Transcripts For CSPAN3 CDC Director Redfield Testifies On Co

It has been several years, march of 2016, since our last hearing on the budget of the nations leading Public Health agency. And before i do a formal welcome and so forth, i want to i was made aware of this issue, which is really very, very troubling, and that is that the administration has ordered the Immigration Courts to immediately remove coronavirus posters. And it just says that the Immigration Court staff nationwide have been ordered by the administration to take down coronavirus posters from courtrooms and waiting areas. The executive office for immigration review, which falls under the department of justice, told all judges and Staff Members in an email monday that all of the coronavirus posters, which explain in english and spanish how to prevent catching and spreading the virus had to be removed immediately. I just want to say that whatever ones view is on any issue that we face in this nation, whatever your personal views are, whatever your ideology is that we cannot, we cannot, in this Public Health crisis, play fast and loose with peoples health, no matter what we believe. It is a moral responsibility for us to make sure that everyone is protected. So, it just came to my attention and [ inaudible ] Public Health. Dr. Redfield, we welcome you, to have you here, and your colleagues who are with you. Associate director for public and science, director for approximate the National Center for injury prevention and control. Sherry berger, chief Strategy Officer and chief operating officer. I might say i also want to acknowledge dr. Messiner who is not here but helped to provide us with a briefing in february and sorry not to see her here as well. In fact, before we provide to cdcs fy21 budget request, let me start where we are all probably starting today and thats with covid19. I first want want to commend the thousands of Public Health experts on the state and the federal level who are working so hard to keep us safe during this outbreak that. Includes you, dr. Redfield, as well as all the cdc staff. Thank you. We are in a crisis. There are questions about our preparedness and ongoing response efforts. Im very concerned, and i think we all are, about our nations testing capabilities for coronavirus. As opposed to an accurate account of the prevalence of coronavirus in the United States. My understanding is that the testing kits are now being distributed across the country and commercial firms are involved as well. But the delay has been unacceptable. The initial test kits were faulty and there were weeks of delays before additional tests were sent out. Cdc maintained a narrow testing criteria that makes us ask if the health of our country was put further at risk because of these actions. I expect there will be a lot of questions today about testing and those delays. Another concern is Emergency Funding. The congress came together last week and we passed an 8. 3 billion emergency supplemental on a bipartisan and bi cameraal basis. It includes 2. 2 billion for centers for Disease Control and prevention. It will support cdc, state and local Health Departments who are critical to responding to this outbreak and to saving lives. But when this crisis arose, the cdc had only 105 million available in the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response reserve fund. The supplemental added 300 million. Ive been a leader for years on the Public Health Emergency Fund and have repeatedly introduced legislation Public Health emergency act to provide 5 billion in mrnl funding for the Public Health Emergency Fund so that you can act with flexibility. We can only imagine where we would be if we had had 5 billion at the outset instead of 105 million in the Rapid Response reserve fund. Former Shadow Health minister of south africa wilmont james, global Public Health expert has said, and i quote, why do we lurch from crisis to crisis and lapse into complacency in between . This outbreak say reminder of the importance of a wellprepared, welltrained, welltrusted, wellfunded Public Health system. Because beyond covid19, professionals at cdc, day in and day out, are working to combat foo foodborn illnesses, influenza, to promote healthy lifestyles, to produce and prevent the use of Tobacco Products and on and on. Its important work. And its why we are proud of what we were able to do in this committee, in increasing cdcs funding by 636 million, 9 above the 2019 level and was done on a bipartisan basis. Some of those highlights include for the first time in more than 20 years, funding specifically to support firearm injury and mortality prevention research. The first year of a multiyear effort to support modernization, of data service and analytics. In the first year of the Multiyear Initiative to reduce transmission of hiv by 90 over the next ten years, establishment of a Suicide Prevention program, tobacco prevention, specifically given the ecigarette and vaping epidemic among our young people. Increases for global disease detection. Thats Global Health security, as you have outlined in your remarks, dr. Redfield, Global Health security is critical to our national security. And the Infectious Disease Rapid Response reserve fund. Unfortunately, the president s 2021 Budget Proposal reverses this process. The budget proposes to cut cdc by 