Themselves after they are finished speaking. Consistent with the regulations house resinac 965, staff will mt members and witnesses after the process. Tewe are not recognizing background noises. Orr and decorum apply to this remote hearing. His hearing is entitled ensurin against a pandemic colin challenges a solutions for policyholdersle and insures. I w recognizeyself for three minutes to give an opening statement. According to theongressional Retail Service 1 million peop could enter a sta of extreme poverty due to the Global Economic contraction a here in the United States 67 mlion people have filed for unemployment insance since march of this year or the harmful eects of ts pandemic on the stability of sml sinesses like restaurants nnot be overstated. They have been obliterated. Dozens of restaurants in my home strict and ms. And st. Louis have closed in wh them the vendors who sell the farmers are owing the food truck driver Storage Facility facilities and entire suppl chains are all affect it. Though many businses have insurance most of the policies have exclusions for pandemics which are likely to be ueld in court. Iould add for many Small Businesses around this country the probability of even enforcing a policy is unlikely given the high cost of litigation. On the other hand it is not realistic or practical to expect the Insurance Industry to shoulder the astronomical cost of a Global Pandemic. The american property and Casualty Insurance association has estimated paying all claims regardless of exclusions would amount to 1 billion. Month. I have flawed mike colleagues like congressman thompson and the input fromy industries. My bottom line is that any solution would lead to a affected by and fromndustry and deal with the conunum by the fact that many of the interruptions and cases being adjucated have been dismissed not only because of but also because of the lack of direct physical loss or damage. For businesses there is a expert nion that you would have some skin in the game particularly if you are going to petition or even exct government assistance. Indeed perhaps industry could work with business consumer groups to devise a type of umbrella polic for which the business pays a suitable creamy amend its insured for costs. The system s is rife with confusion and complexity. It is my firm belief that a Small Business owner should not need a battalion of lawyers to handle their Insurance Claim after faithfully paying their premium. I look forward to the testimony of eyewitnesses as we roll up our sleeves and try to find a viable solution. At this time the chair now recognizes mr. Tivers. Thank y chair mcclain thank you f convening this hearing. First it like to take a moment to thank our colleague from new york congresswoman maloney. Her efforts to put forward an idea as early as may of this year her work should be applauded as a symbolic firs step that id like to te a step backward and put this hearing in perspective. The problems and solutions we are going to discuss today are about creating a plan for the ne pandemic. For that reason its so much more important that we get this right and that we do it fast. Congresswoman maloney has reached out toe and asks for bipartisan collaboration. I feel very strongly as you do tor. Chairman that any product that we put forward must have meangful support from both parties and ultately if we will have impact on Senate Deliberations we need a bipartisan agreement. As the Ranking Member of the subcommittee i can tell you republicans are committed to working in a bipartisan way that we need to make sure that as we do that i think again we take a step back and dont start with a preconceived outcome. While we take a ste back maybe will end up using an Insurance Industry model u or maybe will d up with the noninsurance ppp ant, and ceria paramedic ppp grant that whatever we do we st make sure it solves the probleof businesses that are shut down during the next pandemic could summon my colleagues today may focus on existing framerkn pce for a Risk Insurance but i want to be really clear the scale and scope of a pandemic is orders of magnitude bigger than a rrorist attack. You illustrated that to. Chairman to think we c should spend her their time trying to understand the nature of the problem and the issues around those people that will be testifying today. People that her experience problems daytoday. Furthermore as we have seen the pandic has proven disastrous for onetime large events as ll. Any solution that we address must look at debt cancellatn as well and thats not something thats in this pposed legislation at all. Ive likeme now to yield some te to the Ranking Member up before youo while i im not advocating for any one proposal i would ask unanimous consento enter this Coalition Statement into the record. They did not have a witness that was allowed for this hearing so mrchairman it lik to ask unanimous consent to introduce it int the record. Sin without objection the statement is mr. Stivers i want to recognize the chairman of the committee and then i will recognize mr. Mchenry. Thank you for holding this hearing mr. Chairman. I think this is a critical first step and i look forward to working with you to get things done i yield back. The gentleman yields back and now i recognize thehairman of the full committee from california for one minute. Thank you very much chairman clay. When the covid19 pandemic hit in march most businesses were devastated. They were largely unable to rely on their interacted insurance policies to cover these losses. Economic forecasters are warning that Small Businesses many of which have not recovered well the destruction they have experienced this year may permanently close if policymakers dodd. Congress has Important Role to play but with the election of president elect biden i am hopeful the government will respond to this pandemic with effective leadership which has been and continues to be absent under the current president. I am looking forward to todays discussion of the various paths forward and i think the witnesses that we will have here today. Ii yield back great thank you very much mr. Chairman. