House oversight panel to hear from governors on front lines of coronavirus response

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the nation continues to ramp up coronavirus testing and contact tracing, a key Congressional oversight panel tomorrow will hear directly from state governors on the front lines of the fight against coronavirus about what's working, and what's not.

On Tuesday, June 2, the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel, led by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), will hold a virtual hearing to hear first-hand from state officials on their testing strategies and what further support is needed from Congress and the Administration. The committee will hear from Governor Jared Polis (D-CO), Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR).

"As more states start to re-open, access to widespread testing, as well as contact tracing and surveillance, are key to monitor for potential outbreaks and keep communities safe. But for months, the Trump Administration has relegated its responsibilities to the states and refused to develop and implement a coordinated national testing strategy with clear timelines and benchmarks," DeGette and Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said. "This failure of leadership has essentially left states battling each other on the open market. We look forward to hearing from several governors on their states' ongoing work to respond to the pandemic and what further support is needed from Congress and the Administration."

Public health officials believe that the absence of widespread early COVID-19 testing in the United States led to a growth in cases. Currently, the nation has approximately 1.8 million positive coronavirus cases and more than 100,000 Americans have died from the virus.

Additionally, shortages of testing supplies — such as swabs, reagents and personal protective equipment — further contributed to testing delays. In recent weeks, governors and public health officials have noted that these challenges continue to limit their ability to increase testing and control the spread of the virus.

Late last month, HHS issued a report to Congress outlining the Trump Administration's national testing strategy. Like the Administration's initial testing blueprint, this memo indicates that states are primarily responsible for implementing diagnostic testing, and it calls for each state to test at least two percent of its population in May and June.

According to the testing strategy, the federal government will acquire 100 million swabs and tubes of viral transport media to be distributed to states by request. Some experts note, however, that this may force states to compete with one another for testing supplies. Health officials also caution that the two-percent benchmark is too low of a testing rate to contain the outbreak.

Committee members will discuss these issues and more with the governors. The hearing – which will be the committee's first fully remote hearing – will take place on Tuesday, June 2, at 11:30 a.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. MT. It will be streamed LIVE online at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_fZ8ky5Fdo&feature=emb_title.