In the News

As social distancing continues to slow the spread of coronavirus around the country, Americans are eager to know when life will begin to return to normal. People are looking to the federal government for answers on when they can get back to work, when their kids can go back to school, when they can gather together with friends and so much more.

On Capitol Hill, members of Congress are also stepping up demands for the Trump administration to act more forcefully to resolve the testing problem. “Testing has been one of the weak links by the administration since Day One,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), chair of the Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. The initial coronavirus tests developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February were defective, leading to weeks of delay in rolling out testing.

Lawmakers are searching for every possible avenue to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and some House Democrats, including Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), are demanding the Trump administration lift restrictions on the use of human fetal tissue, mostly resulting from abortions, to help researchers develop medicines for COVID-19.

President Donald Trump is “playing politics” with lives with his manipulation of Colorado’s ventilator request to help embattled GOP Sen. Cory Gardner’s reelection, a Democratic lawmaker charges.

Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette wants the FDA to look into the hoarding of drugs used to treat coronavirus. She said the prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine can take away the drugs from those who really need them.

She's written a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn over concerns that the medication will be hoarded by COVID-19 patients, making it difficult to obtain for individuals who need it to treat conditions for which it's been approved: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and malaria.

Rep. Diana DeGette, a veteran Democrat, said that President Donald Trump's announcement that he would send 100 ventilators to Colorado smacks of a political favor to vulnerable GOP Sen. Cory Gardner after the federal government had not fulfilled the delegation's request for the devices.

More than a dozen House Democrats on Monday called on the Trump administration to lift restrictions on research that uses human fetal tissue to allow for studies on potential treatment for COVID-19.