[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                        A VIEW FROM THE STATES:
                          GOVERNORS RESPOND TO
                          THE OMICRON VARIANT

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

             SELECT SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                            JANUARY 20, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-62

                               __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
      
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]      


                       Available on: govinfo.gov,
                         oversight.house.gov or
                             docs.house.gov
                             
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
46-683 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                
                             
                             
                   COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM

                CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman

Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of   James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking 
    Columbia                             Minority Member
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts      Jim Jordan, Ohio
Jim Cooper, Tennessee                Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia         Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois        Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Jamie Raskin, Maryland               Michael Cloud, Texas
Ro Khanna, California                Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland               Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York   Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan              Pete Sessions, Texas
Katie Porter, California             Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Cori Bush, Missouri                  Andy Biggs, Arizona
Shontel M. Brown, Ohio               Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Danny K. Davis, Illinois             Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida    Scott Franklin, Florida
Peter Welch, Vermont                 Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr.,      Pat Fallon, Texas
    Georgia                          Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland           Byron Donalds, Florida
Jackie Speier, California            Vacancy
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts

                      Russ Anello, Staff Director
        Jennifer Gaspar, Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
                        Yusra Abdelmeguid, Clerk

                      Contact Number: 202-225-5051

                  Mark Marin, Minority Staff Director

             Select Subcommittee On The Coronavirus Crisis

               James E. Clyburn, South Carolina, Chairman
Maxine Waters, California            Steve Scalise, Louisiana, Ranking 
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York             Minority Member
Nydia M. Velazquez, New York         Jim Jordan, Ohio
Bill Foster, Illinois                Mark E. Green, Tennessee
Jamie Raskin, Maryland               Nicole Malliotakis, New York
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois        Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa
                         
                         
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on January 20, 2022.................................     1

                               Witnesses

Governor Jared Polis, State of Colorado
Oral Statement...................................................     8
Governor Pedro Pierluisi, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Oral Statement...................................................    10
Mayor Muriel Bowser, District of Columbia
Oral Statement...................................................    12
Governor Pete Ricketts, State of Nebraska
Oral Statement...................................................    15
Governor Jay Inslee, State of Washington
Oral Statement...................................................    17

Written opening statements and the written statements of the 
  witnesses are available on the U.S. House of Representatives 
  Document Repository at: docs.house.gov.

                           Index of Documents

                              ----------                              

Documents entered into the record during this hearing are listed 
  below.

  * Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers' (WA-05) Statement; 
  submitted by Rep. Scalise.

  * Letters from Governor Kathy Hochul (State of New York) and 
  Governor Kate Brown (State of Oregon); submitted by Chairman 
  Clyburn.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mayor Bowser; submitted by 
  Ranking Member Steve Scalise.

  * Questions for the Record: to Mayor Bowser; submitted by Rep. 
  Carolyn Maloney.

  * Questions for the Record: to Governor Pierluisi; submitted by 
  Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

Documents are available at: docs.house.gov.

 
                        A VIEW FROM THE STATES:
                          GOVERNORS RESPOND TO
                          THE OMICRON VARIANT

                              ----------                              


                       Thursday, January 20, 2022

                   House of Representatives
                  Committee on Oversight and Reform
              Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis
                                                   Washington, D.C.

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:05 p.m., via 
Zoom, Hon. James E. Clyburn (chairman of the subcommittee) 
presiding.
    Present: Representatives Clyburn, Waters, Maloney, 
Velazquez, Foster, Raskin, Krishnamoorthi, Scalise, Jordan, 
Malliotakis, and Miller-Meeks.
    Chairman Clyburn. Good afternoon. The committee will come 
to order.
    Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the committee at any time.
    I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
    Since the coronavirus first reached our shores two years 
ago, governors have played a critical role in responding to the 
spread of the virus. We are fortunate to be joined today by the 
Governors of the state of Washington, the state of Colorado, 
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the state of Nebraska, as 
well as the Mayor of the District of Columbia, whose role is 
equivalent to that of a state governor.
    To learn more about the instrumental role, these chief 
executives continue to play in our Nation's response to the 
pandemic.
    This hearing comes at a pivotal moment in our Nation's 
response. As we gather today, we are facing new challenges from 
the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which is resulting in 
higher case numbers than ever before. However, there is a 
reason to be hopeful.
    Earlier research indicates that Omicron causes less severe 
disease than previous strands of the coronavirus. We have more 
effective therapeutics at our disposal than ever to treat the 
disease. And, most importantly, all approved coronavirus 
vaccines and boosters continue to provide robust protection 
against severe disease and death from the Omicron variant.
    If you are up-to-date on your coronavirus vaccinations, 
that is, if you have received your initial shots and then 
gotten a booster when eligible, you have the protection you 
need to live your normal life at very low risk to your health 
and the health of your loved ones.
    Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic remains a crisis 
because millions of Americans remain unvaccinated and are 
therefore at risk of the Omicron variant. Recent data show that 
unvaccinated Americans continue to account for a substantial 
majority of hospitalizations and deaths. Given the high 
transmissibility of the Omicron variant, these unvaccinated 
patients are pushing many hospital systems to their limits, 
threatening anyone who may need hospital care.
    Many of the Americans who remain unvaccinated have made 
this dangerous decision because of coronavirus misinformation, 
which is reaching broad audiences and undermining the great 
work being done at all levels of government to protect 
communities from the virus.
    Misinformation has also led to fraud too many Americans 
infected with the coronavirus to reject effective treatments. 
It is increasingly clear why so many Americans continue to 
doubt the safety and effectiveness of lifesaving coronavirus 
vaccines.
    Republican politicians are among the most vocal proponents 
of the misinformation that has generated those doubts. For 
instance, Senator Ron Johnson stated last year that there had 
been, and I'm quoting him, over 3,000 deaths within 30 days of 
taking the vaccine, falsely connecting unrelated deaths to the 
coronavirus vaccines.
    Congressman Matt Gaetz has dangerously encouraged people to 
get infected, saying, and I'm quoting him, the best vaccine we 
have found is Mother Nature's vaccine. It's contracting the 
virus.
    Sadly, these are just two of many falsehoods coming from 
our colleagues across the aisle. Other Republican politicians 
simply emphasize your right not to be vaccinated, rather than 
presenting the decision to get vaccinated as the consequential 
patriotic duty that it is. Because getting vaccinated doesn't 
just protect yourself; it protects your loved ones, your 
communities, and your fellow citizens.
    The ranking member of this committee has criticized the 
Biden administration's vaccine requirements as, and I'm 
quoting, increasing government control of your life, end of 
quote. This type of discouragement is legitimizing and 
perpetrating people's vaccine hesitance when we should be 
working together to vaccinate as many Americans as possible.
    The Republican Party's promotion of misinformation has 
measurable consequences. One study found that political 
affiliation is the strongest predictor of whether someone is 
vaccinated, with unvaccinated adults more than three times as 
likely to lean Republican as Democrat. Since vaccines became 
widely available in May 2021, people living in counties that 
voted heavily for former President Trump in 2020 were three 
times as likely to die from the coronavirus as those who lived 
in areas that voted for President Biden. The irresponsible 
legitimization of vaccine misinformation by Republican leaders 
is tragically killing their supporters.
    This vaccine resistance is among the top challenges facing 
leaders at the Federal and state levels as we enter 2022 at the 
height of the Omicron wave. I look forward to hearing from 
today's witnesses to further understand how the Federal 
Government can work with states, territories, and the District 
of Columbia to overcome vaccine hesitancy, combat the Omicron 
variant, and prepare for any further challenges this virus may 
present.
    The past two years have shown that Federal-state 
collaboration is critical to mounting an effective response to 
the coronavirus. We saw the dire consequences of the Trump 
administration's abdication of Federal leadership and refusal 
to provide support to states in acquiring and distributing 
critical personal protective equipment, tests, and other 
supplies during the first year of the pandemic, forcing states 
to fend for themselves.
    Since taking office, President Biden has emphasized the 
importance of working with the states, territories, and the 
District of Columbia to respond to the pandemic.
    Under Governor Inslee's leadership, Washington State 
recently set up a mobile vaccination unit in King County with 
capacity to administer up to 1,500 vaccines and booster shots 
per day, and is working to set up another high-capacity site.
    Under Governor Polis, Colorado recently worked with FEMA to 
set up mobile bus units to administer monoclonal antibody 
treatments in rural areas of the state, congregate living 
facilities, and other high-demand sites.
    Under Governor Pierluisi, Puerto Rico has worked hard to 
build vaccine confidence and get shots in arms, with result 
that nearly 80 percent of Puerto Ricans are fully vaccinated--
one of the highest vaccination rates among the United States 
and its territories.
    Using funds from the American Rescue Act, Mayor Bowser and 
the District of Columbia have helped families struggling with 
rent and housing security during the pandemic. Of course, 
Washington, DC.'s lack of statehood status has impacted the 
District's response. Republicans refuse to provide the District 
with $755 million in relief funding via the CARES Act that it 
would have been entitled to if it were a state.
    Now, I'm particularly concerned about this because this is 
not just people; these are Americans living in our Nation's 
Capital. They are family members. Scores of my family members 
left South Carolina and went to Washington, DC, Philadelphia, 
New York, other places looking to further--get further access 
to the greatness of America. And to be penalized living in the 
District of Columbia is just beyond the pale. These people are 
American citizens and should have been treated better. 
Fortunately, Congress restored this funding, and the Biden 
administration, in the American Rescue Act.
    I would like to thank today's witnesses for taking the time 
to testify about these pressing issues. I look forward to 
hearing from our Governors about their responses to the Omicron 
variant and gaining more insight into how we can better protect 
Americans and end this crisis.
    I now recognize the ranking member for his opening 
statement.
    Mr. Scalise. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to 
hearing from our witnesses.
    I want to start by making it very clear for those of us who 
have promoted the vaccine, who have talked about what President 
Trump started under Operation Warp Speed to create, not one, 
but two, but three vaccines. The real flaw--and there have been 
many flaws with President Biden's approach--has been to have a 
vaccine-only strategy where he's tried to shame people based on 
whether or not they get the vaccine, trying to divide people on 
whether or not they get the vaccine.
    It's misinformation to suggest only unvaccinated are dying 
or only Republicans or Trump voters are dying. There is clearly 
all throughout our country right now a resurgence in COVID. 
Affects blue states, red states, Republicans, Democrats, Black, 
White, Hispanic, Asian.
    What we should be focused on is how to confront it. 
Unfortunately, if you look where we are today, today marks the 
one-year anniversary that Joe Biden took the oath of office as 
President of the United States. Unfortunately, what we've seen 
is failure after failure and broken promise after broken 
promise. And, unfortunately, it starts with the vaccine and 
what President Biden said he would do about COVID and has 
failed to do a year in.
    He promised Americans that he would, quote, shut down the 
virus. How many times did we hear Joe Biden say that, promise 
that as a candidate? Unfortunately, what we're going to see is 
a very different candidate Joe Biden versus President Joe 
Biden. Words versus actions.
    Shut down the virus was what he promised. Yet despite 
inheriting all three of those proven, safe, and effective 
vaccines from President Trump's Operation Warp Speed, as well 
as numerous proven treatments, therapeutics. Millions of 
people, by the way, with natural immunity, which, Mr. Chairman, 
we ought to have a hearing about to see just what kind of 
protection natural immunity gives people.
    He also had a well-established testing apparatus that he 
walked into. Right now, the United States, with all of that, is 
being hit with record highs for new cases. Testing shortages 
and delays. And there have been more deaths under Joe Biden's 
Presidency than under Donald Trump's. Again, a year in, and he 
walked in the door with three vaccines ready to go. President 
Trump didn't have any of that.
    And I know there's been a lot of talk under the Trump 
administration about how many deaths there were by Democrats. 
Interesting you don't hear them talking about the deaths right 
now, that Joe Biden has more deaths under his Presidency than 
we had under Trump.
    A signature feature of then-candidate Biden's campaign was 
a top-down Federal solution to the pandemic. How many times did 
we hear him say that he had a national plan, he was ready to 
go. On August 18 of 2020, he said, quote, Donald Trump still 
doesn't have a plan to get this virus under control. His 
failure to lead is costing American lives.
    On October 15 of 2020, he said, quote, What, eight months 
into this pandemic and Donald Trump still doesn't have a plan 
to get this virus under control. I do.
    That was Joe Biden as a candidate.
    Never mind the fact that President Trump had a very 
successful plan. It was called Operation Warp Speed. It was a 
bipartisan effort, by the way, in Congress that helped fund 
Operation Warp Speed. It should have been bipartisan credit 
where everybody bragged about the success of Operation Warp 
Speed. It yielded those three safe and effective vaccines. It 
yielded multiple therapies like monoclonal antibodies. And we 
had a robust testing network.
    On President Biden's first day in office, he released a 
200-page document titled, quote, National Strategy for the 
COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness. And he said, 
quote, For the past year, we could not turn to the Federal 
Government for a national plan to answer prayers with action 
until today.
    Well, just a few weeks ago, in a stunning reversal, after 
almost a year of broken promises and failed strategy, and the 
virus raging worse than ever before, President Biden reversed 
course and abandoned that so-called plan.
    On December 27 of 2021, just a few weeks ago, President 
Biden said, quote, There is no Federal solution. This gets 
solved at the state level. I am guessing that's why the select 
subcommittee is having this hearing today, titled, ``A View 
From the States.''
    After campaigning on a national plan and congressional 
Democrats, including many on this committee, calling for a 
national plan, Democrats have now abandoned any hint of a plan 
and instead are trying to dump their failures into the 
Governors' laps.
    Ironically, President Biden's first goal in his national 
strategy was to, quote, restore trust with the American people. 
Yet his policy shows he does not trust the American people. He 
does not trust the American people enough to be transparent 
about the policies and decisions his administration is making 
and the data that they are using to make those decisions. He 
does not trust the American people to make their own healthcare 
decisions. He does not trust the healthcare workers to make 
their own healthcare decisions.
    Interestingly, if you look a year ago, we were all praising 
healthcare workers, unvaccinated healthcare workers as heroes. 
Today, President Biden is trying to fire those very same 
healthcare workers if they're unvaccinated.
    What changed in a year? Why were they heroes a year ago and 
today President Biden wants those same people to be fired? Talk 
about trusting the American people.
    He doesn't trust parents to make decisions about what's 
best for their children. He does not trust businesses to make 
decisions about what's best for the welfare of their employees. 
Trust is a two-way street, and this is but one reason why 
President Biden's COVID response plan is in tatters. Instead of 
trying to patch the holes in the Biden administration's 
messaging, this subcommittee should be fulfilling its stated 
purpose; that is, performing congressional oversight of the 
COVID-19 response.
    The list of issues that we should be having hearings on is 
incredibly long. And, Mr. Chairman, you know, because I've 
asked many times, that this committee do get engaged in having 
hearings on some of the oversight that we're not doing. I'll 
just name a few that we've been calling on this committee to 
deal with.
    The Biden administration's inaction with procuring tests, 
and rejection of a plan that was reported last October was 
provided to President Biden to provide millions--hundreds of 
millions of rapid tests in time for the Christmas holidays. 
President Biden, by all reports, rejected that plan.
    Americans are still wondering, did the President have that 
plan presented to him? Did he reject it? Who was involved in 
rejecting that plan and why? And, also, importantly, who's been 
held accountable if that really did happen? This committee 
should be getting to the bottom of that.
    President Biden's plan of shaming and blaming the 
unvaccinated instead of focusing on a science-driven approach, 
to include not only vaccinations but natural immunity, other 
therapeutics. Stop dividing Americans over the vaccine and 
start providing Americans with an actual plan to confront this.
    The Biden administration commandeered the distribution of 
monoclonal antibodies, causing states to jump through more 
hoops and making it harder for states to get access to these 
lifesaving treatments. We hear from states who are now being 
forced to compete against other states, and some states aren't 
being given what they need while others are. That's going on 
right now under President Biden.
    Despite spending about $200 billion to safely reopen 
schools, more than 5,000 schools have had some type of shutdown 
this month. Why isn't every school open? We've heard from 
scientists who said they all should be. Kids are much better 
off in the classroom.
    We need to have a hearing to examine the severe student 
learning loss caused by remote and hybrid learning. We've heard 
about the mental health crises that's been caused by students 
not being allowed to be in a classroom. And, by the way, if a 
school took the money, like Chicago taking $2 billion of 
taxpayer money to reopen and then closed their doors on those 
same students, shouldn't those schools have to give the 
taxpayer money back? Let's talk about having a hearing to give 
parents options to send their kids to an open school if their 
school doesn't want to educate their kids but wants to take the 
money.
    And let's not forget that the teachers' union was caught 
manipulating CDC guidance on school reopenings. We should have 
a hearing on manipulating the science that happened by 
teachers' unions in the Biden White House.
    The World Health Organization and the European Center for 
Disease Prevention and Control do not recommend masking kids 
under six years old. Why is America masking kids without 
evidence, and what impact is it having on their emotional and 
social development? What could be more important than 
protecting our kids' mental health which has been under attack 
this last year and a half?
    The Biden administration has been sidelining the science on 
boosters. First, in the summer of 2021, the Biden 
administration announced the availability of booster shots for 
all adults by September. But amazingly, they made this 
announcement before the FDA and the CDC had even finished 
reviewing the data to determine the need for booster shots. 
Because of this, two senior FDA officials reportedly left the 
agency amid alarming reports of political interference with the 
science under the Biden administration. This was obviously very 
confusing for the public. Misinformation clearly by the Biden 
administration.
    Most recently, President Biden's administration chose to 
add to the confusion by bypassing the FDA and CDC's long-
established vaccine advisory committee process for updating 
booster shot eligibility.
    Then, there's the Biden's Operation Snail Speed on Covid 
Therapies, as The Wall Street Journal editorial board called 
it. Instead of taking a multifaceted approach to ending the 
pandemic, President Biden went all in on vaccine-only approach 
and neglected to focus on therapeutics and natural immunity.
    In fact, one year after taking office, President Biden 
still to this day does not have an FDA Commissioner in place. 
That should have been a day-one decision. President Biden a 
year and still doesn't have anybody heading up the FDA. And 
many people have called the FDA a rudderless ship on things 
like testing, alternative therapeutics.
    Republicans on the select subcommittee still are the only 
ones in Congress that have held a hearing on the origins of 
COVID-19. We've asked, Mr. Chairman, that this committee, the 
full committee have a hearing on the origins.
    We've seen a lot of scientific data out there that it 
started in the lab in Wuhan. There are even reports that some 
of Dr. Fauci's own advisors said that it started in the lab in 
Wuhan, and then amazingly days later reversed course. Shouldn't 
we have a hearing on that? Did somebody interfere with the 
science to make those scientists reverse course from emails 
that were hidden and just became public?
    The U.S. appears to have funded gain-of-function research 
at the Wuhan lab in China. Taxpayers should know the truth 
about that. And we should have a debate and discussion about 
whether we should be funding those types of research if that 
was the case.
    And, last, newly released unredacted emails, as I talked 
about regarding Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins, say that they were 
warned that COVID-19 came from the lab. We need to do our jobs 
and look into all of these items. This country spent, through 
Congress, over $6 trillion of taxpayer money, some of it 
directly on COVID relief. Some of it was directed into other 
places that had nothing to do with COVID. But we should be 
having oversight into all of that.
    If we sit idly by as the Biden administration keeps 
fumbling this pandemic response, then things will only get 
worse.
    Americans want accountability, Mr. Chairman. Let's have 
hearings to get to the bottom of all of these crises that have 
been created by this President's failed response to the 
pandemic.
    Look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and I yield 
back.
    Chairman Clyburn. I thank the ranking member for his 
remarks.
    I would like now to introduce our distinguished witnesses.
    Governor Jared Polis, a former colleague, has served as 
Governor of Colorado since 2019. Governor Polis has taken bold 
action to lead his state through the pandemic, working 
tirelessly to ensure children and teachers can attend school in 
person safely. His administration has distributed millions of 
medical-grade masks and also onsite vaccine clinics at schools. 
I would expect no less from a former colleague.
    Governor Pierluisi, also a former colleague, has served as 
Governor of Puerto Rico since 2021. Under his leadership, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has worked tirelessly to educate 
residents about the importance of vaccinations, helping to 
achieve one of the highest vaccinated mission rates and one of 
the lowest death rates in the country. His administration has 
also implemented effective testing and contact tracing efforts, 
helping to slow the spread of the virus while sustaining Puerto 
Rico's vital tourism industry.
    Mayor Muriel Bowser has served as the Mayor of the District 
of Columbia since 2015. She has recently overseen an expansive 
effort to provide residents free at-home testing kits and 
established multiple coronavirus centers around the city 
dedicated to expanding access to vaccines and testing. Mayor 
Bowser's administration has also implemented commonsense 
vaccine requirements which will save countless lives.
    Governor Pete Ricketts has served as Governor of Nebraska 
since 2015. He has developed a fantastic reputation as one who 
is compassionate and sensitive to what needs to be done to get 
beyond this pandemic. He also currently serves as a co-chair of 
the Republican Governors Association.
    Another of my former colleagues and congressional 
classmate, Governor Jay Inslee, has served as Governor of 
Washington since 2013. Governor Inslee showed tremendous 
leadership in responding to one of the earliest coronavirus 
outbreaks in the country in February 2020, helping to slow the 
spread of the virus and save lives. Governor Inslee's 
administration continues to take action to expand access to 
testing, increase vaccinations, and distribute masks to the 
public for free.
    Now I would like for the witnesses, please, raise your 
right hands.
    Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to 
give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
so help you God?
    Let the record show that the witnesses answered in the 
affirmative.
    Without objection, their written statements will be made 
part of the record.
    Governor Polis, you are now recognized for five minutes for 
your opening statement.

      STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR JARED POLIS, STATE OF COLORADO

    Mr. Polis. Thank you, Chairman Clyburn, Ranking Member 
Scalise. It is good to see my friends and former colleagues and 
an honor to be invited to share Colorado's experience fighting 
the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Over the last two years, we have relied on data and science 
to guide our response to the virus. We have taken a balanced 
approach, prioritizing the health and safety of our fellow 
Coloradans, working to lessen the psychological and social 
impact of the pandemic, while minimizing any negative impact on 
the economy or on our kids' education.
    This has led Colorado to have one of the shortest shutdown 
stay-at-home periods in the entire country. One of the lowest 
death rates in the entire country as well in the bottom 10 
states.
    When the lifesaving vaccine became available, we 
aggressively launched efforts to protect as many Coloradans who 
wanted to be protected. We were proud that we vaccinated 70 
percent of Coloradans by--70 and older--early on. And we 
reached President Biden's goal of vaccinating 70 percent of all 
Coloradans by July 4. And we brought that same intensity to 
protecting our kids, our 5-to 11-year-olds, as well as 
administering third doses shown to be even more important 
against the Omicron variant.
    The lifesaving vaccine is our single best tool against the 
virus, especially against severe illness and death from the 
virus. But early detection also helps prevent the disease 
spread, and through more and more effective treatments, also 
save lives. And that's why we have worked to make testing free, 
quick, and easy. Over 100 community testing sites.
    Last year, we made rapid tests available through an at-home 
delivery program that continues to this day. We're really 
thrilled to see a similar national home test delivery program 
rolled out as well. And we're happy to see the Federal 
Government step up in that regard.
    We also used testing to protect state employees, working 
with many of the vulnerable workers under our care, including 
at veterans' nursing homes, youth detention facilities. And we 
worked with schools to make free testing available onsite for 
students and staff to help improve the level of safety in the 
classroom.
    Earlier this week, Colorado launched a new mask delivery 
program that provides free medical-grade masks to every 
Coloradan who wants them. They are at dozens of public 
libraries, fire stations, recreation centers, YMCA's, depots 
that have agreed to be part of a distribution hub. And 
Coloradans can pick up five medical-grade masks to add 
additional protection to themselves.
    These programs are examples of how we've worked to tackle 
the virus from every angle. I'm very proud of everyday 
Americans, everyday Coloradans, the way that they have stepped 
up to protect themselves and their family during this crisis. 
But the simple truth is that states alone cannot spearhead 
these efforts indefinitely. COVID-19 is no doubt with us for 
years to come. And while early data suggests we're entering the 
endemic phases of this virus soon, we should also be prepared 
for the inevitable lulls and subsequent waves that will 
continue to impact hospital capacity as well as, of course, the 
threat of future mutations.
    Protecting hospital capacity has always been our North Star 
in Colorado. We wanted to make sure that if anybody gets a 
heart attack, a stroke, a car accident, or sick with COVID has 
access to the very best care to make sure that they can 
recover. What we simply cannot allow how we live and work and 
how our children go to school to be determined by whether or 
not our hospitals can keep up or hire staff or maintain 
adequate supplies.
    We need a national standard of hospital and healthcare 
system readiness. And we know that with the disruptions in the 
work force, especially in healthcare, like people across the 
country, we're losing many nurses, doctors, and staff, and we 
need national focus on a plan to improve work force readiness 
around the healthcare work force for the future.
    Colorado is working on a plan with our providers, with 
legislators to invest in our healthcare work force, but we 
can't stand alone. This truly needs to be a national effort.
    It's not just about the need for hospital beds and workers; 
it's also about integrating the pandemic response as an endemic 
response into our healthcare system where it belongs.
    Colorado, of course, like many states, set up testing 
sites, vaccine clinics, distributed therapeutics. But moving 
forward, our medical system--doctors, pharmacies, urgent cares, 
hospitals--should be providing this care, as they do for all 
other conditions.
    Coloradans trust their primary care doctors and turn to 
them first. But because FEMA is not reimbursing costs 
associated with equipping primary care and pediatric physicians 
to provide vaccines, many doctors are still not offering this 
critical protection to their patients, putting a further onus 
on the states and, of course, hospitals and pharmacies.
    Similarly, far too many schools in Colorado and across the 
country don't have a designated school nurse; someone to 
administer tests onsite, take temperatures, catch cases in 
their infancy. But because of this, we see a lot of outbreaks 
and children needlessly getting sick and contributing to their 
family members getting sick who might be more vulnerable.
    Colorado has worked to get schools the supplies they need, 
including masking. We've distributed over 2 million masks to 
teachers, as well as to students, at school and onsite testing. 
But both, of course, are opt-in programs. And we need our 
schools to have onsite, high-quality care to make sure the kids 
get the uninterrupted safe education they deserve.
    We know what we need do. It's going to take all of us 
working together to get it done.
    I want to thank Chairman Clyburn. I want to thank the 
subcommittee for inviting me here today. I hope that this 
perspective from Colorado can help spur national action to help 
our country move forward, protect lives, and keep our economy 
growing.
    And I yield back.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you very much, Governor Polis.
    We'll now hear from Governor Pierluisi. Governor, you are 
now recognized for five minutes.

 STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR PEDRO PIERLUISI, COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO 
                              RICO

    Mr. Pierluisi. Chairman Clyburn, Ranking Member Scalise, 
and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to 
testify before you today.
    As Governor of Puerto Rico and former resident commissioner 
of Puerto Rican Congress, I'm honored to represent the unique 
viewpoint of the island's 3.2 million American citizens as we 
enter the third year of this pandemic.
    When my administration took office in January 2021, I put 
together a team of highly qualified professionals and 
scientists to advise me on how to lead our fight against COVID-
19. We worked tirelessly to educate our citizens on the value 
of the vaccine, which bolstered vaccine uptake and staved off 
skepticism. Because of these efforts, over 91.4 percent of our 
vaccine-eligible population over the age of 5 have received at 
least one dose, and an astounding 81.5 percent of our vaccine-
eligible population is fully vaccinated or boosted. Puerto Rico 
stands as the leader in the Nation's vaccination effort.
    An important aspect of Puerto Rico's successful vaccine 
rollout was the connectivity amongst the healthcare providers 
on the island. When monoclonal antibody treatments became 
widely available, thanks to the hard work of HHS, Puerto Rico 
leaned heavily on our strong pharmacy networks to ensure that 
there was a coordinated request for therapeutics needed each 
week.
    Puerto Rico engineered one of the first electronic vaccine 
card programs in the United States, the VacuID. Our department 
of health, led by Dr. Carlos Mellado, deployed strong contact 
tracing teams and effectively monitored visitors, identified 
positive COVID patients, and slowed the spread. These efforts 
enabled us to sustain much of our tourism industry, an 
important component of Puerto Rico's economy.
    Puerto Rico is regularly asked to do more with less. 
However, with the right leadership and depoliticization of 
healthcare, our island stands as proof that it is possible to 
achieve successful outcomes. We can only envision just how 
resilient our island could be if there was less disparity in 
Federal funding for our healthcare programs.
    When treated equally with the states, as we have been for 
much of the COVID-related Federal disbursements, Puerto Rico 
has been able to accomplish a high standard of care for the 
citizens of our territory. We have been able to achieve the 
near impossible, having no hospitals closing their doors during 
the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Over the last two years, while cases have spiked in the 
U.S. and around the world, we have been able to keep Puerto 
Rico's case counts comparatively low. However, with the rise of 
the Delta and Omicron variants, we have seen the highest case 
counts reported to date. We have had approximately 239,000 
confirmed cases recorded on the island, with our daily case 
count continuing to decline now to less than 2,000 confirmed 
cases per day. Throughout the pandemic, we have had 3,593 
confirmed deaths due to COVID-19, with our daily average 
continuing to decrease. These numbers are comparatively low due 
to our high rates of vaccination.
    However, given that we are an island, the possibility of 
overburdening our health system has always been a concern, as 
our people cannot be diverted to a neighboring state hospital. 
My administration has been very proactive and creative with 
mandates throughout this pandemic. Since midsummer of 2021, we 
have required most of our work force to be fully vaccinated. 
Although we have always given our citizens the option to 
provide negative COVID test results in lieu of proof of 
vaccination, we have continuously advocated for vaccination 
across all sectors of our society.
    In addition, we have not been shy about requiring 
restaurants and bars to ask for proof of vaccination or a 
negative test result to their clients at all times. And every 
time we have faced spikes in cases, we have promptly restricted 
both capacity and business hours at our gastronomic and 
entertainment venues.
    As the U.S.' most populous territory, Puerto Rico's 
differential treatment in total healthcare programs creates 
gaps in the services we can provide our citizens.
    While Congress passed legislation to increase Puerto Rico's 
Federal medical assistance percent, the FMAP in the Medicaid 
program from 55 percent up to 76 percent, that number has been 
allowed to lapse since the December 3 CR. This unanticipated 
reversion to a lower FMAP percentage has triggered severe 
consequences on the island, potentially causing newly enrolled 
Medicaid beneficiaries to lose their health coverage if this is 
not addressed.
    As the February 18 government funding deadline approaches, 
I urge this subcommittee to work with your colleagues to set 
Puerto Rico's FMAP to at least 76 percent.
    Sustained progress is made difficult by short-term or 
altogether insufficient funding. I mention this because it 
emphasizes the mountain we in Puerto Rico must climb when 
responding to any health crisis. We must lift ourselves to 
equal footing with states that have just as many American 
citizens to care for.
    I assure you that with the Federal funding, Puerto Rico can 
prosper and continue to provide Americans a safe place to 
invest in, visit, and live.
    Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions 
you may have.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you, Governor.
    The chair now recognizes Mayor Bowser.

     STATEMENT OF MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

    Ms. Bowser. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank 
the ranking member as well. And I am delighted to present 
Washington, D.C.'s experience with our COVID response. We have 
prepared a few slides to go through our response and recovery 
from COVID.
    Are you able to see those?
    And like my colleagues who have already presented, I am 
grateful to the outstanding team that has supported our 
response in the District, led by Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt at D.C. 
Health, and Chris Rodriguez at D.C. HSEMA. They have led 37,000 
D.C. government employees and grateful residents, businesses, 
and visitors in the District.
    We are showing here our experience over the four waves of 
COVID and how we focused on six pillars of D.C.'s COVID 
response--we can advance the slide--to flatten the curve--we 
can go to the next slide--being the first charge to D.C. 
residents.
    How we have focused on proven public health interventions 
throughout these four phases, including what the tools that 
have been at our disposal as chief executives, including from 
in early days relying on stay-at-home orders, masking, social 
distancing requirements and, of course, very timely community 
health guidance, travel advisories, and now vaccine 
requirements throughout several sectors in the city.
    We have also been very focused on our testing and 
vaccination capability. I'm very proud. I call it the gold 
standard of testing that we've been able to set up throughout 
our pandemic response. Including on tapping into other first 
responders, we set up PCR testing at our firehouses early in 
the pandemic. We've also called on our libraries to be 
distribution points for our at-home testing and now our rapid 
test distribution.
    We have conducted in our city over 800,000 tests that are 
walk-up testing sites. And since this surge in Omicron, we have 
distributed 329,000 free rapid tests to D.C. residents since 
December 2021.
    We also are proud that D.C. residents are getting 
vaccinated, but we know we continue to have work to do, and so 
we are still coming up with new strategies to get more people 
vaxxed and boosted.
    We also know that the work that we have done in our human 
services helped us bend the curve and save lives among our most 
vulnerable residents, including those who are experiencing 
homelessness, by setting up isolation and quarantine hotels and 
alternate accommodations for people who have high-risk health 
conditions.
    And that work, I must say, has been aided by a very abled 
FEMA who worked hand-in-hand with us to make sure that those 
pretty significant expenditures would qualify for 
reimbursement.
    Contact tracing has been a key part of the work that we 
have done. And we hired over 500 people to get that work done.
    And we have also--next slide--been very focused as it has 
been key to our work with COVID at giving our residents direct, 
timely, accurate information and dispelling any misinformation 
that's out there. We have done that, front and center, with 
situational updates that I have delivered on a pretty frequent 
cadence. We have experienced significant views on our website 
of people wanting to follow the data and listen to the science 
so that they can make decisions that keep their families safe.
    We're also very proud of the work that we did door-to-door. 
You will hear a number of us talk about how to deal with 
misinformation and give people--get people to make the decision 
to get vaccinated. And we did that by empowering a community 
Ambassador corps. So, neighbor-to-neighbor conversations to get 
people vaccinated. And we knocked over a quarter of a million 
doors to do exactly that.
    Next slide.
    We, of course, have been focused on making sure our 
healthcare system could support, of course, flattening the 
curve until the vaccines were available and distributed, and 
they were able do that. And now, we are also working to make 
sure that the system can support this Omicron variant that 
we've experienced the last several weeks and anything else that 
we will see with COVID as the months go on.
    We, as has been mentioned, established community COVID 
centers which are in retail spaces that will give D.C. Health 
some permanent space to work out of as we try to advance our 
vaccine and booster strategy. Residents will also be able to go 
to those locations for testing kits, masks, and to ask 
questions.
    We have, throughout the pandemic, as I mentioned, also 
supported a huge testing program where we use firehouses and 
our libraries. And we've partnered with our faith communities, 
especially in hesitant communities throughout the District.
    Gratefully, we did not have to use our 430 seven-bed 
alternate care site, but we did set that up in the case that we 
had an influx in the early days of the pandemic.
    Next, we have been very focused on all of our social 
services as well, and that should be emphasized throughout 
this. No chief executive wants to shut down her city, send 
people home from work and school and away from their doctors 
and other trusted individuals that can help with nutrition, 
emergency commodities, and family assistance in a lot of areas.
    We did--D.C. residents did--we lost over 1,200 of our 
residents to COVID. And many of them were able to take 
advantage of the funeral assistance offered by FEMA.
    We also were very quick in getting our dollars out that 
came through the American Rescue Plan for rental assistance. 
Keeping people in housing during this emergency has been one of 
our top priorities. We distributed $352 million in our STAY 
D.C. program, and more than 50,000 families received 
assistance.
    So, as we talk about what the Federal Government will 
continue to be called on to do, we know that the economic 
crisis that COVID created is going to have some long tails, and 
so we want to make sure that we're paying attention to that.
    And, next, I just mentioned the types of things that it 
takes for a government to pivot on a dime to transition to 
remote work, to make sure that our facilities are safe for 
children to return to school and workers to return. We were 
very proud that our government, 37,000 D.C. government 
employees returned to in-person work in July 2021.
    You're going to, Mr. Chairman, hear us talk about another 
thing that the Federal Government can do, and that's get back 
to in-person work in the Nation's Capitol as well. And so we'll 
continue to talk about ways that Federal agencies can implement 
their return-to-work strategies.
    We also were able, as I mentioned, to work hand-in-hand 
with you, Mr. Chairman, and other Members of the Congress to 
restore $755 million in CARES Act funding that the District was 
shorted. And that is very important to how we were able to 
implement all the testing strategies and responses to COVID 
that we've been able to do.
    Next slide.
    And we also have some--we put this in the category of 
unexpected things that have happened as we were also responding 
to COVID. Our city was still running. All of the things that 
happened in cities were happening. We, of course, in the 
District had to deal with large-scale First Amendment protests 
in the summer of 2020 that consumed a lot of our emergency 
resources and police resources. We, of course, responded to 
support the United States Capitol Police on January 6 and 
supported the inauguration of 2021.
    We continue to be in a posture where we can respond to 
these variants and any variants that come in the future. We 
should also not forget that we had a very active hurricane 
season in 2020. So, I mention those things because the strain 
on our response, emergency response, first responders and 
police in the summer of 2020 was very significant.
    We are----
    Chairman Clyburn. Mayor Bowser?
    Ms. Bowser. Yes.
    Chairman Clyburn. You've gone far beyond the five minutes.
    Ms. Bowser. OK. Let me just say, finally, Mr. Chairman, 
that the return to school has been a priority for us. We like 
others have dealt with Omicron. We saw, we think, our daily 
cases peak at the end of December or first part of January. And 
now we see all of our daily metrics improving from weekly case 
rate, daily case rate, hospitalizations, and all of the--and 
even our vaccination numbers improving as we speak.
    Chairman Clyburn. Well, thank you very much, Mayor Bowser.
    Ms. Bowser. Thank you.
    Chairman Clyburn. I feel that all those who have some 
questions, you may expand at that time.
    It is now my pleasure to recognize Governor Ricketts. 
Governor Ricketts, you're recognized for five minutes.

     STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR PETE RICKETTS, STATE OF NEBRASKA

    Mr. Ricketts. Thank you very much, Chairman Clyburn, 
Ranking Member Scalise, members of the committee. I appreciate 
the opportunity to be here today. It's an honor.
    My name is Pete Ricketts, and I am the Governor of the 
state of Nebraska. And as has been pointed out already, the 
COVID virus and pandemic has changed the way we do business, 
where we learn, the way we go about our daily life. And through 
it all, Nebraskans have done the right thing, they've taken 
care of themselves and come through this strong.
    In fact, one of the recent demonstrations of this was a 
Politico report that looked at the state pandemic response. And 
across four areas, including health, social well-being, 
education, and economy, Nebraska came out ranked No. 1 as far 
as overall best response to the pandemic.
    And this really goes back to how it all started for us. We 
got some great advice early on from the officials at University 
of Nebraska Medical Center who told me, Hey, there's a virus. 
You can't stop it. You can only slow it down until you can 
buildup the resources to fight it, and you have to protect your 
hospital capacity.
    So, along that line, we were one of the first states to 
focused on hospital capacity as driving all of our pandemic 
response. And it's been true from the moment this started back 
in March 2020 to today.
    So, we put together a seven-point plan to be able to 
address the pandemic. The first started with create testing 
capacity. We set up TestNebraska, which more than doubled our 
testing capacity here in the state. We hired over a thousand 
contact tracers to supplement our local public health 
departments and their efforts. We purchased PPE for our 
hospitals and first responders and anybody else who needed it. 
In fact, we were one of the first states or the first state to 
have 120 days' worth of PPE on supply.
    We also created a quarantine space for folks who couldn't 
go home for whatever reason, using dormitory rooms or hotels so 
that we wouldn't have people spreading the virus.
    We focused on at-risk communities, long-term care 
facilities, or meat processing, with additional attention to 
make sure in those congregate settings we were reducing the 
risk of spreading it.
    And then, of course, we had our directed health measures 
which put restrictions in place early on, such as limiting 
restaurants to have only carryouts and so forth. In fact, part 
of that was to give them also tools, businesses tools to remain 
flexible like allowing for carry-on alcohol, which by the way 
was the most popular thing I've ever done as Governor was allow 
for that.
    And then, of course, we've got the vaccines. And that's 
something we've been continuing to emphasize with citizens here 
in Nebraska is the importance of getting vaccines. In fact, the 
state of Nebraska just released a report last week that showed 
with our data that if you are unvaccinated and unboosted, you 
were 46 more times likely to be in the hospital, and if you 
were just vaccinated but unboosted, that you're 11 times more 
likely to be in the hospital. And that's part of our campaign 
of continuing to educate people. And that's been a key part of 
this throughout the whole thing is communication.
    During the height of the pandemic, we had seven press 
conferences a week, two in Spanish. We translated our materials 
into multiple languages to be able to reach people. We had, as 
I mentioned, different groups that we worked with directly, 
whether it was folks who were bilingual to be able to help get 
the message out, community leaders, and so forth to really help 
Nebraskans understand how they can take care of each other and 
take care of themselves. And so that's been a big part of this 
is doing the communication.
    And now, as the chairman pointed out, we've got Omicron, 
which is far more transmissible. And certainly as the chairman 
pointed out, our experience in Nebraska is also that it is not 
as virulent as the previous strains were. So, for example, even 
though on January 10 we saw a record amount of testing, over 
28,000 tests, we saw that also with the record amount of cases, 
as I think some of my colleagues here have expressed, we're not 
seeing that turn into the same number of hospitalizations we 
would have expected, say, in November 2020.
    In fact, we continue to monitor hospital capacity such that 
we know that, you know, emergency rooms, for example, typically 
operate at 95 to 97 percent capacity. And in Omaha, our large 
metropolitan area right now, our emergency rooms are operating 
about 90 percent capacity. I know Lincoln is a little over 80 
percent.
    So, again, we continue to focus on that hospital capacity 
to supply that hospital bed, that ICU bed, or that ventilator 
to anybody who needs it. We're also seeing from our health 
officials, who we stay in constant contact with, that, for 
example, the people who are in our ICU beds tend to be more 
Deltas--predominantly more Delta. And the folks who do have 
Omicron and are on, say, a ventilator are staying on those 
ventilators for a shorter period of time.
    So, what are we doing here in the state of Nebraska with 
regards to this new surge of Omicron? Well, one of the things 
we're doing is to supplement the Federal administration's 
testing that they're sending out to everybody. We're also 
implementing our own at-home testing that includes video links 
with medical professionals. And then, as I think one of my 
previous colleagues mentioned, importantly it links back into 
our health systems so we can track those, should the person 
agree to do that. We want to make sure that with that at-home 
testing, we're capturing that data as well.
    We're also doing something that we did during the pandemic, 
which is opening up more hospital capacity by finding spaces 
for people who are in the hospitals but don't need that acute 
level of care. Maybe they need a skilled nursing level of care, 
and they don't have a facility right now, or maybe they just 
need that rehabilitation discharge being home. So, we're 
looking to be able expand that by about a hundred hospital beds 
in Omaha, Lincoln, and Grand Island to be able to create more 
capacity for our hospitals.
    And then, of course, we're also looking to be able to not 
only increase the testing through the home kits, but using a 
vast public health plan with our private partners who are doing 
testing, to be able to help them be able to find the ability to 
be able to get the test done and turnaround quickly.
    So, I see that I have already run out of time with regard 
to it. So, Chairman, I'll be respectful of the committee here. 
But happy to answer any questions. And, again, thank you very 
much for giving us the opportunity to talk about what we've 
done here in Nebraska to be able to help keep Nebraskans safe 
without lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine passports.
    We've asked Nebraskans to do the right thing. We've taking 
a balanced approach to be able to slow the spread of the virus, 
protect our hospital capacity, and let Nebraskans live a more 
normal life. And that's how we're going to continue to manage 
the pandemic in our state.
    Thank you.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you very much, Governor.
    Finally, we will hear from Governor Inslee.
    Governor Inslee, you are recognized for five minutes.

     STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE, STATE OF WASHINGTON

    Mr. Inslee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    It's a joy to be here. It's a joy to be with my old 
colleagues. It's a joy to see three members of the 103d 
Congress. You were rookies, now you're running America, so it's 
a joy to join you.
    You know, our perspective, I think it's interesting, 
because we had the very first case on January 21, 2020. We had 
our first death in America, which was on February 29. And we 
started this with no template. We didn't get to, you know, 
cadge ideas from Colorado or anywhere else. We were the first. 
And we made some really early decisions that I think have 
served us well.
    No. 1, we did decide to follow science and the data and our 
public health experts, and to be very vocal against the 
profoundly malicious efforts to not spread the truth about this 
vaccine that had been so damaging.
    No. 2, we made a valued decision that saving lives was our 
first priority, and it should remain unwavering.
    And third, we made the decision that the best way we could 
possibly reopen our economy is to knock down the virus.
    Now the question is, did those strategies work? They worked 
big time. And I want to talk to you about that.
    We believe that we saved perhaps 17,000 lives because of 
following these policies. I want to show you a graph that I 
think is instructive. If we can put up the COVID graph, if you 
will, please, on or screens. I look forward to seeing that, if 
you can get that up for us. I hope that that can come up fairly 
shortly. Are you guys seeing it, because I'm not.
    Here we go. OK. So, we're looking at a graph. On the right, 
our deaths per 1,000 were about 133. We wish it was zero. But 
put that in perspective to other states, many of whom have not 
followed the measures that I just talked about. You'll see the 
national average is 256. That's in the gray bar. So, our death 
rate per 100,000 is just about half what the national average 
is.
    But it gets more depressing than that. You look at some of 
the other states, working up to the left, where the furthest 
one on the left has almost, you know, three times the death 
rate. Think about that. And so when you look at this from a 
national perspective, if the Nation had succeeded the way 
Washington State has succeeded, perhaps 400,000 people would 
not have lost their lives. Think about that. That's almost the 
number of people we lost in World War II.
    So, these measures that we have adopted have had profound 
success in saving lives. And I just want to talk to you about 
the things we've done that I believe have had success.
    Let me start with masks. We believe--thank you, you can put 
the slide down, I think.
    The most successful thing we've done is masks. They have 
been embraced throughout Washington. There has been very high 
compliance with some of our mask mandates. They have kept our 
businesses open. They're now keeping our schools open. And 
people have embraced it, and I'll tell you why.
    People talk about freedom? I think Americans should have 
freedom not to be infected by their coworker, or infected by 
their student, their fellow student. That's a freedom. And my 
state has embraced that concept that has saved lives big time. 
We've made over 5 million masks just available in the last two 
weeks. They're readily available and people are using them.
    Second issue, vaccinations. We're now at about 80 percent. 
This is pivotal because 80 percent of the people that are in 
our hospitals are the unvaccinated. This is a serious disease 
of the unvaccinated at this moment. And one of the things we've 
done has been very successful, which is we have increased 
vaccination rates amongst our state employees, our hospital 
workers, and our educational community by making it a condition 
of employment. That has increased our vaccination rate from 50 
percent to 96 percent. Twenty-eight thousand people who are 
employees of mine are now protected who were not protected. And 
we only lost about three percent of our state employees as a 
result, and saved massive amount of time off from these folks 
who otherwise would have been hospitalized.
    Look, my DOT had 17,000 days lost due to COVID 
hospitalizations. We're saving people to keep them on the job. 
This has worked big time.
    We're helping our economy. Now, some folks thought the 
things we proposed would hurt our economy. If you can put up 
the economy slide just for a moment. Some folks posited that 
the things we did of masking and vaccines would hurt our 
economy. I just want to show you what our economy is doing 
relative to the rest of the state--country. If you can just put 
up that economy slide. I hope you can shoot that one up there 
for us in due time.
    This is significant. Our unemployment rate dipped about a 
percent. Compare this to some other states that took the 
position that perhaps they weren't willing to take some of 
these measures. You'll see that we have done very well. The USA 
average is three percent. Our economy has boomed relative to 
other places when we have done these things to keep this down.
    Brief note on schools. Ninety-six percent, really about 
four percent of our schools are not in person right now. We've 
been very successful with our masking requirements. And we 
reordered our schools to go back to school in person in June, 
and this has worked very, very well.
    Last comment on testing. We have increased our capacity. We 
do about 500,000 tests a week through our schools. And now we 
have--or in the next couple of days, we're going to have, I 
think, a unique ability to get your tests through Amazon. So, 
you'll be able to go online, and Amazon has helped us 
distribute these masks. We're moving forward on that.
    Last comment of how you can help, besides sending money, 
which, of course, Governors always do, that's our bottom line. 
But I would make a note, and I'm following Governor Polis on 
this, we need nurses, we need mental health treatment in our 
schools for our kids. This is a big time need right now. I'm 
proposing a whole bunch in my budget. You can help where you 
can.
    With that, look forward to your questions.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you very much, Governor.
    Thank you so much to all of the witnesses today.
    Now each member will have five minutes for questions, and 
the chair recognizes himself for five minutes.
    I have one question for, that I would like a quick response 
from all of the Governors and the Mayor too, and that is this: 
Since we've been putting up charts--Governor Inslee you put up 
a couple of charts--I hope that we can get a chart that I have 
pertaining to the state of Washington. And this chart showed 
something that I wanted to bring everybody's attention to. It's 
clear. And this is from the state of Washington.
    Among the unvaccinated, literally the numbers are clear as 
to what's happening with unvaccinated as opposed to the 
vaccinated. And that's a big problem for us. Now, though the 
deaths are less, hospitalizations, not as severe, but the 
problem is people are getting sick and they're filling up the 
hospitals. And hospitals are now complaining that it's going to 
be a problem.
    These high hospitalizations are a problem for us. Now I 
want to know from you, Governor Inslee, why do you believe that 
the unvaccinated residents in the state of Washington continue 
to remain unvaccinated? What do you suggest? What can we do to 
deal with this issue?
    And I'm going to come to you next, Governor Ricketts, and 
the rest of that. I just want to know what you think we can do.
    Governor Inslee?
    Mr. Inslee. There we go. Yes. Well, the first thing we can 
do is make vaccination as easy and convenient as possible. 
We've done that with our max vaxx sites. We've opened up 
another one. And it's very important to get people boosted.
    Before I leave here, I want to say, look, boosting is 
everything right now. It is so much more effective than just 
the first two shots. So, focus on the educational component of 
that, of letting people know the value of getting boosted.
    Second, we can do some of the things for appropriate parts 
of our community to make this a job requirement. And as you've 
indicated, this has been very successful saving lives of people 
who are in the educational community. I believe that if you're 
a public servant, you shouldn't go around infecting the public. 
So, we decided our folks would be vaccinated to avoid that and 
keep you from getting sick so you couldn't work for the state.
    And third, in healthcare, obviously, that's been successful 
as well. But there is an important point I want to talk, if I 
may, just a moment. I know this is a $64,000 question: Why have 
about 30 percent of Americans not decided to get the 
vaccination right now? And I do tell you it is extremely 
frustrating to me to look at this fact. Of the top reddest 
counties compared to--areas compared to the top 10 blue areas 
in the state of Washington, you have a six time higher death 
rate, six time higher death rate because you're not getting 
vaccinated amongst people who share more of the red persuasion. 
And this is an enormous tragedy.
    And we have to ask ourselves, why is there such a disparate 
difference between these two groups of people? And, 
unfortunately, it is because a lot of folks in the red camp 
have created an identity that in order to wear the red jacket, 
you shouldn't be vaccinated. And that is a persistent problem 
of identity. It's not lack of information. My folks have 
information coming out their ears.
    It's an issue that the Republican Party has created an 
identity, unfortunately, that has bred a mistrust of science, a 
mistrust of governmental actions in this regard, and a sense 
that you can't be a good Republican if you get vaccinated. I 
think this is a tragedy in our country.
    And I urge all my Republican colleagues to resist that. 
Shoot, I saw the Governor of Florida the other day didn't even 
want to admit he was boosted. He thought somehow that would 
make him a bad Republican. This is a tragedy. And it's this 
issue of identity we've got to get out of our teams and just 
help our people save their lives.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you, Jay.
    I believe in equal time. I'm not one of those people who 
wants to get rid of equal time, so I'm going to give Governor 
Ricketts equal time. And I ask the indulgence of the ranking 
member as I do.
    Mr. Ricketts. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    You know, as I travel the state of Nebraska and talk to 
people why they're not vaccinated, the No. 1 thing they tell me 
is because they don't know who to believe. And I think one of 
the things that we all need to remember is that typically it 
takes 10 to 15 years to develop a vaccine. The previous record 
time to develop a vaccine was four years, and that was the 
1960's and that was mumps. And I am very grateful that this 
only took eight years to develop under Operation Warp Speed--
or, sorry, eight months to develop under Operation Warp Speed. 
But it also hasn't given the public the time to have this 
information disseminated and to be digested, which normally 
happens with other vaccines. So, I think that's one thing we've 
got to keep in mind.
    I think we also have to keep in mind that there's been, 
even from the sources like the CDC, you know, different 
information coming out. Just start with masks. First, we 
weren't supposed to get masks for people and then we were 
supposed to get masks for people and so forth.
    So, I think that it is one of those cases where we have to 
continue to be able to educate people. Again, that's one of the 
reasons why we released our report last week.
    I think also one of the things at this point--you asked 
what more can we do to get people to get vaccinated. I think 
that really when it comes down to it, it's going to have to be 
that friend, family, neighbor, somebody close to the 
unvaccinated person who makes the case for why they should get 
vaccinated. I certainly continue to go out and tell people and 
make the case why they should get vaccinated. As I mentioned, 
providing the data for vaccinated and boosted versus 
unvaccinated to people so that they know the risks they're 
taking by not being vaccinated.
    I personally tell people who've been--I've had people who 
tell me, I got the virus, I don't need to get vaccinated. I'm 
like, no, you still need to get vaccinated because it will help 
you build the antibodies to fight a virus in the future. So, we 
are going to have to engage people.
    One of the things we've tried to do here at the state of 
Nebraska is find local people and run local ads. You know, we--
people who have--you know, we recognize within the community, 
and talk about, for example, how severe COVID was for them, and 
how it knocked them down and so forth, sent them to the 
hospital, so that people they can hear locally and know will 
see that and say, oh, OK, that's a local person. I understand. 
Maybe I will go get vaccinated.
    In fact, I'd say actually just a week or so ago, we had a 
record date for people who haven't been vaccinated getting 
their vaccine.
    So, I do think that we have to continue to educate people. 
I think it's got to be local people.
    I would disagree with Governor Inslee's characterization 
that this is a Republican Party thing. I think what we have to 
do if we really went to get past this is we have to get past 
the partisanship on this and have to focus on, you know, why 
are people are not doing it. And in my experience in Nebraska 
is because people still have to have time to digest this 
information, and it really needs to be somebody locally telling 
them, hey, this is something important to help protect your 
health.
    Chairman Clyburn. Well, I thank you very much. I know my 
time is up.
    I just want to say, as I go to the ranking member for his 
questions, I've watched over several days ago, as you know, the 
lead researcher for the Moderna was a relatively young African-
American woman who was given credit for having come up with 
that vaccine. What was interesting to me listening to her when 
she talked about how quickly they were able to get the final 
product. They had been working on it for years, working on it 
for years. They didn't have press conferences every morning 
saying, we're going into the lab and do some research today. 
For years, they've been working on this, and they had things 
all lined up.
    So, when they got the information from China and South 
Africa, they were able to do things rather quickly because they 
had been working for a decade. And people say it happened too 
quickly. It did not happen quickly. What happened quickly was 
the end result.
    With that, I yield to the ranking member.
    Mr. Scalise. Thank you for that, Mr. Chairman.
    And I know we've got a few of our former colleagues that 
are testifying.
    I'd ask--Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who's the ranking member 
of the Energy and Commerce Committee, also from the state of 
Washington, asked if she could have a statement submitted into 
the record. So, Mr. Chairman, I'd ask unanimous consent if 
Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers' statement could be entered into 
the record as well?
    Chairman Clyburn. Without objection, so ordered.
    Mr. Scalise. Thank you.
    I'll start with former colleague Jared Polis, Governor 
Polis. I appreciate you being here. I know I've watched, in 
your state of Colorado, you've talked about after the vaccine 
how that's helped alleviate some of the health crisis in 
Colorado. You had said that, quote: Public health officials 
don't get to tell people what to wear, meaning face masks; 
that's just not their job.
    I know with your state, you've gotten rid of the mask 
mandate, no vaccination mandate statewide. How has that worked 
out in your state and, you know, continued to keep your state 
going and protect the health of your people?
    Mr. Polis. Yes. This is really a matter--thank you, 
Representative Scalise--of us having a lot more tools than we 
had in the early days of the pandemic. In the early days of the 
pandemic, there was no vaccine. There was not even widespread 
ability--availability of medical-grade masks. The few masks we 
had had to be used in the hospital setting. There were not 
effective treatments. Later on, steroids came, somewhat 
effective. But nothing like what we have now in terms of the 
monoclonal, the new drugs coming online.
    So, it's a very different situation we were in than early 
2020. And so it demands a different kind of response that 
employs all of the above, right? First and foremost, 
encouraging people to get vaccinated, all three doses. 
Incredibly important.
    If I looked down for a moment while the others were 
speaking it was because a friend of mine has COVID. She's in 
her 70's, and I think she's only alive now because she was able 
to get vaccinated
    [inaudible].
    Mr. Scalise. And I know my time's limited. And, yes, we've 
all seen people who get COVID, as you mentioned, you know, your 
friend. I know a friend who's vaccinated who got COVID. You 
know, anybody who suggests that if you get vaccinated, you're 
not going to get it; only the people unvaccinated pass it on. 
That's not science, actually; that's misinformation. But I 
appreciate that.
    Let me go to Governor Ricketts because--Governor Ricketts, 
first, for anybody to suggest that it's a political party 
spewing anti-vaccination information. Frankly, it was Joe Biden 
and Kamala Harris as candidates for President and Vice 
President who tried to put doubt on when Donald Trump was 
heading up Operation Warp Speed on what might come out of that. 
But it's not a political party that owns it, even though they 
did that.
    I want to go to success rates. Look, Politico did the 
report I think you cited in your opening statements. They 
ranked every single state, all 50 states, on how they faired 
through COVID. And your state came out No. 1 as the best state 
to respond. Frankly, I think if we should be hearing from 
anybody about what to do, some Governors shut everything down. 
Some Governors have kept things open and mixed results. You've 
done both. You've kept things open and you've protected your 
people all combined better than anybody. You kept your schools 
open, helping those kids, millions of kids across this country 
whose lives are being destroyed because of that.
    How did you do it so successfully? What can we replicate 
with other states who haven't done it as successfully, while 
keeping everything open?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes, I think it gets back to, you know, I 
