Transcripts For CSPAN House Oversight Virtual Briefing On Co

Inspector generals hearing on the administrations response to the coronavirus. You are watching live coverage on cspan. Who has served under four president ial administrations, both democratic and republican. It issued a the hhs ofort covering the gravity challenges hospitals have faced during the Coronavirus Crisis from caring for patients to obtaining protective gear for staff and stocking basic medical supplies. This report was intended to help policymakers understand these challenges and to help hospitals overcome them, which benefits us all. Unfortunately, President Trump personally attacked this grant for no valid reason. Andcriticisms were baseless it seems clear that he just wanted everyone to pretend that there were no challenges in our Health Care System. Of course, we all know that was wrong. Grimmm should not have had to endure these personal, senseless attacks. Nevertheless, we thank her for tolerating them with dignity washing continued serving the American People. Hsit office is crucial in ensuring that the money given for emergency relief under the act is spent effectively and efficiently. Is also a member of the Pandemic Response accountability committee, which im proud to have proposed. And all inspectors general are more important now than ever. They play a Critical Role in overseeing our governments role and rooting out fraud and abuse in our governments response to the pandemic. Regretfully in recent weeks, President Trump has taken steps to remove, replace, or attack numerous officials in the community, including at the state department, the transportation department, the intelligence community, and the department of defense, whose Principal Deputy Inspector General had also been appointed to lead the Pandemic Response accountability committee. Hashe Committee Jurisdiction over the entire community, it is our responsibility to protect the ig from political interference. For these reasons on friday, i joined with majority leader hoyer, chairman conley, and chairman lynch in introducing 6984, legislation that will both strengthen the independence of ig and protect them from political retaliation. Im requiring that ig only be removed by good cause and the documentation justifying removal be provided to congress. Only beement that igs removed with cause was also introduced in the act that passed the house, and i hope that all members, both are publicans and democrats, will support this important bill. Id also like to thank chairman conley, the chair of the subcommittee, for the incredible work he has done and has been doing to protect and strengthen our inspectors general. Leading a series of briefings and he and his staff are critical to helping to put this together today. With that, i would now like to recognize the distinguished Ranking Member jordan with any remarks he may have. Madam chairwoman. We have been pushing for weeks for you to bring in Inspector General horowitz to talk about some of the recent reports, scathing reports he had on operations, and you have yet to schedule a hearing or even one of these socalled briefings that weve grown accustomed to in the last several weeks. There is a real frustration level with republicans about these briefings we are doing. These briefings should be an in person hearing and provide Real Transparency for the work in congress. We must lead by example. States are opening up. In a setting, the democrats make up the rules as they go. For example, there have been quite a few times. Just 10 minutes prior to the briefing, democrats percolated and email of written statements of the briefing. Publicans were not told this was in the expectation and we had no idea how long the majority has to statements. Briefingsese meetings but Live Streaming them and using some parliamentary rules to conduct them but not others allows them to ignore minority rights fundamental to Congressional Committee suture. We should be meeting in person, Holding Hearings pursuant to the house rules. But as Speaker Pelosi refuses to return to work and at the very least, we should follow the rules that the majority pass in the house just a week ago. At least those make an attempt to hold the rights of all members on the committee. Now, focusing on todays hearing, or breathing, or whatever you would call it, any allegations that Christie Grimm was fired is still incorrect. She is still the acting Inspector General pending the confirmation of the new one. He was nominated on may 1, 2020. Hhs has had multiple since june of 2019. Reportl, hhs released a concluding that hospitals were suffering from a ppe shortage. This conclusion was based on a survey of hospitals conducted from march 23 through march 27. Officially, they asked a small number of questions that did not include any efforts to discern whether the policies implemented by the administration for working at the time. Im least concerned with the flawed methodology that they used to create this biased report as democrats continue to express outrage with the president s removal of some inspectors general, the deeper concerns i believe are disingenuous at that. Democrats had no such concerns with oversight when former president obama failed to appoint a state department ig for the entirety of Hillary Clintons tenure. Days, right, for 1989 senator clinton ran the state Department Without any internal watchdogs at all. Im hopeful that the majority. Will partisan games stop playing partisan games and hold china accountable for this pandemic and to start having real hearings in person like were supposed to in the United States. I yield back. Thank you. Now we recognize chairman conley. Unmuted. Y, you are now thank you very much and thank you for hosting this meeting slash hearing. I would like to make one point, madam chairwoman. As you recall, we did have inspected general horowitz before this committee about a month ago. , and i believed started Ranking Member mr. Jordan. We had him just last month, but we havent had them again. I want to thank our witness, christie, the department of health and Human Services. For bridging the committee on the important work her office is doing and highlighting the critical gaps in the federal governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. Inspectors general are more critical to our nation than ever , as they oversee the distribution of the largest stimulus package in our nations history. 