First will be taken advantage of. Our state and federal governments as well as our nations largest corporations have a responsibility to do what is right. And let me end by saying this, this virus doesnt care whether or not youre republican or whether or not youre a democrat. It should not be about party or politics. This is will health and safety of our nations food workers and our food supply. And as such, no company should be shielded from the responsibility for adopting irresponsible practices that foster the spread of this virus through their facilities. For the sake of this country that i know that we all love i urge you to Work Together to do what is right for these workers. And, again, thank you for your time and id be pleased to answer questions you may have. Thank you very much. Miss dixon. Good afternoon, chairman graham, Ranking Member feinstein and members of the committee. Im grateful for the opportunity to testify today. Im rebecca dixon, executive director of the National Law Employment project. It is a Nonprofit ResearchCapacity Building organization that has for 50 years fought to build power por workers in the u. S. My testimony is based on policy expertise and a direct connection to front line workers and communities. Worker health is Public Health. Workers rights to a healthy and safe workplace must come before profits. We could not successfully reopen businesses and Public Institutions if workers and consumers arent safe and dont have confidence in their safety. For congress to grant employers the immunity they sought it would create incentives for workers to protect workers for workplace standards and cause health and safety disasters with new hot spots across sectors and spread across communities. Lets discuss why that is true. Point one, when employers across the country fail to protect workers they contribute to the spread of covid19 into communities. Due to historic inequities this impact is uneven. In America Opportunity and risk have always been segregated and strat fied by race and gender. In fact 87 of occupations in the u. S. Could be classified as racially segregated. Even when policies have been raised silent on their face this country has done a poor job of providing eekal rights for workers of colors and immigrants. This runs from the new deal to the Great Depression and to the current economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. Though all workers on the job now and returning in the next weeks and months are at risk of illness and black and latino are more likely to be in front line jobs and among Indigenous People they have reported illness and death related to the pandemic. As detailed in my testimony, far too Many Employers were slow to follow the cdc recommendations such as the use of protective equipment and hand washing and spacing six feet apart. Let me be clear, workers are getting sick and dying, tragedies that are preventible. Beyond the obvious health care examples, there are also exam people from retail and sanitation services. One of the most egregious from new orleans where sanitation workers for fired after asking for health and safety protection and replaced with prison work release workeshes who are paid less than 2 an hour for this work. Point two the of law versus the honor system. Osha has failed to protect the health and safety of workers during this pandemic. We know workers already face steep barriers to accessing the courts and to holding employers accountable such as forced arbitration and classaction waivers and this is also true for health and safety. No part of the federal government bears more responsibility for health and safety than osha but unfortunately they have utterly failed in their mandate to protect workers. Osha has issued voluntarily employee standard and guidance which is not enforceable and failed to enforce that or the cdc voluntarily guidance. Unlike other statutes workers have no private right of action to sue an employer if they violating the act, the only resource is administrative remedy filing a complaint or request for an osha inspection. Although osha has received 3,000 covid19 related complaints to date it has issued no citation for cdc guideline violations. Exclusive exclusive remedy for workers suffering from injuries and death on the job and exposure to environmental exposure to workplace chemicals, Workers Compensation is the only remedy. The principle of the system is it is a no fault principle where workers get lost wages compensated and medical bills paid and give up the right to sue for negligence. Point three, the path forward is not immunity. Congress should join forces with workers and focus on incentives and forceable standards for compani companies to protect workers. They are focused on preventing sick workers from suing them, trade associations who lobby employers including the chamber of commerce, the restaurant association, the National Federation of independent business are pushing for legal immunity for a wide range of court Worker Protections such as minimum wage, overtime and paid leave rights. Recognizing how fearlessly workers are fielting to protect themselves, including strikes and walking off the job to protest unsafe conditions now is the time for congress to join together with workeshes and demand a Just Recovery from this pandemic that brings up all people, and others who are suffering such devastating consequences of covid19. If Congress Wants to help businesses, particularly Small Businesses, it is the best it can do is demanding that osha do its job. Congress should pass the every Worker Protection act and mandate that osha issue strong and clear and enforceable standards so that employers must follow those. This action would give much needed tool