laid out that plan that we had, that seven-point plan. And it 
is--a lot of that plan also evolves around communication, just 
reaching out, as I mentioned, doing it in multiple languages, 
getting to different groups that would be more at risk, like 
long our-term care facilities. We had a plan from the 
University Nebraska Medical Center to address that. Meat 
processing plants. We had weekly calls for nearly three months 
with those facilities to talk about best practices, to change 
the way they were doing things, to slow the spread there.
    We worked with our schools on what they could do, helping 
them all come up with plans for how they could get kids back in 
classrooms. I really want to credit our teachers who were 
double-planned sometimes, right, from the kids in the 
classrooms and the kids who still wanted to be remote.
    So, we really--and then, of course, we looked at areas 
where we had folks who were going to come from a disadvantaged 
socioeconomic background and work with community health 
centers, for example, to make sure that folks had access to the 
testing and the contact tracing and the PPE and vaccines when 
they became available. But it was a lot of communication to be 
able to get that message out.
    And then we focused on things such as, you know, keeping 
our mortality rate down. According to the Kaiser Family 
Foundation, we were tied for the seventh lowest mortality rate 
of any state where people have gotten COVID, you know, among 
people who got COVID.
    We won as best state for kids in classrooms. I think we 
were No. 6. Politico ranked us No. 4 as far as kids', you know, 
learning loss. We had almost no learning loss in Nebraska.
    And, of course, with regard to, you know, protecting 
livelihoods, giving people the tools to be able to function in 
this new environment, giving them flexibility, whether it was 
waiving licensing restrictions or supervising restrictions or, 
you know, providing guidance to houses of worship of how they 
could still have services and so forth.
    All those things allow people to have a more normal life. 
And that's what led--you know, for example, we've got the 
lowest unemployment rate not only in state history, but in the 
history of the United States. So, it really was striking this 
balance among all these things that allowed us to really 
address this.
    And, frankly, it gets back to Nebraskans who, when we 
communicated out the right thing, they did the right thing. You 
know, over 90 percent of our seniors are vaccinated. That's 
where 80 percent of our fatalities come from. So, again, 
targeting the most at-risk communities is really one of the 
things that helped us be successful.
    Mr. Scalise. Thanks a lot for that.
    Mr. Chairman, appreciate it. I yield back.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you, Mr. Scalise.
    I'll now yield to Ms. Waters for five minutes of questions.
    Ms. Waters. Thank you very much, Mr. Clyburn. I thank you 
so much for this hearing. It's so important.
    And let me thank all of our witnesses today for the hard 
work that they're doing to save lives. Our cities and our 
states with representatives like you have today literally have 
been doing the kind of work that not only saves lives, but it 
also helps us to understand what else we need do in order to be 
of assistance to them.
    I am one that understands very thoroughly that resources 
make a difference to the degree you have the resources that you 
need to fight the fight, and in this case, it means masks. It 
means all of the testing materials that are needed. It means 
the vaccinations. To the degree that they have this, they can 
continue to do the kind of work that they're doing.
    I am so worried, however, that this growing political 
movement by these anti-vaccine activists and pro-Trump 
Republicans, it's undermining their work. We find, I'm told, in 
some of the research that's done, that it is found that there's 
a huge correlation between belief in misinformation and being 
unvaccinated. This was said by a woman named Liz Hamel, who 
heads public opinion research for the Kaiser Family Foundation, 
a nonpartisan healthcare think tank.
    Between conservative media and GOP politicians, many 
Republican voters are being pummeled with bad science about 
vaccines almost daily. Kaiser's polling found that 94 percent 
of Republicans think one or more false statements about COVID-
19 and vaccines safely might be true. Over the past eight 
months, Hamel has watched as Republican vaccination rates have 
fallen further and further behind the rest of Americans.
    While Republicans tracked other groups in terms of 
vaccination rates earlier this year, Kaiser's research shows 
that now an unvaccinated person is three times as likely to 
lean Republican as they are to lean Democrat.
    A new analysis by NPR suggests that Republicans are 
probably dying at a higher rate as a result. A nationwide 
comparison of 2020 Presidential election results in COVID-19 
death rates since vaccines became available to all adults found 
that counties that voted heavily for Trump had nearly three 
times the COVID-19 mortality rate of those that went for Joe 
Biden. Those counties also had far lower vaccination rates. 
Counties that went heavily for Donald Trump have seen much 
lower vaccination rates and much higher death rates.
    Now, to our witnesses here today, while you talk about some 
of the things that you're doing, you know, having some 
Ambassadors, volunteer people going out talking with folks, do 
you think that you can be more definitive?
    For example, you have someone who is advising people--and 
I'm going to see if I can get his name--to drink their own 
urine. And so when you have this kind of misinformation that is 
constantly, you know, bombarding folks, it undermines all the 
work that you're doing.
    Can you get more definitive? Can you describe better? Can 
you have in your ads, you know, real life information about 
people who are not vaccinated are dying at a later rate. Can 
you put that up and out as we should be thinking about how we 
should do it?
    Let me go right to any one of our--Mr. Inslee, since you're 
from us and you've worked with us, you know what we try and do. 
What do you think about being tougher, more definitive, and 
using the words that need to be used in order to dissuade 
people from not getting vaccinated?
    Mr. Inslee. Well, let me--first, I want to congratulate 
Governor Ricketts. He's done some good things in Nebraska, 
congratulate him for some of his successes. But I do think 
there just is a sad reality we have to recognize, and that is 
that there has been a profoundly different approach to this 
whole pandemic, you know, based on whether you're red or blue. 
That's just the reality.
    And when we started this, the defeated President 
continually belittled the importance of this, said it's going 
to be over by Easter. And I remember asking him for help early 
on in this pandemic. He said it wasn't his job to help the 
states. And now we've got a President I think who's really 
helping out every time we ask for help. And it started there.
    But I just want to suggest that this is a larger problem 
than just COVID. The virus of deception about our organs of 
democracy, there's two viruses: one is a virus of COVID and one 
is falsity. And that falsity is not just about COVID. It's 
about who won the last election.
    Listen, if you have one party telling their Members that 
you can't trust government enough to even decide who won the 
last election, it's pretty certain they're not going to trust 
government when government shares the truth about this virus 
and the effectiveness of vaccines. And the sad truth is we have 
one party that has created the big lie certainly about who won 
the last election and significant mistruths for many--and I'm 
not counting Governor Ricketts this camp--but many of his 
colleagues have continued to belittle the effectiveness of 
these measures. And that's just a sad reality.
    Now, how do we change that situation? We try to appeal to 
the better angels of their nature to knock it off and stop 
supporting and nominating candidates who want to continue to 
lie about basic truths in our democracy. That's the infection 
we have of willing to infect people with falsity. And we saw it 
on January 6----
    Ms. Waters. Yes.
    Mr. Inslee.--and we saw it every day when I can't get 
Republicans to get vaccinated. And by the way, in my state--
unfortunately, I just have to share you this--in my state, 
there is a profound difference in the vaccination rates between 
the red and blue counties in my state. That's just a reality. 
And I can't get Republicans enough to respond to that. Maybe 
Governor Ricketts can convince them.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you, Governor.
    Ms. Waters. Thank you, Chairman.
    Chairman Clyburn. The gentlelady's time has expired.
    Ms. Waters. Thank you.
    Chairman Clyburn. The chair now recognizes Mr. Jordan for 
five minutes.
    Mr. Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    It's good to see some of our former colleagues. I want to 
thank all our witnesses for being here.
    I first want to go to what the chairman said in his opening 
statement a couple hours ago. He attacked Senator Johnson and 
Representative Gaetz about statements they had made. And then 
we just heard Governor Inslee say that government shares the 
truth. That is--I mean, think about what we have been told 
about this virus that turned out not to be true.
    The President of the United States said we have a plan. The 
President of the United States said we would shut down the 
virus. Dr. Fauci and CDC and the government said it didn't 
start in the lab. They all said it wasn't gain-of-function 
research. They said, we'll never impose a mandate, but they 
did, so much so, it went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme 
Court struck it down.
    They told us that the vaccinated can't get it. They told us 
that the vaccinated can't transmit it. They told us there's no 
such thing as natural immunity. The last thing you want to do 
is trust what these people have told us, because everything 
they've told us has turned out to be misleading and not 
accurate.
    Governor Ricketts, are there more people vaccinated now 
than there were a year ago?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes, absolutely. As I mentioned, we just had 
a record day for the number of people who have never been 
vaccinated to get vaccinated. So, it's a----
    Mr. Jordan. Are there more people who--nationwide, are 
there more COVID deaths this year than there were last year?
    Mr. Ricketts. You know, I have not tracked the COVID 
deaths. I heard earlier on a call there were more deaths this 
year than last year, but I can't tell you. I've been focused on 
my state. I can't tell you.
    Mr. Jordan. Are there an uptick in cases, as we speak now, 
nationwide than compared to a year ago?
    Mr. Ricketts. Well, certainly in Nebraska, we've got an 
uptick in cases, absolutely.
    Mr. Jordan. Yes. There's an uptick everywhere. So, I think 
the simple question is, how can that be? I mean, if mask 
mandates and lockdowns work, then why didn't they work? I mean, 
we've seen all kinds of restrictions placed on the American 
people, all kinds of limits placed on their freedom. If those 
things all work, how can we have higher caseloads at a time 
when there are more people vaccinated and, unfortunately, more 
people have lost their lives this year than before?
    Do you have a mask mandate on schools in your state, 
Governor Ricketts?
    Mr. Ricketts. No. We've never had a statewide mask mandate 
ever throughout the pandemic. Different school districts will 
choose to do mask mandates, but that is the--that is up to the 
local school districts. We've never done it at the state level.
    Mr. Jordan. You haven't mask mandated businesses in your 
state.
    Mr. Ricketts. No, we do not.
    Mr. Jordan. Do you have a vaccine passport mandate in your 
state, as many cities are now imposing on citizens?
    Mr. Ricketts. No, we do not.
    Mr. Jordan. And in your state, by just about any metrics 
and measure, I looked at some of this prior to the hearing, 
you've done very well in all kinds--I mean, one of the things I 
noticed is you've actually had more families move into your 
state over the time of the pandemic, which cannot be said for 
New York, New Jersey, California, and D.C., the hardest 
lockdown states in the country. They've actually seen families 
and individuals leave their state, move out of their state, and 
move to states where they actually had freedom.
    So, you actually went up in people moving to your state. Is 
that right?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes, we've certainly got anecdotal evidence 
to show that there are a lot of people who moved to Nebraska 
for the quality of life here.
    Mr. Jordan. Quality of life there. That's--I would just 
call it freedom and quality of life. It's a great state. I've 
been to your state as many of these other places where people 
are moving.
    When COVID first happened, did you have some regulations 
you placed on your economy and on your--on the citizens early 
on like most of the country did when we didn't know a darn 
thing about this virus? Did you do that?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes. Absolutely. So, it gets back to what I 
said earlier about slowing the spread of the virus so we could 
buildup the capacity and ultimately get the vaccines, all with 
the goal of protecting our hospital capacity. And as we built 
up that capacity and got the vaccines, we did not need to have 
those restrictions in place. So, we've loosened those up 
significantly, really taking almost all of them off in June.
    And then with the staffing emergency, we do have some 
directed health measures, specifically around hospital capacity 
and staffing again, releasing the restrictions on occupational 
licensing and supervision requirements, that sort of thing, to 
give hospitals more capacity and more flexibility in managing 
their caseloads.
    Mr. Jordan. Well, I guess maybe one of the questions I 
asked too is when you--when you did have those restrictions 
early on in this--during the virus, did you follow, you as the 
leader of your state, did you follow the restrictions you had 
in place?
    Mr. Ricketts. Oh, yes, absolutely. I had to quarantine 
twice. Most recently, I was exposed and had to wear a mask for 
10 days.
    Mr. Jordan. Yes. But this is--this is one of the things 
that dri---at least the people I talked to in the Fourth 
District of Ohio, one of the things that drives them crazy is 
this double standard. I mean, Mayor Bowser, she had a 
quarantine requirement in place and didn't follow it, because 
she had to go visit with Joe Biden after the election last year 
when she left the state and didn't follow. The very requirement 
she put on her citizens, she wouldn't follow. And time and time 
again we have seen elected officials, most often they seem to 
be from the other party, who won't follow the very restrictions 
they place on the people they're supposed to represent and the 
people who pay their salary, won't follow the very restrictions 
they put on those people.
    So, it's--I'm glad that you--you did that.
    Any idea--last question, Governor Ricketts, any idea how 
many people work at the CDC?
    Mr. Ricketts. I have no idea how many people work at the 
CDC.
    Mr. Jordan. Ten thousand people, 10,000 people work there. 
Any idea how many studies they've done on natural immunity at 
the CDC or, frankly, at the NIH?
    Mr. Ricketts. I'm not aware of any on natural immunity. In 
fact, I think we're the only major country in the world that 
does not recognize natural immunity.
    Mr. Jordan. Could you hazard a guess of why the NIH and 
CDC, with combined over 30,000 employees and an annual budget 
combined of over $56 billion, why they wouldn't do a study on 
natural immunity? Any idea? Could you hazard a guess?
    Mr. Ricketts. I have no idea. I can only imagine they just 
were not told to do so.
    Mr. Jordan. Yes. OK.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Chairman Clyburn. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
    The chair now recognizes Ms. Maloney for five minutes.
    Ms. Maloney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank 
you for having this very important hearing.
    And it is great to see three of my former colleagues here 
today. Congratulations on all the good work you're doing.
    But I'm going to address my questions to Mayor Bowser. I 
have a special relationship with D.C., having spent so much 
time there. I would like to explore, Madam Mayor, how 
Republican efforts to block D.C.'s statehood could have 
possibly hampered the District's response to the coronavirus 
pandemic.
    Throughout 2020, as the virus crisis took hold across the 
District and the country, D.C. residents and businesses 
received less than half the amount of CARES Act relief funds 
they would have been entitled to as a state, depriving the 
District residents of roughly $755 million in pandemic relief 
for a year. Thankfully, congressional Democrats, including 
myself and those of us on the Oversight Committee, worked with 
the Biden administration to retroactively restore this funding 
through the American Rescue Plan.
    But that critical funding came a year late for the 
residents of the District. D.C. residents pay more in Federal 
taxes per capita than residents of any other state, and they 
have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and its 
outsized harm on communities of color.
    So, Mayor Bowser, how did the delay in relief funding 
impact the District's ability to respond to the coronavirus 
pandemic?
    Ms. Bowser. Well, thank you, Representative Maloney. And 
thank you for your leadership and all of your support for the 
District.
    And it was a huge distraction, first and foremost, $755 
million, three-quarters of a billion dollars is a lot of money 
for anybody, and it's especially a lot of money for us. For 
some reason we're yet to figure out, in the CARES Act, our 
state level funding, which we received for all matters of 
Federal funding, was limited. And we received $755 million less 
than we should.
    What we did in its place not to hamper our building up our 
capacity, as you've heard all of the Governors mention, we were 
able to tap into some of our reserves so that we could continue 
to advance our response. However, your efforts to get that 
money restored allowed us to maintain our very critical 
government operations and the emergency response.
    Ms. Maloney. Thank you.