396 million, 9 below the 2020 appropriation. Despite the presentation of the president s budget, which claims Infectious Disease, Global Health and preparedness were prioritized in cdcs request, key programs would be cut. Public health Data Initiative, Public Health workforce program, Infectious Disease Rapid Response reserve fund and that allowed cdc to quickly respond to covid19. This subcommittee will not be pursuing the administrations proposed cuts. To cut from our Public Infrastructure during an outbreak is beyond comprehension. Instead we plan to invest in the cdc and Public Health system. We will not lurch from crisis to crisis and lapse into complacency in between. We cannot. This coronavirus outbreak makes that clear. I will stop there. We look forward to your discussions in the budget and other policy areas under your jurisdiction and appreciate you all being here today. Before we turn to you, let me turn to my colleague, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, my colleague from oklahoma, congressman tom cole. Thank you very much, madam chair. Let me make a few remarks off the cuff before i actually get to my prepared statement. This is an area that i think my chair and i certainly strongly agree on. You know, i am never critical of someone here that comes and presents the president s budget. Its your job i always call at the ombs budget to be fair. Ill state for the record, im quite certain we wont be cutting the cdc any time soon. I suspect quite the opposite, that we will be building on things that this committee has been doing the last five years. I had a discussion with omb director mulvaney and made the point, whatever budget you send up here were going to increase and later on we added Rapid Response Infectious Disease fund, an idea that our chair had been championing for many, many years. I think those were all really good decisions and were seeing the benefit of them now and i suspect well stay on that course. What you do and i thank all of you for doing it. The plenty of professionals you lead are absolutely indefensible excuse me, independencible. Have to correct that one write away. Indispensable in defending the people of the United States. Dr. Redfield and i have had this discussion before. I think of you as the biomedical equivalent of the pentagon. What we do there protects American People in one way. What we do here protects them in another way and a much more immediate and much more impactful way. Much more likely to have a problem were dealing with now than we are to have the kind of threat to the lives of americans. So, again, thank you for what you do. And i suspect this committee on a bipartisan basis will continue to make these investments going forward. Good morning, dr. Redfield. Thank you for coming to be with us this morning. Im going to do what i did with francis collins. How has your week been, i wonder . I think about you guys a lot. We know this has been an extraordinary stressful time for you, and one in which youre doing great work for the American People. Coronavirus is at the forefront of everyones mind this morning and you and the Public Health experts at the cdc are front and center to defending our people. In addition to hearing about coronavirus this morning, im hoping we can discuss other priorities i know we all share, such as produeventing opioid ab and deaths and problems associated with chronic diseases, all critical Public Health issues for our country. As the United States continues to monitor and respond to coronavirus, im encouraged that congress and the Administration Work together across party lines to deliver critical resource force the days and weeks ahead. Such a highly polarized, partisan environment, im very encouraged we could set aside our differences and quickly deliver on such a high priority item for the health and safety of the American People. It took just nine days for the administration for a supplemental appropriation need and bicameraal appropriation. I hope you can continue i suspect you can continue to count on bipartisan robust support to aid your efforts to keep our communities prepared and able to respond. Fortunately, long before the coronavirus ever infected its first patient, congress was already preparing for this sort of Public Health emergency in a bipartisan way. Five years ago, congress began shaping policies and prioritizing investment in our readiness, including boosting funding year after year for the National Institute of health, Disease Control and prevention and Strategic National stockpile. Perhaps our greatest life line these past few weeks was the prior establishment of an investment in the Infectious Disease Rapid Response reserve fund, which was immediately available to you, the cdc, our number one Public Health defender. Indeed, because congress had the tools in place, ready to deploy at a moments notice, the administration has been able to direct a swift and decisive response from day one, not losing any time in protecting our citizens. I would like this fund to be larger. We recently proposed 300 million. In reality, we would have liked to have done more. Im pleased that congress did the 300 million in the supplemental and going forward, i hope we can build on that, given what we have to work with. We have many priorities here. But again, the outcome we got was the creation of