Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Coronavirus Response Futu

Minutes of this american Artifacts Program by going to cspan. Org and searching stonewall riots. Right now we go live to capitol hill for a Senate Foreign relations hearing on the Coronavirus Response and what the u. S. Is doing to prepare for future Global Pandemics. The hearing will focus on senate bill 3829 with senator murphy and i have introduced. Its written on paper, not on stone, which well talk about a little bit in the future here. This is an important endeavor that this committee is going to take up, indeed. Probably one of the weightiest matters that well deal with as we attempt to create a new shield to prevent a covid virus type attack be from happening again. The covid19 Global Pandemic has reaffirmed what weve long known and that is Infectious Diseases, particularly those of viral nature, do not respect borders. Theyre a threat anywhere, its a threat everywhere. Weve been right here to focus on our domestic response to this pandemic, but we ignore the spread overseas at our own peril for obvious reasons. It is essential that we respond now to help our partners who are not yet experiencing significant spread to get testing, tracing and quarantine procedures in place and to help our partners who are already under siege avert a worse case scenario. We need to also focus on protecting access to food, livelihoods, water, sanitation and hygiene. Protecting existing investments in immunizations, maternal and child health and other Infectious Diseases are important at this times also. And we need to work with partner countries and organizations to ensure that our aid reaches those who need it most. Without aiding and abetting corruption, Human Rights Violations and democratic backsliding which we all know frooekly happens in the when we start focusing on Something Else. At the same time, we need to figure out how to get ahead of the next Global Pandemic. Indeed, thats what the focus of this hearing is going to be on. And again, the vehicle were talking about is senate bill 3829 but for discussion purposes and we look for every possible improvement to that bill that we can make. This hearing is one of a number that im going to undertake as we construct senate bill 3829 to go forward. The purpose of it is to, as i said, construct a shield that is better than the shield that we have. Ive repeatedly said that what we need is a fire station and a Fire Department ready and able to put out a fire before it burns the entire world. Over the years weve come to expect that the World Health Organization would play a role. The World Health Organization has done great work in many respects. It does play a key role as the guardian of the International Health regulations and is the Clearing House of Global Health data and best practices, and it has done remarkable work in combatting polio and eradicating smallpox, but its response to fastmoving emergencies such as ebola and covid19 has exposed significant weaknesses that the w. H. O. Has. We are not here to demean or to criticize or condemn the w. H. O. Rather, what were here to do is to have a fair analysis of what the response was and how their structure is constructed that has caused the weaknesses we have. Dr. Tedros and his Management Team were very kind to spend some time with me early on and they explained to me what their objectives were and how they were attempting to do. They made some very fair points and it truly is obvious that they did things that could have been done differently and they will be the first to admit that. In addition to reforming who and truly there is some reform thats needed and it should be done, as i said, without demeaning, criticizing or condemning, but rather in a the kindest way possible to make it work better. We need we need an International Financing mechanism that will reenergize action understand the Global Health security agenda to help countries with high commitment but low capacity to improve their pandemic preparedness and response. We need a longterm fix to the coordination problems that have long plagued u. S. Country teams operating overseas. We need a single, accountable entity housed at the department of state to lead diplomatic efforts and coordinate the efforts of the agencies implementing Global Health Security Assistance overseas. This accountable entity would not, i repeat not, replace the central role of the nsc in coordinating Global Health Security Policy across the whole of government here in washington. Alternatively, it would ensure the effectiveness of Global Health security programs at the mission he will level. We put these ideas forward in the bipartisan bill and have invited alls those who wish to participate to do so. This has to be a bipartisan effort. Its not too late to get back on track and restore the longstanding tra division bipartisanship that is characterized every successful u. S. Global Health Program of the past 20 years. Its not too late to focus our efforts on addressing the current covid19 pandemic overseas in a manner that savings lives and protects the United States from future waves of infection. But let there be no mistake about it, this bill is designed to look at the future. There is no doubt this is going to happen again. Weve been told that the population particular in the wuhan area in china contains about 2,000 viruseses. This, of course, the pandemic was caused by one of these viruses jumping from one species to another, from