    Now, also D.C.'s lack of statehood creates additional 
barriers for its pandemic response efforts. For example, 
Governors in other states, including those with us today, have 
deployed members of their National Guard to support hospital 
staff and testing efforts during the recent Omicron surge. But 
as we know, D.C. does not have full authority over its National 
Guard and cannot activate them without approval from the 
Secretary of Defense.
    My question, Mayor Bowser, is: How has the lack of 
statehood created unique hurdles for the District? And how has 
this undermined your efforts, D.C.'s response, to the 
coronavirus?
    Ms. Bowser. Thank you, Representative Maloney. It's true 
that calling the D.C. National Guard is kind of a misnomer. 
It's really the President's Guard. Unlike all of the 50 states, 
our Guard is basically under the command of the President of 
the United States.
    When we use our Guard, I submit a request to the DOD to get 
that request met. In years past, that has been pretty pro forma 
and it's happened quickly. We saw, however, in the last four 
years, that those requests were delayed, sometimes limited, as 
with our request for support on January--on the events leading 
up to January the 6. They're also limited in the fact that we 
can't change them mid-mission, which, you know, circumstances 
change, as we saw on January the 6. And the Mayor of the 
District cannot direct those changes.
    There have been proposals. Our Congresswoman has, you know, 
advanced legislation to change that. It's been supported in the 
Senate to change that. Unfortunately, that didn't get done this 
year, but it needs to get done.
    Our National Guard, I had called them up to support the 
coronavirus efforts, and they were very helpful in setting up 
our testing. We have recently called for them to again to 
support testing in Omicron.
    Ms. Maloney. Well, also, Madam Mayor, over the recent 
holidays, Omicron drove cases and hospitalizations to new highs 
in D.C., one of the epicenters of the latest wave of the virus. 
And although the District's vaccination campaign has thankfully 
worked to reduce the rate of severe diseases and death compared 
to prior waves of the pandemic, our colleagues across the aisle 
have taken steps in recent weeks to try to impede these efforts 
to save lives.
    Republicans have introduced no fewer than five bills in 
this Congress in an effort to undermine D.C.'s critical work to 
increase vaccinations among District residents. Madam Mayor, 
how do these efforts risk endangering your government's 
response and the health and safety of District residents?
    Ms. Bowser. Well, I think the whole point----
    Chairman Clyburn. Madam Mayor, cut it real short.
    Ms. Bowser. Yes.
    I think the whole point of what we've been talking about is 
the Governors, the chief, and the mayor here know best for our 
states. And we know best for the District of Columbia what 
works. We're not all the same. We're urban, we're dense, and we 
have to have strategies in place that will keep our residents 
and our city safe. And is that is what we have advanced.
    Ms. Maloney. Thank you.
    My time has expired. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, 
Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you very much.
    The chair now recognizes Ms. Miller-Meeks for five minutes.
    Ms. Miller-Meeks. Thank you, Chair Clyburn.
    And first off, I want to thank all of our witnesses for 
testifying before us today and sharing their experiences.
    As we all know, the Trump administration under Operation 
Warp Speed developed three safe and effective vaccines. And as 
a physician, former director of public health, I can say that 
it's nothing short of miraculous and it was built on decades of 
research.
    I also want to be abundantly clear, I am fully vaccinated. 
I've admitted the vaccine in vaccine clinics in all 24 of the 
counties in my district. And I've encouraged people, persuaded 
people to be vaccinated, talked with family members of people 
who ask for guidance in helping their family members to become 
vaccinated, and will continue to recommend to people to seek 
guidance from their healthcare providers or physicians about 
vaccination should they have hesitancy.
    However, I don't stand for government mandates and 
political overreach into the healthcare decisions of 
individuals. I was pleased to see that the Supreme Court struck 
down the OSHA mandate, because--in regards to private employers 
because I felt that that was an unconstitutional overreach of 
OSHA.
    Governor Ricketts, you--can you briefly discuss your 
states's participation in the lawsuit to stop the mandate?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes, absolutely. So, again, as I've talked 
about on this--in the testimony here that, you know, I 
encouraged people to get the vaccines. And we wanted people 
to--you know, educate people about doing the right thing, but I 
also am opposed to the mandates. In fact, as I talk to people, 
again, who have not been vaccinated yet, one of the really 
detrimental things that, for example, the mandate on businesses 
had was there were a number of people who told me--again, this 
is all anecdotal evidence--but they told me that they were 
going to get vaccinated but now there is no way they were going 
to get vaccinated if the Governor was going to be telling them 
that they had to get vaccinated. So, I think that's one of the 
downsides when you try to push something.
    And, of course, our state, my attorney general and myself, 
both agreed that trying to use OSHA and really jam, as I think 
even the chief of staff for the White House, to workaround 
through this to use OSHA to, you know, push down these vaccines 
was really outside the law and very detrimental. And it could 
be used in so many bad ways in the future with an executive 
branch who then would take this and say, well, I've got a 
policy I want to enforce. I'm going to find an emergency to 
declare, and I'm going to tell OSHA to go push my policy 
through their regulations. That is something that I don't think 
Republican or Democrat that we want to see the executive branch 
having that kind of authority to without the--know, going to 
Congress asking for this kind of authority.
    So, that's one of the reasons why our state was one of the 
states that was taking this to, you know, court because we felt 
that this was an overreach of the Federal Government and also 
set a really, really bad precedent for the future. Not--you 
know, set aside whether or not you think the vaccines are right 
or not, you're expanding the power of the executive branch 
hugely by allowing them to go around Congress to enforce this 
vaccine.
    Ms. Miller-Meeks. And I thank you for that. And I think 
what your state and, you know, the other Governors have 
indicated from their states shows that the Federalist system 
has worked because different states have different makeups, 
different rural areas, different population areas, different 
densities, and so that approach did work.
    The Supreme Court in ruling on the OSHA mandate said the 
right to refuse medical treatment could be overcome when 
society needs to curb the spread of a contagious epidemic. 
Vaccines should prevent transmission. As we saw in the Delta 
variant--and this was CDC, Dr. Walensky, this summer, with the 
Delta variant and from the Israel study, 45 percent of people 
would still transmit and have high--high viral loads. And Dr. 
Walensky said that people infected with Delta is 
indistinguishable from that--vaxx--unvaccinated people and what 
the vaccines can't do anymore is present--prevent transmission. 
We've especially seen this with the Omicron variant, that in 
the Omicron variant, highly transmissible, less ill.
    So what--you know, in mandating a vaccine when there is no 
longer a public health benefit, i.e., we're not preventing 
transmission of the virus in the Omicron variant, and we may, 
in fact, if you read some of the literature on the Danish study 
that just came out, that there is a negative effect with the 
vaccine lasting 30 minutes. We may, in fact, create more super 
variants.
    So, I thank you for the job you did, Governor Reynolds
    [sic]. And our state also did an admiral job. We know in 
schools that there is increased suicide, increased mental 
health problems, a detriment to learning, a detriment to not 
being able to participate, learning loss, school lunches. And I 
think--can you discuss your decision to allow families to 
decide what's best for their students and your children in 
opening schools?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes. Well, some are like--every state's 
different and every school district is going to be different, 
so what we encouraged was I got together with the commissioner 
of education, who actually is not a cabinet member. He is in a 
separate elected state Board of Education in Nebraska, so they 
don't report to me, but we work very closely to come out and 
set the expectation, in the summer of 2020, that we expected 
kids to be in classrooms, because we know that it's not just 
about academic progression but also about, as you mentioned, 
physical health, mental health, nutrition, socialization. All 
those things are a benefit. And really worked with our school 
leaders to--the Department of Education published a book that 
they worked with us on as well to say here's a roadmap for how 
you can open up your school.
    And so that's what we really did is allowed the school 
districts to make those decisions, and then, of course, 
encouraged parents to weigh in with their school boards with 
regard to that. But that's really how we got to the point where 
I think one study or one group said that we were the sixth best 
state for kids in classrooms. As I mentioned, we came out 
fourth in the Politico study for learning loss. We had very 
little learning loss in Nebraska, because we did really place 
an emphasis to try and get those kids back in the classrooms.
    Ms. Miller-Meeks. Thank you so much, Governor Ricketts.
    And I know my time is up. Chair Clyburn, I just know 
Nebraska and I were
    [inaudible].
    Chairman Clyburn. I understand. Thank you so much.
    The chair now recognizes Ms. Velazquez for five minutes.
    Ms. Velazquez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And it is great to see the many former colleagues on this 
call. Thank you so much for the great work that you're doing in 
your respective states.
    I would like to ask my first question to Governor 
Pierluisi. You announced that the American Rescue Plan funding 
will be used to invest in essential workers and domestic 
development initiatives. How impactful was this funding for 
these purposes? And can you please provide specific examples of 
how your office allocated and prioritized the disbursement of 
these funds?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes. So, specifically when it comes to the 
American Rescue Plan Act--I think this question was addressed 
to me. Is that right?
    Ms. Velazquez. Governor, I relayed my question to Governor 
Pierluisi from Puerto Rico.
    Mr. Ricketts. Oh, I'm sorry. My apologies.
    Ms. Velazquez. OK.
    Mr. Pierluisi. I'll start, and if you want to followup, 
it'll be fine with me. I'll try to be brief.
    It is great to see Congresswoman Velazquez participating at 
this hearing. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and she 
knows the challenges we face, as well as anybody in Puerto 
Rico.
    Actually, the American Rescue Plan has been a blessing for 
us. We used it, for example, premium pay, hazard pay for 
workers, essential workers who were out there in the middle of 
this pandemic last year. I'm talking about, of course, the 
hospitals, the clinics, but also even restaurants, the 
entertainment industry, first responders and so on. All workers 
who were doing in--rendering in-person services while being 
exposed to this virus deserved this premium pay or hazard pay, 
and we did it.
    We are now doing it still, because this Omicron variant has 
hit us quite hard. Puerto Rico did so well last year. We had 
mandates. We had business restrictions and capacity 
restrictions on businesses at various times during the year. 
Yet our economy grew, because we were a safe destination for 
doing business and for visiting us as tourists and so on.
    Yet I have to admit, this has been a rough start this year, 
because the Omicron variant, as has been mentioned before, is 
very transmissible. And we're seeing--we've just seen case 
counts that--record case counts, record hospitalization rates. 
Finally now, it's starting to come down. But I just decided 
recently to give yet another premium pay to clinic workers at 
our hospitals and clinics, because we were lucky, 
Congresswoman, last year, our hospitals were never compromised. 
But this year, they're quite congested with COVID patients.
    Last, I'll just say very quickly----
    Ms. Velazquez. Governor?
    Mr. Pierluisi. I'll keep quiet and I'll let you----
    Ms. Velazquez. I just have another question and my time is 
limited.
    Mr. Pierluisi. I know. I know.
    Ms. Velazquez. [Inaudible] You know, for the members of the 
committee to see how important the American Rescue Plan and the 
impact, the positive impact that it has played in Puerto Rico. 
And imagine where Puerto Rico would have been today if it had 
not been for the fact that the Trump--during the Trump year, he 
withheld disaster relief money appropriated by the Congress of 
the United States.
    Governor, Puerto Rico established also the local Earned 
Income Tax Credit in 2019. And the American Rescue Plan 
provided a $600 million supplement for the program. Can you 
please expand on how the supplemental funding for Puerto Rico's 
EITC will help strengthen its labor market and help reduce 
poverty?
    Mr. Pierluisi. Yes. That's the best anti-poverty program in 
the states. And we've never had a comparable program in Puerto 
Rico because of our limited resources. We never had access to 
the EITC. So, what Congress did, and it's great, Congress is 
basically funding now 75 percent of our local version of the 
EITC. This is going to give our workers up to about $6,500, up 
to that amount, as an incentive to join the labor force, to 
increase our labor participation rate, which has always lagged 
the one you have in the U.S. mainland.
    So, it's going to start this April. When we file tax 
returns in Puerto Rico, our taxpayers will start getting this 
for the first time.
    We also, as part of the American Rescue Plan, got fully 
included in the child tax credit program. Because, believe it 
or not, only families with three children or more had access to 
the child tax credits. Now, all families will. And that's 
another great help from the American Rescue Plan.
    And so what I'll say to just close is that--and I was kind 
of mentioning it before, the booster is so important. One thing 
we did in Puerto Rico, Congresswoman Velazquez, is that science 
and medicine have been driving our government decisions. I have 
been relying on the medical and scientific community in Puerto 
Rico for my decisions. And that has allowed us to keep politics 
out of the way.
    You know that we're very passionate about our politics in 
Puerto Rico. But since my decisions have been driven by science 
and medicine, that's why we've had a lot of support from the 
public at large, from the political class at large. And if I 
have any recommendation or suggestion for the mainland would be 
that one.
    Ms. Velazquez. Congressman--Governor, I went to Puerto 
Rico. I spent two weeks for the holidays. I didn't get Omicron. 
I came back to the United States. I went to Washington, DC, and 
I came back with Omicron here. So, even after being fully 
vaccinated.
    So, thank you so much for the work that you are doing.
    I yield back.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. 
Velazquez.
    I don't see Ms. Malliotakis. Has she come back?
    The chair now recognizes Mr. Foster for five minutes.
    Mr. Foster. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to our 
witnesses.
    You know, as a scientist, I find it sort of--well, I had a 
number of things that I was tempted to react to, but I found it 
absolutely remarkable to hear one of my colleagues claim that 
there was no public health benefit of vaccines.
    You know, also, I'd like to point out that there's a pretty 
big difference between absolutely preventing transmission, 
which, of course, no vaccine ever does, compared to reducing 
transmission, which they unquestionably do. And I think that 
the--the fundamental reason why we seem to be talking back and 
forth past each other is that--is the question of whether or 
not a government of a country has a right to ask its citizens 
to take even a small risk or inconvenience for the greater good 
of its citizens, or whether this is simply viewed as an 
outrageous intrusion on individual freedom.
    You know, my draft number was 321. And so--and Hanoi fell 
in 1973. And I--my number would have come up in 1974, so I was 
never asked to serve. But I had long discussions with my dad. I 
would have served. And when the--the soldiers who got drafted 
for World War II, they did not get to say, my body, my choice. 
You know, they were asked to take a reas---a significant risk 
to fight the Nazis. They were not allowed to say, well, I'm 
going to wait for more scientific data to see if it is safe to 
fight the Nazis or not.
    They were asked to take--you know, take a risk and to do 
something for their country to keep their fellow citizens safe. 
And it seems as though, frankly, today's Republican Party has 
raised individual, not freedom, but selfishness to a level that 
it would be inconceivable to the greatest generation.
    Anyway, so I just--maybe I can see if this--I had a 
question actually for Governor Inslee. When you were talking 
about what you viewed as the partisan tilt and you're seeing it 
even in the death rates in different--do you think that this is 
to the extent that it may actually have electoral implications 
downstream?
    Mr. Inslee. I'm sorry, Bill. I lost the last part of your 
question.
    Mr. Foster. Do you think that when you look at the 
differential death rates in the counties, depending on the 
partisan lean of the counties, do you think this is large 
enough to have maybe differential, you know, effects on 
elections downstream when you just look at very close 
elections? That'd be an interesting analysis to do.
    Mr. Inslee. Well, here's the tragedy of this, and I do 
believe it is a tragedy. We have a disproportionate number of 
members of the Republican Party dying in my state. Now, one 
would think, if you're Republican, you'd really want to be 