our reserve fund. While its unfortunate we had to use the fund im glad resources were available and i hope more available in the future. Theres still a long road ahead with many unknowns, im encouraged that its not whether the funding will be there for our public defenders to be there,n we need to prepare for, prevent and respond to coronavirus, im proud that the supplemental response replenishing the Rapid Reserve fund of 300 million to help us respond quickly to any future threats. As we, unfortunately, have seen, and are continuing to witness, a deadly new disease is just a plain right of way. Global Health Security is also such a critical component of preparedness. Having our Public Health experts deployed all around the world, an idea you actually first raised with me, dr. Redfield, a number of years ago, its a response to new Public Health threats where they exist in the country of origin before they reach our shores is a really good idea. Were likely to never know where the next threat may appear. Ensuring a strategy covering all regions is necessary. I look forward to hearing more about your plans for Global Health security. Many other topics i would like to address today. Among them, influenza, combating the opioid epidemic, progress toward treating chronic diseases, threat to our most vulnerable populations and reducing antibiotic resistance. Ill end my statement here and look forward to continuing our conversation. Yield back my time, madam chair. Thank you. Yield to the chair of the full appropriations committee, congresswoman of new york. Thanks to chair delauro and Ranking Member for holding this hearing. Dr. Redfield and distinguished panelists, thank you for joining us. First, dr. Redfield, i want to thank you for meeting with me last week. We spent more than an hour together and i appreciate your commitment and expertise. Two short weeks ago i planned to raise the trumps budget continued neglect of cdc. Its backward and misguided recommendations to cut Chronic Health resources and the harsh impact on Health Outcomes of americans. After working for more than two decades to restart federal investments and gun violence research, i was eager then to conduct the types of research that may be funded. We would like to hear progress on other important investments in the 2020 spending bill, including the child sexual abuse prevention research, and combating the epidemic of youth vaping. By the way, thats an issue that is pervasive. I first learned about it from my 15yearold grandchild that 60 of the class was vaping and its not getting better. Its getting worse. But, unfortunately, today we have a new epidemic on our hands. One week ago, my home county of with westchester, new york, had its first confirmed coronavirus case. Today we have 98, with a total of 142 throughout new york state, more than 700 nationwide, including, tragically, 26 deaths. The stunning increase requires every level of government to Work Together and aggressively to contain and stop the spread of covid19. With the recently enacted 8. 3 billion emergency supplemental, the federal government can aid state and local governments to help mitigate the extent of the virus. However, due to the administrations failure to treat this threat seriously, initial faulty test kits, the administrations slow approvals for laboratories, slow distribution of working kits, more people are likely to be infected and sadly were hearing those statistics. It is imperative that the federal government have a multiagency approach to ensure tests are available for all who may need one without delay. Cant go backwards. Unfortunately, there was a real delay and thats why it was spreading. Earlier this week, i sent a letter to secretary azar, commissioner hahn and yourself, urging you to use all powers at your disposal to quickly approve qualified labs in new york. Had a conversation with the governor of new york. Theyre ready to move. They need you to approve these labs, including hospitals, private labs, other state facilities and to permit both automated and manual processing. I want to stress that again. If its taking more time for the federal government to catch up on the state level, this real Solid Movement and we need you to approve, obviously all these labs and facilities have to go through the process, but as quickly as possible. There are labs in new york awaiting approval that could greatly expand Testing Capacity by thousands per day. I dont know why theyre waiting approval. Maybe you can address that in your comments. But that could expand capacity by thousands per day, as may be the case throughout the country. If only the federal government would get off the sidelines and approve these facilities. So, in your remarks, i would be most appreciative if you could tell me why its taking so long. Do you not have enough people to check the facilities . I dont get it. Are the facilities not adequate, not up to your standard . We need to know. If the word im getting from the governor and his staff and the people involved in this issue, that theyre ready to move, why arent they being approved . As covid19 becomes closer to pandemic status, we must move forward. I thank you for the personal interaction weve had, appreciate the opportunity and look forward to hearing from you, all of you today. We look forward to the facts so that we can move