to hold employers accountable and give employers equally needed to know how to best protect workers an consumers. Worker health is Public Health. Our interconnectedness as a society has never been clearer. Thank you. Mr. Tieher is joining us remotely from fort worth, i believe. Yes, chairman graham, Ranking Member mine stein, members of the community, thank you for allowing me to testify from my home today. My name is and im from Texas Christian University and ive been a Higher Education lawyer for more than 20 years. Im testified at the request of the American Council and education, the largest Higher Education umbrella association. My oral testimony today focuses on two points. First, our nations campuses are huge economic drivers. If we want america to get back to work, our campuses must return to something close to normal administrations. Second, to reopen, our campuses as fully as state order s allow we need center around standard of care. Colleges and universities educate about 24. 5 Million Students and employ nearly 4 million americans. College campuses are the primary economic engine in local communities and economies. And to use one example from texas, the university of texas is austins largest employer and students spend another 823 million with local businesses. Here is the point. Encouraging, enabling and supporting Higher Education return is critical and essential component of reopening america. Colleges and Universities Join the rest of america in wanting to resume something close to normal operations. As soon as we can safely do so. But in reopening our campuses we face two unprecedented challenges. The first is financial. Weve already experienced enormous unforeseen expenses and revenue losses and even if we fully reopen, experts predict National Enrollment to drop by 15 . That is 23 billion. For a number of institutions this crisis already poses a threat with the potential for closure on the horizon. The second challenge we face is what this hearing is about today and that is how to reopen our campuses safely. My professor taught us that uncertainty about the standard of care creates a cliff problems. When some line that would be catastrophic to step across and we dont know where the edge of the cliff is well avoid the ground near the cliff altogether and uncertainty has a chilling effect. Reopening any enterprise is a classic problem. Were facing something weve never faced before with you know one thing for certain, if and when we reopen, virus spread is foreseeable, perhaps inevitable. So what does our standard of care for preventing covid19. There is no playbook or established best practices and this uncertainty is impacting our decision. Let me use a few decisions as an example. In the last few days uc san diego and university of arizona have announced massive testing as a part of their return to campus. Well, as prehencive of students now the standard of care. Other campuses look at extraordinary precautions an conclude they cannot possibly measure up. Some have announces they will not resume full campus operations in august. There are no current state or local orders that require either mass testing or that prohibit classroom learning into the fall. Because we dont know what our circumstances will be then. But these institutions are staying far away from the cliff. To understand the challenges facing campus, one has to understand the enofrmous scope of university and college operations. Were much more complex than classrooms and students. Running a campus is like running a small city. Many universities operate full Service Utility companies and operate u. S. Systems and employ police forces. Universities are landlords providing houses to millions. Were in the food service business, we own and operate retail shops and Convenience Stores and coffee shops an book stores an we operate Health Clinics and Health Centers and gyms. Operating health care systems, outward facing clinics, day care centers, Laboratory Schools an were in the tourism and entertainment business. Hosting sporting events and concerts, theater productions and debates. For example tcu owns and operates two of the largest venue in fort worth. The university of mississippi, my former employer operates the loke after airport. Unlike other businesses if a face questions about the standard of care for reopening a single economic activity, we have to determine how to reopen many lines of business. We do not face a single cliff problem but scores of them. The bottom line, in what circumstances will institutions be held liable when people are exposed to the virus on campus . That question presents quite a cliff. If the senate wants universities to reopen in the fall to the fullest extent allowed by local and state authorities, if our country needs its colleges and universities to walk toward that cliff then we need your help. We need you to clearly define the edges of the cliff. We need centrtainty that we cou reopen without fear of liability for spread of the virus. We do not seek complete immunity or suggest protection from gross negligence or bad acts or seek other broadcast protection from tort duties, rather we seek targeted protection from liability from some yet to be defined standard where i institutions have complied with Health Orders and should not be exposed to liability claims related to illness. Without this certificate an ty we cannot and thank you for your final and attention and i will answery questions that you have. Professor vladdic. Yes. Thank you. Chairman graham, Ranking Member feinstein and members of the committee, thank you for asking me to participate in todays very important hearing about liability rules in the reopening of our economy. My name is david vladdic. I teach at