a bat to a human being. What happened after that has been greatly debated, but we know what the result was and we know that the result was not good and we know that there were failures along the line and we know we can do better. Theres no other group more qualified than this committee of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee to undertake this proposition. This is something that we owe america, we owe the world, and we can do this. Im committed to do that. I would hope that every member on the committee will help focus on this as one of the most important things that we do. It will be a legacy that will be incredibly important for future generations and we know that the world cannot withstand much more of what weve seen that we got from the covid19 infection that went through the world. With that i hope that we as a committee do what we try to do and that is focus with civility, kindness, understanding and tolerance as we hear from everyone. Were going to have a lot of different ideas. Theres going to be a lot of ideas that are that people have strong feelings on. I hope people will do their best to listen carefully to what others have to say and listen to defenses that people make to what has happened, but more importantly, listen carefully to what people tell us theyve learned that will help us in the future. In a bipartisan fashion thats done with kindness and civility, i have every confidence we can develop a bill that can pass this congress, be signed by the president , become law, and really be a tremendous benefit to our fellow human beings as we go forward. With that, ill turn the time to senator menendez. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for convening todays hearing. As you know i have been seeking a series of hearings on covid for quite some time and im pleased that we are now having one. I understand you intend to hold more and i strongly support that. Let me start by speaking to the larger concerns of the democratic minority recently wrote to you about. We must have serious and sustained focus on u. S. Foreign policy in a serious oversight agenda, and we want to work with you to make that happen. Mr. Chairman, we should be having more public hearings. We need to tackle some of the major challenges that confront us, afghanistan, venezuela, north korea, just to mention some. We need to ensure the secretary of state testifies before this committee. We should all be shocked and frankly offended that the secretary is refusing to appear, refusing to defend the administrations Foreign Affairs budget and we should all be insisting on his appearance. This could be the first time in over 20 years that a secretary of state has not testified before this committee to explain administration priorities. I guess after ambassador boltons book, we probably will never see him again. This lack of engagement fundamentally undermine our work, not only does the secretary of state feel comfortable in refusing to come before us, that refusal apparently extends to other Senate Confirmed officials. We have only heard from one Senate Confirmed official this entire year. The administration has repeatedly ignored oversight inquiries, many of them even bipartisan. We dont need to rehash the contentious vote on michael pack, but we should all be seriously concerned over what weve seen in the last 10 days and 24 hours at the u. S. Agency for global media. Mr. Pack has gone on a wholesale firing spree, removing the heads of the networks, dissolving their corporate boards to replace them with unqualified political people. Fundamentally undermining the mission and work of the organization. Its now obvious why the white house wanted pack so badly. So they can transform the agency into their own personal mouthpiece. This is a blow from which it may never recover. Once the credibility is gone, no one will ever trust a report from radio free europe, radio team nor trust the tools of the open technology fund. Mr. Chairman, i would just urge you to respond to the letter that we sent you in the spirit in which it was offered. On behalf of myself and all the democratic members of the committee i can tell you we want to work with you and we want to find Common Ground, we want the state department to be successful, and we want this committee to take on serious and meaningful work that will make an impact on the national and global stage. Lets Work Together to make that happen. While i thank all of our witnesses for their service, it is disappointing that the white house would not send a member of the Coronavirus Task force or any of the Senate Confirmed individuals from the state department, health and Human Services or the United States agency for International Development responsible for administrations response. The American People deserve to hear from members of the president s handpicked team to understand what it is doing to address the worst pandemic the world has faced in 100 years. More than 8 million cases worldwide, more than 115,000 american lives lost. In my own home state of new jersey, the second largest state in the nation in terms of covid deaths, i am vividly reminded of this consequence. This tragedy was assuredly a wake up call to those who questioned whether we should engage with and invest in the rest of the world. I would like to use this hearing to understand how we got here, what we knew about the virus and when, and how we are leveraging our diplomatic relationships and leadership to best respond and