commission specifically for the cares act and we are to have a separate oversight and Reform Committee and we have separate Oversight Committees and what is the actual purpose of the proposed committee . My fear mr. Chairman is this new select committee will simply turn into another partisan witch hunt under the Trump Administration but i hope im wrong. Either way i can think of better uses of our time and our resources given how my choker site already exists over funds appropriated appropriate in the care sector there may be a time in the futura make sense to establish a Commission Like the 9 11 commission and review the covid19 pandemic and the government response. It needs to be bipartisan and devoted to what happened when it happened and what we can learn from it to improve government response in the future. The partisan select committee does not meet that test and without mr. Chairman i yield back trace. Thank you very much and i neglected in the inning to mention dr. Monahan the attending physician is present in the audience today. There he is. And father conroy is here as well. We feel where a specially protected here. I wanted to read the instructions on following the guidance but i was using face governor speaking in stage 616 of partys Hand Sanitizer dont shake hands or brace folks and respect social distancing guidelines. I point that out because we all have to get used to the new instructions here and its important not just for the safety of members but also the staff and the sonographers and others who are here supporting us. I want to thank the Ranking Member for his comment and are there any other members wishing to testify . I see one. You may take your seat. This is new to me. Mr. Jordan we are delighted you are here and anything in writing will be entered into the record and we now recognize the gentleman from ohio mr. Jordan for any remarks he wishes to make. I want to thank you and the Ranking Member and your entire committee for being here. I think it sends a good signal to the mac and people that congress is back doing their business. We have all kinds of Task Force Meetings around the country in various states but it seems to me the task force that is supposed to look at the big issues that confront our issues is the United States congress so its good to see the Committee Process back and functioning this evening. I am strongly opposed to the select committee mr. Chairman. There are currently to pick up where the Ranking Member just was eight different oversight processes in place as we speak. First is the Ranking Member mentioned you have the Oversight Committee. Who has the broadest jurisdiction of any committee in congress and in fact the legislation which we just got to read 50 minutes ago creates a select committee within the jurisdiction of the Oversight Committee. Second is the Ranking Member mentioned you have committees of jurisdiction and the various subcommittees to oversight on those committees the energy and Commerce Committee the Small Business committee of the Financial Services committee. Third, the Ranking Member mentioned the cares act itself creates an Oversight Commission and two of her colleagues have been made to that congressman shall a lot shalala and congressman hill. You have the Accountability Committee within the Inspector General. And we have a fourth oversight process currently in place and fifth Inspector Generals developed an agency of jurisdiction here. We are to know they are operating Inspector General health and Human Services and health and Human Services have released reports about the Pandemic Response effort and sixth the cares act establishes a special Inspector General. Seventh, 20 million was appropriated in the cares act, the gao for hiring experts to look at how the money is being spent and finally you have the ftc, the department of justice who are already looking at the potential. They have already found people trying to fraudulently get access to taxpayer money designed to help families and Small Business owners. A different oversight processes in place as we speak that the democrat said nope, thats not enough. We need a ninth could we need a ninth. Why . The first eight are good enough for me tonight and the answers will exactly what the Ranking Member said. The first eight are designed to protect taxpayer dollars in a ninth is political. The ninth is going to look out for the democrats candidate for President Joe Biden because who the speaker announces going to be the chairman . The guy who won the nomination for joe biden in South Carolina or colleague mr. Clyburn. That is what this is about and is the Ranking Member and this is just one more attempt by the democrats to go after the president , one more chance for them to attack the president in an Election Year and the biggest supporter of the democrat nominee as the chairman of this direct committee where we already have a different oversight russ is in place doing the work of the american taxpayer. Remember their first big hearing was Michael Cohen and that we have the whole trump fresh investigation and we have them all investigation and then the impeachment of here we go in an Election Year in the summer could we know what these hearings will look like this fall could help the big hearings seem to take place in this room. They will be calling in all kinds of people for defense so i strongly oppose Ranking Member i strongly oppose this legislation and i hope it doesnt go to the for tomorrow to help it doesnt pass. If thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today and i yield back. You mentioned the Inspector General is a way for us to keep account of what is going on here. The president signing statement basically said he wasnt going to allow allow the Inspector