3 trillion and counting. And to ensure that our government is taking the right steps to save lives. Hhscent report issued by details the severe shortages of testing supplies experienced by hospitals, the disorganized nature of the federal response at the top of the coronavirus. Igs root out waste and abuse and they seek truth. They are responsible for restoring trust in democracy and preserving accountability in every administration. Thats why we must stop this administrationsa attacks on the ig community and highlight their work. A taxpayere than dollars, they help restore andidence in our agencies they ensure transparency and accountability. Pandemic, they will play a Critical Role in conducting oversight of the governors response to the coronavirus. But inflation provided 175 billion dollars in emergency funding relief for hhs to distribute medical providers. Work will in auditing fraud withfy any respect to the distribution of these funds. Identify any problems we may occur and with 175 billion, is going to be some. Her office plans to review numerous aspects of the response to in preparation for the coronavirus pandemic including testing, health and safety preparedness, and operations of the national stockpile. All of these reviews are important, to understand what went wrong, what can be done to better be prepared to the future. As a statutory member of the Pandemic Response council established by the cares act, the ig and hhs will need the help of the committee and play the leading role in developing a future plan. Congress must do all it can to ensure that the igs are able to conduct their work free from political retaliation at the president ial level or any level, and for reporting abuse. Im proud to join the chairwoman dangerous legislation that will do just that, strengthen the independence of igs and protect them from undue political intervention. Im glad this legislation has reached a fire higher threshold and requires the administration to provide documented evidence supporting any decision to remove any ig. Im also proud to sponsor legislation to hold igs accountable to more transparency on a committee charged with investigating within the ig community. Because they are sources of accountability, credibility. With those protections, we also must ensure the independence of inspectors general on their ability to work free from political retaliation, the best way to safeguard the trillions of taxpayer dollars that will be spent in response to the crisis and the recovery we know will follow. With that, i yield back. Thank you, mr. Conley. Missl now recognize grimm. Good morning distinguished members of the committee. Name is christian grimm. E i am a career Civil Servant with over 21 years of experience in strengthening the effectiveness and accountability in hhs programs and operations. On behalf of the over 6000 oig, iionals of the hhs appreciate the opportunity to brief you about our oversight of the department covid19 program and funding. Sthe goal of the pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for us and for the delivery of health care and Human Services to the American People. Nearly 100,000 people have died, many more are seriously ill, and the effects of being felt in every corner of our country. Hhs is the lead Agency Responsible for the Public Health services response. It is a monumental responsibility of life and death. Ak just as performing a vital role that covers areas such as xe development, testing, and guidance, but also deploy medical volunteers to the front lines of health care, working with state, local, and federal governments to plan and direct billions in federal funds to care and services for those that need them. We are drawing on her long history of overseeing the department of comparison response activities, including responses to hurricanes, other natural disasters, and prior Infectious Disease outbreaks like h1n1 and the ebola virus. Anduses expert staff Sophisticated Technology to carry up those perks. In addition to performing our oversight, we share our Technical Assistance with officials to strengthen Program Integrity and management practices. We coordinate our work with key , federal, state, local, and tribal entities and the government can ability office. Later today, we will be posting through our website are strategy for oversight for response and recovery. I strategy has four goals. Protect the people, protect infrastructure, promote effectiveness now and into the future. Today we have 14 covid19 related reviews posted to our public workplan with additional topics in development. It is our hope that this work will inform decisionmakers including the department and congress as they responded to covid19 and prepare for the future. Our fourth goal is protecting people. Hhs programs touch the lives of and i strategy starts with protecting people. Our efforts are wide ranging and include health