protect the American People. So far most of what weve seen is a lot of bluster, finger pointing and retrenchment. Yes, we should examine the World Health Organizations initial response. I wish we had someone from the state Departments Bureau of International Organizations to do exactly that. But we also know that u. S. Was regularly communicating with and receiving information from the w. H. O. , including through u. S. Government employees embedded at w. H. O. Headquarters in geneva. Rather than seriously consider how to best leverage our leadership and contributions, the president abruptly announced the u. S. Would pull out of the organization, threatening not just our ability to confront covid19, but risking decades of progress on other Global Health initiatives including combatting polio and ebola. And yes, china has a lot to answer for, but the administrations use of racially stigmatizing language to describe covid19 in direct contradiction has been hurtful to americans at home and utterly counterproductive in leading an International Response. The secretary of states insistence that the rest of the world agree to use such language has prevented us from reaching consensus at the g7 and in the security council. And while the white house engaging in divisive rhetoric, the rest of the world is stepping up without us. When chinese president xi jinping addressed the World Health Assembly in may he pledged 2 billion over two years to combat covid19. When secretary azar addressed the assembly he attacked the w. H. O. And cast blame on klein. The European Union held a pledging conference on vaccines last month in which over 8 billion was raised. The white house declined the invitation to participate for reasons that are beyond me. Is this what the Administration Means by America First . Well, if this Eu Consortium comes up with a vaccine before we do it will mean america last. This approach is not only isolationist, shortsighted and foolish, it endangers american lives. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Im all for ensure the u. S. Government is better organized to prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics both here and abroad, but some of the proposals coming out of the administration eerily similar to those coming from some members of congress, are ill thought, destructive and dangerous and they would cripple usaid and create a mechanism at the world bank for which the administration could channel all the funding withholding from the w. H. O. I look forward to the first of what i hope are many thorough discussions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. We will now now proceed to do exactly what i said we were going to do and that is examine this with an eye towards constructing a shield for the future. Of course that fluid does require some discussion over what happened and mow we got here. But nonetheless im hoping we will continue to focus the discussion just to senator murphy and my bill has done, senate bill 2839 and that is look forward. So with that we have a distinguished fanl today, certainly woem with outstanding knowledge in this area who can help us understand the task at hand and how we can accomplish that task. So first of all we have mr. James richardson who serves as director at the office of foreign asestitance where he coordinates 35 billion of foreign assistance across the department of state. He has 20 years of government experience and holds a bachelors in science and government, a masters in science and strategic students and is a graduate of the United States air force command. Mr. Richardson, thank you so much. Give us the benefit of your wisdom. Thank you, chairman and members of this committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify on this pandemic. I look forward to having this opportunity to have a dialogue and answer any of your questions. First i need to acknowledge the leadership of President Trumpverb Vice President pence, secretary pompeo and really the myriad of teams we have all around the world that stayed in usaid working torggether. We coordinate foreign assistance on behalf of the secretary. As the chairman mentioned prior to that i was at u said looking for ways to strengthen the power of development and improve the institution. As such i believe deeply in the power of development and diplomacy. But together i think they can be unstoppable. The United States is the worlds undisputed leader in foreign assistance. Weve invested 500 billion over the past 20 years. 140 of that in the United States alone. Covid has posed a unique challenge to the United States and the entire world as you know impacting both high income and developing countries alike. The numbers speak for themselves. The state department has received nearly 1,000 requests from almost every country in the world. In the face of covid the generosity of the American People has been on full display with more than 12 billion in financial, humanitarian, scientific to dcombat the crisi. This money is being well spent. We have committed so far 1. 3 billi 1. 3 billion of that and our assistance has gone to 123 countries. Weve trained 20,000 front line workers in india. We funded Public Health Service Announcements on how to fight the virus in more than 50 languages. State and usaid has undertaken impressive coordination in the covid19. That coordination that not slowed us down but ensured alignment for our resources. Well, the covid19 pandemic is certainly not over i firmly believe that