georgetown law school, mostly litigation related courses and i spent more than 40 years as a litigator mostly in state and federal court. Like all americans, i am anxious to get the nation back on its feet. I applaud the committee for exploring ways, facilitate that process and i could only imagine the heavy burd than weighs on your shoulders. As my testimony makes clear, businesses like mr. Smarts that act reasonably to safeguard employees and the public are already protected from liability. It is all of the panelists have said, the urgently need of sciencebased covid19 enforceable guidelines from our Public Health agencies. Those guidelines not only safeguard the public, but at the same time they provide the standards of liability that mr. Piner was just talking about. Compliance with those guidelines would eliminate any liability risk. On the other hand, it would be counterproductive for congress to take the unprecedented act of bestowing immunity on companies that act irresponsibly. Workers and consumers are going to open this economy, not governmentsponsored immunity. We all know that large segments of the public are still justifiably fearful about reopening. Granting immunity would only feed those fears. Immunity sends the message that precautions to control the spread of the virus is not a priority. Even worse, immunity signals to workers and consumers that they go back to work or they go to the Grocery Store at their peril. Why . Because congress has given employers and businesses a free pass to short change safety. There are only two ways that government protects its citizen from irresponsible conduct. Regulation or liability rule. We have have not gotten from our government regulations or specific guidance on how to safely contain the virus. We dont know, given whats going on today, whether we ever will. But in that absence, congress has moved to significantly weaken the Liability System would leave the public with inadequate safeguard. Now, some have suggested that instead of blanket immunity, congress should give immunity to only those who engage in anythi negligent or irresponsible conduct not reckless conduct. That idea should be redacted first because it trivializes serious risk. Irresponsible conduct labeled by the law as negligent conduct kills and injures far more people than wrongful conduct the law labels as gross misconduct. Drawing that line also makes no sense because it is an unworkable standard for several reasons. First, the line between unreasonable or negligent misconduct and gross misconduct is murky, context based and fact dependent. Any tort claim can constitute gross negligence depending on the wrongdoers state of mind. Differentiating between the two tiers turn on intent questions of intent. Questions of intent are factual questions for a jury, not a judge to resolve. Conduct is labeled negligent or grossly negligent only at the end of a case, not at the outset. In other words, we dont know for sure whether conduct is grossly negligent until the jury says so. Third, and most importantly, the difference is utterly meaningless if we care about containing the spread of the virus. Irresponsible acts spread the virus just as easily, just as effectively as reckless acts. My written testimony makes a number of additional points. One is that legislation simply displaces state liability laws is not only unprecedented, it is likely unconstitutional. The other point that i make and other witnesses have emphasized is that the best way to ease potential liability risk is for our expert Public Health agencies to step up and to issue sciencebased specific guidelines on how to address the pandemic and reopen our economy safely. I look forward to answering any questions you have. Again, wasnt to thank the committee for holding this very important hearing. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Finally, miss hill. Chairman graham, Ranking Member feinstein, members of the committee, good afternoon. Im helen hill. Im the chief executive office of explore charleston. Im here to represent 850 tourism and nine governments in South Carolina. Today i hope to share with you a current Broad Perspective on tourism in the United States. I have great concern for our tourism industry. Im here today to ask for your help. Our industry has been devastated by this covid19 pandemic. In 2019, 15. 8 million jobs were supported by the travel industry. Over half of those jobs, 8 million, have been lost. Sadly, were on track to lose half a trillion dollars in spending by the end of this year. These numbers are truly overwhelming and represent a total Economic Impact nine times greater than we suffered after the 9 11 attacks. Recently, we have all missed traveling. We have missed weddings and anniversary trips and birthday parties, our childrens spring break. This month, were going to Miss High School and wecollege graduations. Traveling is a hallmark of our freedom. We travel to recharge, enjoy time with loved ones and to learn and experience different cultures. Travel opens up our eyes to the wonderful beauty of our country and brings us into community with others. As our elected leaders, you all have a front row seat in what makes america special. Senator graham, it always gives me such great joy when invite guests to come to charleston and my team gets to show off what makes South Carolina great. Senator feinstein, i know you must feel the same way about your beautiful hometown of san francisco, my second favorite city. Each of you on the committee have a favorite goto hotel, a treasured restaurant that has just your favorite dish. A really important attraction, a great historic site. Those things that make your state so special. We dont want to lose those businesses that give am