and safety reviews, combating fraud schemes, and issuing information and guidance to the public. We released our first report about the impact of the pandemic on health care. Results of telephone interviews of hospitals across the country from march 23 through march 27. We were prompted to conduct the survey because we had Prior Experience with possible preparedness following the ebola outbreak. We used the same random sample of 400 hospitals to collect information about challenges, how theon strategy, and government can best support hospitals responding to covid19. The report provided quick and reliable data from the ground. Responsible for oversight and support of hospitals and congress. It also shares practical strategies with hospitals reported to us that other hospitals could use of their own response. Including tips about managing patient flow and access child care. This was the first of many ongoing and planned evaluations focus on protecting people during the pandemic. Including reviews of a Strategic National stockpile and laboratory testing. Additional focus areas will include Nursing Homes, childcare facilities, and unaccompanied children. We know from experience that fraud schemes proliferate during emergencies as greedy perpetrators exploit fear and confusion to steal. It is despicable and it is happening during this pandemic. Scammers are targeting scared beneficiaries of schemes designed to steal their medicare numbers. Scammers offer safe treatments and nonexistent vaccine to vulnerable seniors and others. Recently, they are offering bogus contact tracing. Scammers entice people to click on a Malicious Link to find out whether they have been exposed to covid19. I second goal is to protect hhs funds. Oig oversight of department expenditures has never been more important. As may, the appropriate cylinder 5030 1 billion for covert response and recovery. Further, medicare and medicaid are responding by implementing significant changes to coverage and other requirements in support of patients and have a Health Care System. This includes and lamenting ensuring funding, accurate payment, which is critical to our mission, and the plan will address program payments. New past friday, we added a audit for a public workplan that will determine whether the 50 billion in the general distribution from provider fully funds was correctly calculated and distributed to eligible providers. We are also working to protect funds in collaboration with Inspector General Community Partners serving on the Pandemic Response can ability committee. The committee is coordinating holistic oversight funds appropriated for the covid19 response across agencies, to deliver to the American Public Greater Transparency and accountability. Our third goal is related to cyber security. We seek to protect the infrastructure critical to ensuring effective response, including research. Our fourth goal is to protect the effectiveness of hhs programs, of particular interest, the impact of flex abilities offered to providers during the emergency. Hhs has waived payment rules to expedite assess access to testing. We are interested in how to waivers affect patients, providers, and programs. For example, we are looking at work examining the impact of extent medicare. Audits andng our investigations, we are mindful of the critical work and safety of frontline providers in department staff. It is not the uprising that in the crucible of an emergency response, people trying to save lives and livelihoods except greater risk and sometimes make mistakes or realize unintended negative effects. Through our review, we seek to understand what worked well and what did not. Were balancing the need for robust oversight with minimizing unnecessary burden on providers and Program Staff caring for communities. We are offering deadline extensions, delaying work where access to facilities is unsafe and adjusting air methods to avoid injuring by care. Many americans have lost loved ones, friends, neighbors, and colleagues and others are so bravely fighting, the importance of our mission is clear. We are dedicated to protecting healths of americans and care professionals working so hard to serve the public during these trying times. In conclusion, i want to thank the committee for its longstanding support for my office of independent work. I also want to thank the committee for its oversight work and accountability, a mission that is shared across all offices of Inspector General. I ensure you the resources provided to us will be well spent and service the American Public. Ourok forward to discussing covid19related work at this briefing and answering your questions. Thank you. We will now move to the q a portion of the briefing. As a reminder coming never will have five minutes to allow enough time for all members to ask question. Was recognized, please wait for . Confirmation that you have been on muted before asking your question. Now uloney, you are nmuted. Thank you for participating today and for your extremely important work. I would like to focus my questions on the substance of that work. Your team surveyed more than 300 hospitals about their challenges in responding to the Coronavirus Crisis, and brought to light extremely alarming findings. Being from new york city, i know firsthand the challenges our hospitals have had in responding to the crisis. Your report explained that at the pandemic was escalating, hospitals did not have enough testing equipment because they lack access to robust supply chains. As a result, they were forced to compete for crucial supplies like personal protective equipment and test kits. They competed against each other, against state