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the full committee the gentleman from North Carolina for two minutes mr. Mchenry. Thank you chairman clay. Chairman clay thank you for your leadership. You have been a starting at the kid for your deeply held convictions during your time in congress and i want to commend you for also your bipartisan work in congress. Its been an honor to serve with you on the Financial Services committee. Thank you. Thank you and i appreciate the committee holding this hearing. I know its delayed echoes of the nature of this Election Year eld whate has happened across e last couple of months. It its an important issue to tens of millions of americans and Small Business folks. I appreciate the work of the gentlelady from new york ms. Maloney and what shes done on this issue. Its showing that congress should get to work on a Pandemic Response for future pandemics. And while i have concerns about the construct of her legislation pria and i think they are a number of unsolved problems than it its a nice first step to start this conversation. There are some unworkable parts which she has laid out. There are some unresolved parts that i think we can work through and come to a bipartisan agreement that will have lasting impacts on small as this is an folks across the country. In i think their businesses do deserve a bipartisan solution that builds on existing successful ideas that we have put in place over the last year. I think we need to look at solutions that incentivize participation. We need to look at solutions that are scaled, solutions that use their state ice skate to harness the power of her statebystate Regulatory Environment and look at existing programs like ppp that ive saved millions of Small Businesses. So thank you mr. Chairman. Thanks for your leadership and i look forward to the meeting. Sin thank you so much mr. Mchenry and now i want to recognize the chairwoman of the committee of oversight and reform the gentlelady from new york ms. Maloney for two minutes. Thank you chairman. The chairwoman of subcommittee clay for holding this important hearing. After the terrorist attacks of 9 11 the economy in new york completely shut down. We couldnt build anything because Insurance Companies did not ensure any property against terrorist attacks. So we came together in ate bipartisan way and passed pria. Pria a lot the market got the economy moving again and put people back to work and thats what we are trying to do at the pandemic Risk Assurance act. Tens of thousands of Small Businesses have closed their doorsse permanently, entire industries from travel film and television have been upended and they have no way to protect themselves from future pandemic related problems. Current businessss interruption policies explicitly exclude pandemics. We cant continue to expose our economy and Small Businesses to this level of risk and expect them to recover. We know thehe federal government will step enduring the next crisis so why not a proactive and develop a longTerm Solution . Pria is a starting point for forwardlooking publicprivate Risk Sharing Partnership that would revive the federal backstop for Business Interruption policies that include coverage for pandemics. Pria would created totally voluntary program. Insurers could provide policies if they wanted to and policyholders could purchase them if they wanted to. It is totally voluntary. Pandemic risk is insurable with an appropriate federal backstop and this is supported by more than 50 stakeholder organizations. At this point we are simply debating the best way to structure such a program and dymally to collaborate with any of my colleagues democratic republican and stakeholders to improve this bill and do just that. Mr. Chairman may i place in the record the list of the 50 organizations and Insurance Companies that are now supporting its . Without objection and the gentwomans time has expired. Thank you. Today we welcome the testimony of o witnesses. Owner of andys lieu river general store on perhaps of the National Rail federation. We also have john president and ceo of march and mclennan. Chief Corporate Counsel on behalf of a pci a. Michelle melendez mclaughlin rj lehman executive editor of international economics. Witnesses are reminded that tearful testimony will be limited to five minutes and in fiveinutes you should be able to see a time on your screen that will indica how much time you have left and a chime will go off at the end of ur time. I would ask you to be mindful of the time and quickly wrap up your testimony when you hear the chimes a week and be respectful of the Committee Members time. Without objection your written statement will beade partf the