Generals report to congress but let me just say this. We are talking about 2 trillion, 2 trillion, and i think we are already getting questions from our constituents as to whether or not its being issued properly as to whether or not its going were supposed to go. I mean i dont think that there are people out there whether they are democrats or republicans who have a hard time understanding the importance of making sure we get this right. I think every member of this institution both democrats and republicans have an interest in making sure this critical lifesaving money that we have appropriated is being administered properly and being spent effectively and where it will do the most good so i thank the gentleman and i gild to my colleague from a home mr. Cole for any questions or comments that he has. C thank you very much. New technology. Thank you mr. Chairman. I agree frankly with what he has to say and for the life of me i cant understand why six existing committees and subcommittees cant do this task. That is their job. They do it well. My friends ask a control all of those committees so the need for this strikes me as extraordinarily superfluous and i see more opportunities for mischief here than i do for legitimate oversight. I have a hard time again understanding why we dont trust our colleagues whose responsibility this is to engage in it routinely on the whole friday of france. No questions for my friend pretty just want to express my appreciation for him showing up in making the points that he did and with that mr. Chairman and i yield back. Thank you very much. Mr. Torres. Thank you mr. Chairman. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself because if the fear is Strong Enough they can immobilize you. And it can leave you paralyzed. Some people say that fear is the strongest emotion and because of that fdr said this in 1933. He was talking about the economic depression. Depression scale worse such as the savings paradox. I think the fear of oversight here really means is that we dont care who has access to this money because we have seen it in a last bill. Who got access to the money . It was intended for the poor working business community, the poor working Small Businesses that were robbed of their opportunity to do right by their employees. They were robbed because of greed, tremendous greed. On behalf of banks who stood to benefit bigger bonuses if a fasttrack a bigger payout so they left the little guy behind. My personal interest is not necessarily oversight of how we direct the money or help banks choose to steal the money or how greed could impact the rich. I am also interested in seeing how local governments spend taxpayer dollars. We have all seen it. Public corruption, that corrupts every level of government. I am interested in seeing and having oversight on how some hotels like the hotel at the fairplex in my hometown of the mona the only hotel in my city to be turned into a covid hotel close to the most vulnerable people. This was five days after the state in the county were looking to spend send these poor Homeless People to a dilapidated building adjacent to the police and fire station near our courthouses. I am interested in oversight on every single penny that we spend. Unlike many of you i sent my irs payment prior to april 15 which by the way was cashed four days later. I only wish that my constituents who are hurting right now were able to get a return on their loan requests within four days. So i support this measure. I support people having more oversight. Oversight is good and you should not fear oversight and with that i will yield back trades to make thank you very much. Mr. Woodall. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to say how good it is to see folks here in the hearing room and thank you for continuing to convene us and engage on those issues such as the continuity of Congress Even as the doors may have been close. Our minds are still focused on the problem at hand that i want to tell you how much i appreciate it. I actually missed you believe it or not rate. To mr. Jordans point i do think we perform better together. Think everybody has something to add and you see mr. Morelli because he is a top dais member in ms. Shalala and outside of this larger room. This is a matter of rules Committee Jurisdiction in mr. Chairman i do want to put you on the spot because we just saw this an hour ago and you saw this an hour ago but you are the best that we have in terms of the Oversight Committee expert. I have only served one term on the Oversight Committee. How many years did you serve on the Oversight Committee . I have served six terms. Actually longer. To ms. Torres point i do think fraudulent actors go to where the money is and this is where the money is right now so i absolutely think we have to redouble our efforts to make sure that these dollars are wasted. I am looking at one of the select subcommittees authorized to do but i could not find anything or any list of mandates that i did not think the Oversight Committee already had the ability to do and i wanted to ask you about a couple of those. The committee is authorized to investigate the efficiency effectiveness and the equity and transparency of the taxerpayer funds use and relief programs to address the coronavirus. Would that be the Oversight Committees jurisdiction already . Isherwood with the in the seven other entities that i reference in my opening statement. If its authorized to investigate reports of waste fraud abuse pricegouging and other abusive practices related to the coronavirus would that be under the Oversight Committees jurisdiction also . Yes i would. The implementation of any federal law implied applied or inactive in the Coronavirus Crisis . Same answer. In full r