aggressive to prevent losing your people. But we hear voices 
like Congressman Jordan's, who are continuing to spread 
disinformation, which is causing health jeopardizing to his 
people that are in his party. That's a real tragedy.
    And then--and when other colleagues, frankly, like Governor 
Ricketts, who will stand up and try to share valid scientific 
information, people don't trust them because the members of 
that party has been telling people for 10 years, don't trust 
the government. So, that's the situation we're in.
    What are the electoral consequences? I'm not sure that's 
relevant to this particular discussion, but we have to try and 
save everybody's life here. That's what I'm for.
    Mr. Foster. Yes. OK. Let's see, there's been also some 
mention of the parts of the response that were Federalized, the 
part that were left to the states. Do any of you have any 
comments on things that the Federal Government should have 
taken a bigger role in, just particularly in relation to 
collecting data? Governor Polis?
    Mr. Polis. First of all, I think, you know, many of my 
fellow Governors, including myself, when the Federal Government 
can do it well, we welcome them to do it. And that's why I'm 
glad you're offering testing. We've been doing that for a 
couple months. We're glad somebody--once we see the Federal 
Government can do it right, we're happy to stop doing and fold 
that in. Same with masks.
    The FEMA crews have been indispensable. Our state's used 
them during surges. The National Guard has been indispensable. 
We've used that during our surges. So, there have been key 
components where I just don't know where we would be at. It 
would be--not only would it have been much more fatal to 
members of the public in many states; it also would have been 
much more devastating to the economy without all those areas of 
Federal support.
    Mr. Foster. Yes. Governor? Yes.
    Mr. Inslee. One of the things that is really important in 
the healthcare system is to have a robust scale of 
opportunities in the long-term care system. That's the one 
thing I might suggest we can certainly use more dollars for. 
Because if you don't have enough places in your long-term care 
facility, you can't discharge people from your hospital. We're 
experiencing that problem, so we've been building up our long-
term care facility.
    But help from Congress to get more long-term care facility 
opportunities for people, this is pivotal for the healthcare 
hospital access that we now have shortages of.
    Mr. Foster. OK. There appears--OK. Quickly, my time has 
actually expired.
    Ms. Bowser. I just wanted to say quickly, I think the 
Federal Government getting income in people's hands----
    Chairman Clyburn. Madam Mayor, I'm sorry, the time has 
expired.
    Ms. Bowser. OK.
    Chairman Clyburn. The chair now recognizes Mr. Raskin for 
five minutes.
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for 
conducting this very important hearing.
    One of the things we've learned during this grim period in 
our history is that propaganda works on a lot of people. So, 
misinformation and disinformation are actually undermining the 
public health. They promote vaccine hesitancy, they generate 
social discord, they've destroyed the cohesiveness of our 
public health efforts. And yet to this day, Members of Congress 
are spreading anti-public health propaganda.
    Let's take a look at some of the examples, if you'd be kind 
enough to put it up on the screen.
    Last month, Representative Gaetz said that, quote: The best 
vaccine we've found is Mother Nature's vaccine. It's 
contracting the virus.
    Well, this is false and dangerous. The best vaccine we have 
is a vaccine. Yesterday, the CDC published a study which found 
that vaccination remains the safest strategy for averting 
COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. So, his 
statement is like saying the best vaccine for polio or the 
German measles is contracting the disease.
    Representative Boebert said: Biden has deployed his Needle 
Nazis to Mesa County.
    This is a dangerous lie. It equates state, local, and 
Federal public health efforts with history's worst fascist 
dictatorship, a regime responsible for genocidal violence 
against millions of people. The analogy is an affront to 
millions of doctors, nurses, and medical personnel, and 
government workers on the front lines of the struggle to 
protect us against COVID. And it's an insult to the memory of 
millions of people slaughtered by the Nazis.
    Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told her supporters, 
quote: Biden is going to homes to push shots. Just say no.
    This kind of propaganda and anti-public health advocacy has 
created dramatically higher vaccine hesitancy among Republicans 
than Democrats, and even contributed, as we heard from Governor 
Inslee, to the disproportionate rates of COVID-19 deaths among 
Republicans.
    And, finally, as the Omicron variant was spreading, the 
House Judiciary Committee Republicans amplified false 
insinuations about the effectiveness of booster shots, 
tweeting: If the booster shots work, why don't they work?
    These are just a handful of numerous examples of 
politicians spreading dangerous misinformation and confusion.
    Governor Polis, do you think that false statements like 
these have undermined vaccination efforts in your state? What 
have you done to combat them?
    Mr. Polis. Look, I think that everybody should look at the 
data and make factual statements. Obviously, we have free 
speech in our country, but we've seen the danger in the tunnels 
of misinformation that people will go down, spread through, 
often through social media; sometimes amplified by people in 
positions of power and authority.
    I hope that everybody takes a hard look at the data and 
uses whatever soapbox they have, however large or small, to 
really use a fact-based approach to save lives and move past 
this pandemic.
    Mr. Raskin. And, Mayor Bowser, what would you say to fellow 
elected officials who continue to spread propaganda that 
discourages Americans from getting vaccinated or from wearing 
masks?
    You got to unmute.
    Ms. Bowser. I think it's especially problematic, 
Congressman, because they themselves have been vaccinated and 
boosted and are enjoying the benefits of those vaccines. And 
they know better. And they also, probably more than most of 
their constituents, know of people who have suffered and died 
because of this virus.
    Nobody should die in our hospitals attached to a ventilator 
and have to say goodbye to their families when there is a safe 
and effective vaccine. And we all need to be saying that.
    We've heard it said that the vaccine should stop--public 
health has always said that the vaccine was effective against 
serious illness, in hospitalization, in death. That has always 
been the promise of the vaccine, and it is working.
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you.
    Governor Inslee, about 75 percent of coronavirus deaths in 
your state since February 2021 have been among unvaccinated 
people. And a study conducted last year found that the highest 
rates of coronavirus death in Washington State were 
concentrated in the 15 most Republican counties, which is an 
alarming statistic.
    How do you account for this dramatic divide, and what does 
it tell you about what we need to do?
    Mr. Inslee. Well, No. 1, you mentioned at the outset that 
propaganda works. Propaganda worked, you know, in the forties, 
but it works a hundred times more now because of the internet 
and the algorithms that we have and the ability of the internet 
to spread a lie. If a lie went 25 miles an hour two decades 
ago, it goes 250 miles an hour now. And we have seen the impact 
of that. Just some of the quotes you showed up are certain 
somebody made egregious things.
    But, listen, we have a guy who's been appointed by the 
Republican Party to sit on the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus 
Crisis, Congressman Jordan. He's been given by the Republican 
Party a soapbox to talk about this, and he comes before this 
committee and spends his five minutes basically saying, you 
shouldn't trust science. You shouldn't trust the CDC. You 
shouldn't trust people who tell you vaccine works. And that's 
what the Republican Party put up as their spokesperson.
    We need the Republican Party to take some responsibility 
here and not put their Members, who are spreading this 
dangerous filth, to America. And I'm urging all Republicans in 
good faith to do that.
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you.
    And, Mr. Chairman, we've got to stop inflaming people's 
misunderstandings with propaganda, with conspiracy theory. 
Let's invest in the health of all Americans.
    Thank you for this hearing, and I yield back.
    Chairman Clyburn. Thank you, Mr. Raskin.
    The chair recognizes Mr. Krishnamoorthi for five minutes.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Governor Ricketts, you've been vaccinated, correct?
    Mr. Ricketts. Yes, I've been vaccinated and boosted.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Excellent. And I presume that the 
reason that you were vaccinated and boosted is because you 
believe in the vaccines, right?
    Mr. Ricketts. That is correct.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Now, President Trump recently said, 
according to The Hill, that elected officials and politicians 
should disclose that they received a vaccine and booster. And I 
agree with that sentiment too. And I'm glad that you've 
publicly stated your vaccination status.
    I want to turn to another subject. On June 18, 2020, 
according to the Omaha Herald World, you told local government 
officials that they won't get Federal coronavirus relief 
funding if they require individuals to wear face masks in 
government buildings.
    Now, Omaha, the capital--I'm sorry. Omaha, the largest city 
in Nebraska, has a mask mandate, including in buildings, and it 
renewed that mask mandate last Wednesday.
    Have you withheld any coronavirus Federal funding from 
Omaha?
    Mr. Ricketts. So, with regard to that, specifically, 
actually, Omaha let their mask mandate that passed by city 
ordinance expire. The county health official has tried to 
implement a mask mandate illegally, and we're actually going to 
court over this one.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. But have you withheld any coronavirus 
funding from either the county or the city?
    Mr. Ricketts. No, I have not.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. OK. And how about Nebraska Medicine? 
Both Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical 
Center both have mask mandates. Have you withheld any Federal 
coronavirus funding from either of those two entities?
    Mr. Ricketts. No. And getting back to Omaha as well, the 
difference in the Omaha one that they did, they also exempted 
government services from the mask mandate as well. So, again, 
they were compliant with what I asked, which is don't prohibit 
people from getting government services because of the mask 
mandate.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. No. But in your pronouncement, you said 
wearing a mask in a Federal Government--I'm sorry--in a 
government building would be enough to trigger your not giving 
them relief funding that was provided to you by the Federal 
Government. Now, has that----
    Mr. Ricketts. Right.
    [Crosstalk]
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Has there been any entity--has there 
been any entity in Nebraska that did not receive Federal 
coronavirus relief funding because of your policy that you put 
in place?
    Mr. Ricketts. No.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. OK. So, that was just political 
rhetoric. I get it. Now, in----
    Mr. Ricketts. No. It was because they--no, it wasn't 
political rhetoric----
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi [continuing]. response to the----
    Mr. Ricketts.--the government services, was what I 
requested.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. In response to the President's vaccine 
mandate--let me repeat it. A tweet that you put out on 
September 10, 2021, at 11:10 a.m., you said--in response to the 
President's mandate, you said: Vaccine mandate. President Biden 
has forgotten we live in America, quote/unquote.
    Quote: He thinks we live in the Soviet Union.
    Now, Governor Ricketts, I just want to ask you this 
question: You don't really believe that President Biden has 
forgotten we live in America, do you?
    Mr. Ricketts. No. I believe that he forgot that the 
Federal--the executive branch does not have the authority to 
issue that----
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. No. I'm just asking you----
    Mr. Ricketts.--which is consistent with what happens in an 
authoritarian regime.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi [continuing]. you don't believe--you 
talked about a lot of heated political rhetoric. You don't 
stand by those statements that you made in that tweet, do you?
    Mr. Ricketts. The point of the tweet was to say that the 
executive branch does not have the authority to issue a vaccine 
mandate such as he was doing, similar to what happens in 
authoritarian----
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. I'm just reading your tweet, Governor, 
and you said: He thinks we live in the Soviet Union.
    That's what you said in that tweet. You don't really 
believe that he thinks we live in the Soviet Union, do you?
    Mr. Ricketts. As we all know on this, we've heard plenty of 
it today, there's plenty of political rhetoric to go by.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. And you are one of the primary sources 
of this heated political rhetoric.
    Now, sir, you are against government-mandated vaccine 
mandates, correct?
    Mr. Ricketts. That is correct.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. And you are also against employer-
mandated vaccines?
    Mr. Ricketts. No. Actually, I believe employers have the 
ability to do that, but I discourage it.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. You discourage it.
    Now, sir, you and I share something in common. We are Cubs 
fans. Did you know that?
    Mr. Ricketts. I did not know that. Thank you for being a 
fan.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. And you are a part owner of the Chicago 
Cubs. Isn't that right?
    Mr. Ricketts. Well, no, not me personally, but a family 
trust, yes.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. I understand a family trust owns the 
Chicago Cubs that you benefit from. Now, you know that the 
Chicago Cubs have mandated vaccines for their employees, right?
    Mr. Ricketts. Actually, I'm no longer a part of the 
management of the Cubs, so I was not aware that they had 
actually mandated vaccines. But as I mentioned before.
    Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Well, hold on. Hold on a second. Hold 
on a second, Governor. The Ricketts family owns the Chicago 
Cubs. You benefit from the ownership of the Chicago Cubs. The 
Chicago Cubs requires vaccines and they require masks indoors. 
I know. I'm a lifelong Cubs fan, and my friends and family all 
know that you wear a mask when you go to a Chicago Cubs-owned 
facility, a Ricketts-owned facility.
    Thank you, and I yield back.
    Chairman Clyburn. I thank the gentleman for yielding back.
    Unless I have missed someone, I think that all attendees 
have asked their questions, and we've come to the closing.
    And I don't see the ranking member. If he's here, I'm going 
to yield to him.
    I don't see him.
    So, let me thank all of the witnesses for being here today.
    And before we close, I want to enter into the record the 
letters to the committee which were received from Governor Kate 
Brown of Oregon and Governor Kathy Hochul of New York. I ask 
unanimous consent that these letters be entered into the 
official hearing record. So ordered.
    Chairman Clyburn. I want to once again thank Governor 
Inslee, Governor Polis, Governor Pierluisi, Governor Ricketts, 
and Mayor Bowser for testifying before the select subcommittee 
today. We appreciate your insight, your expertise, and your 
advice on how Governors are responding to the Omicron variant.
    I applaud the Biden-Harris administration for its 
leadership in responding to the Omicron variant and working 
hand-in-hand with states to support their pandemic response 
efforts. Among other steps, the Biden-Harris administration has 
worked with our states to add 10,000 more vaccinationsites, to 
open additional testing sites, to deploy medical personnel, to 
help healthcare providers, to order and administer millions 
more doses of coronavirus treatments, and to make available 
hundreds of millions of high-quality N95 masks and rapid at-
home tests to Americans for free, starting later this month. We 
are in a better position today than we were a year ago.
    As this chart shows, the Biden administration has increased 
the number of daily tests performed from 1.7 million per day in 
January 2021 to more than 11.7 million per day in January 2022, 
a number that is expected to continue rising.
    The Biden administration has increased the number of free 
testing sites around the country eightfold, and worked with the 
private sector to get 375 million at-home rapid tests on the 
market this month when there will be zero available just a year 
ago.
    The Biden administration has presided over a historic 
vaccination campaign that administered more than 500 million 
vaccines and booster doses over the last year, helping get more 
than 73 million of adults fully vaccinated.
    Our vaccines remain the most powerful tools we have to 
fight all variants of the coronavirus. Vaccines are free and 
readily available at more than 90,000 convenient locations 
across the country.
    I encourage everyone to get vaccinated immediately and get 
their boosters as soon as they are eligible.
    All of these steps have helped to reopen more than 95 
percent of schools and our economy safely, and will remain 
critical to our effort to quickly and decisively combat the 
Omicron variant.
    I look forward to working together with leaders at all 
levels, including and especially today's witnesses, as we 
continue this progress.
    With that, without objection, all members will have five 
legislative days within which to submit additional written 
questions for the witnesses to the chair which will be 
forwarded to the witnesses for their response.
    This hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 5:26 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

                                [all]