record and ms. Cantrell u are now recognize her five and to give yourral presentation of your testimony could you may proceed. Good morning chairman clay and Ranking Member stivers its an honor to appear before you today to discuss pandemic Risk Insurance from a policyholders perspective. I would like to give a specialrs shout out and thanks to my congresswoman Lydia Vasquez has been a champion for women. We have been woman oriented since the get go and im proud of the house business committee. The fact that this hearing is being held just the members of Congress Care about people on main street. The National Retail federation and partners with congressman Carolyn Maloney has sponsored the act and would like to thank her for leadership her leadership. We look forward to bringingle muchneeded muchneeded protection to retailers across the country of an suffering during this crisis. Retail sales and jobs have been devastated by the pandemic that this is not only Health Crisis but a dire merchant sea. And honored to appear on behalf of of im joining you from Brooklyn New York words had the pleasure and honor of owning a gift shop for the past 13 years. We are committed to store people look to us as the pillar of hope in the neighborhood. Kids meet their friends at a shop to get a gift for the teacher. Parents bring their child for a treat at the store if they get a shot and people come in daily to see what the hoar all this changed in march when the world started to cave in around us because of covid19. When we discuss closing on march friday the 13th i called my Insurance Company. We have an honest relationship and he knows my business well. He then follows my shop an instagram top me to measure risk and thats what he called the location seven years ago when we quadrupled the business. His been extremely helpful and stray further member proudly showing him my new space in explaining the insurance policy that would cover 12 months of business income of something should happen my business and i need to shut down. Ive already special insurance with a heart for cents on Insurance Company which caused 6182. 56 annually. This is a big expense for Small Business one i thought would help me in a crisis situation however harsh reality set in pretty quickly learned that pandemics are excluded from Insurance Companies like mine. There would be no relief for my Insurance Company or Business Interruption because it is not Property Damage. Insurance companies should not deny policyholders coverage. What happened to like a Good Neighbor . Azide go back to my email conversations with my broker he heard the desperation and my tongue when he realized what was happening. Even though it says restaurants to be covered there was no relief in sight. I made calls my landlord and try to figure out how to keep my financial petitions and our next move. The next few months was the darkest the my life. I had dedicated years of my life compounded by the frustrating dramatic experience of a quarantine and hoping to get a ppp loan. We did receive a ppp loan and like to thank members of congress as part of the cares act which helped us keep afloat. We missed some really big holidays like easter and mothers day and at theve same or 2090 we made 300,000. This year we made a little more than half. I understand the pandemic insurance is a solution that would only cover future pandemic. We never know when im out next pandemic book, and we didnt see this one coming. I urge members of congress to provide some sort of relief to businesses that the government mandate during covid19 even if its not in the former of this is interracial interruption insurance. The National Root of federation is the member of the coalition. They have extended pandemic coverage. Provides production insurance Employment Practices liability and other lives been hard hit i covid19 to the pandemic Risk Insurance establishes a federal program that would help as this is obtain Insurance Coverage for pandemics modeled on the terrorism insurance followinggr 9 11. It is time for washington to do the same for the pandemic. The country needs a pandemic Risk Insurance act. Not every pandemic will have a worldwide impact but this legislation is the cornerstone of a product of approach in managing risk in a pandemic of a pandemic in the future of but its time for a real solution to solve a real problem. Thank you so much ms. Cantrell. Youre now recognized for five minutes to give an oral presentation of your testimony. Thank you and good morning members and good morning members of many. My name is john doyle and present ceo of the Worlds LargestInsurance Broker the business of the marshall companies would appreciate that opportunities be due for the need of the Public Record partnership to ensure pandemic or risk that of a covid19 and foremost ast human tragedy we are deeply concerned by its impact on the economy and our clients. Our primary role has an Insurance Broker and risk advisers to be an advocate for our clients which is why im here with you today. Atmar should believe the public or the partnership is the best option to pursue for pandemic risk solution. For that reason i want to recognize the leading role the congresswoman maloney has had in the debates including introducing legislation that has brought us here today. Although some of suggested conger should delay until the current pandemic is over we feel there are compelling reasons to act n