Fauci, others to testify before Congress on COVID-19 response

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dr. Anthony Fauci, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, CDC Director Robert Redfield and Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee tomorrow to provide the panel an update on what's being done to curb the spread of COVID-19 here in the U.S. and what more can be done to protect the public health.

The hearing comes as 29 states and U.S. territories have reported an increase in the number of coronavirus cases, and just days after President Trump told a crowd gathered in Tulsa, OK that he ordered top U.S. health officials to slow down the rate of testing here in the U.S. to lower the number of new cases being reported each day.

Among those set to question the panel Tuesday is U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel. DeGette, whose subcommittee has been leading Congress's oversight of the administration's response to the pandemic, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration's response to the ongoing crisis and has been working with others in Congress to find ways to ramp up the nation's testing capacity.

Earlier this month, the committee's oversight panel – led by DeGette – held a hearing to hear directly from a bipartisan group of governors about the strategies and statewide efforts that have proven successful in helping to combat the spread of the virus in their states. The hearing, among other things, made clear that there remains an urgent need for the Trump administration to institute a national testing strategy – one with clear timelines and benchmarks – which is something DeGette has been urging the administration to put in place since March.

"We have already lost more 120,000 Americans to this deadly virus and thousands more are being infected every day," DeGette said in advance of Tuesday's hearing. "It's clear from the president's own comments this weekend, as well as his administration's continued failures to act, that the White House is refusing to take thispandemic seriously. That's why it's vital that the American people hear directly from our nation's top scientists about what needs to be done to keep us all safe. We need to know the truth about the threat we face and what we can do to protect the public's health."

The hearing will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET / 9:00 a.m. MT and will be streamed LIVE online at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VKr-5n_yFM&feature=emb_title