[Senate Hearing 117-200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 117-200

                        SCHOOL REOPENING DURING
                     COVID-19: SUPPORTING STUDENTS,
                        EDUCATORS, AND FAMILIES

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

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                                   ON

  EXAMINING SCHOOL REOPENING DURING COVID-19, FOCUSING ON SUPPORTING 
                   STUDENTS, EDUCATORS, AND FAMILIES
                               __________

                           SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
                                
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                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                    
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          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                    PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chair
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont          RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania       Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          MITT ROMNEY, Utah
                                     TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
                                     JERRY MORAN, Kansas

                     Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
                  John Righter, Deputy Staff Director

                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                      THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2021

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
  and Pensions, Opening statement................................     1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of North Carolina, Opening statement...........................     3

                               Witnesses

Becerra, Hon. Xavier, Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
  Washington, DC.................................................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     8
Cardona, Hon. Miguel, Secretary of Education, Washington, DC.....    13
    Prepared statement...........................................    15

 
                        SCHOOL REOPENING DURING
                    COVID-19: SUPPORTING STUDENTS,
                       EDUCATORS, AND FAMILIES

                              ----------                              


                      Thursday, September 30, 2021

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 
room 216, Hart Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, Chair 
of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Baldwin, 
Murphy, Kaine, Hassan, Smith, Rosen, Lujan, Hickenlooper, Burr, 
Paul, Collins, Murkowski, Braun, Marshall, Romney, and 
Tuberville.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    The Chair. Good morning. We are going to get started. We 
have a number of votes this morning and a really good 
attendance at hearing, so we want to get going. The Senate 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will please 
come to order. Today, we are holding a hearing with Secretary 
of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, Secretary of 
Education Miguel Cardona, and on how we can help schools across 
the country as they work to safely reopen for in-person 
learning.
    Ranking Member Burr and I will each have an opening 
statement and then I will introduce our witnesses. And after 
they give their testimony, Senators will each have 5 minutes 
for a round of questions. While we are again unable to have 
this hearing fully open to the public or media for in-person 
attendance, live video is available on our Committee website at 
help.senate.gov. And if you are in need of accommodations, 
including closed captioning, you can reach out to the Committee 
or the Office of Congressional Accessibility Services.
    This pandemic has been incredibly hard on students and 
families and educators. For over a year, many students were not 
able to see their teachers or friends or counselors or coaches. 
Students with disabilities could not get the support they 
needed. Many students from families with low incomes could not 
get nutritious school meals, and students without Internet at 
home were left struggling to keep up with the shift to remote 
learning. Every student's learning was disrupted in some way, 
and educators and school leaders found themselves trying to 
meet students' needs through a screen, making their already 
challenging jobs even tougher. I heard from so many families in 
Washington State about these challenges and how devastating 
this crisis has been.
    My goal since the start of this pandemic has been to get 
students back in the classroom safely for in-person learning. 
And I know that has been shared by many Members of this 
Committee on both sides of the aisle. And while no one thinks 
our work is done, we have fought to make our goal a reality by 
working to get relief straight to schools over multiple relief 
bills in 2020 and critically in the American Rescue Plan last 
March.
    This funding has allowed schools to take steps to keep 
their students safe, like providing masks and tests and 
improved ventilation, to keep students connected, like making 
sure they have access to technology and the Internet, to 
accelerate their learning, like offering summer learning and 
high quality tutoring, and to help them navigate this 
incredibly tough time, like increasing mental health resources. 
And now, according to the CDC, 96 percent of K-12 public 
schools are offering full in-person learning. But as the Delta 
variant has shown us, this pandemic is far from over.
    We saw nearly 1 million new COVID cases among kids over the 
past 4 weeks. Pediatric hospitals across the country are 
running out of beds. And according to CDC, we have seen over 
1,800 school closures this school year related to COVID 
outbreaks, meaning children have their learning once again 
interrupted and parents had their work plans upended as they 
needed to take care of their kids. Families are exhausted. 
Everyone wants to get back to the classroom and stay there. But 
to get there, we have to continue working to keep students 
safe. And look, we have more than a year's worth of data now.
    Public health experts like those at the CDC and in state 
and local health Departments have made clear what works, masks, 
ventilation, physical distancing, testing, and getting everyone 
vaccinated who is eligible, which is especially important to 
protect children under 12 who cannot yet get vaccinated. And 
finally, flexibility. In other words, ensuring school districts 
have plans to provide high quality distance learning to all 
students when necessary to keep them safe.
    The work the Biden administration has done to promote 
common sense public health measures is so important. It has 
been a relief to have leaders in charge who set an example that 
public health and safety should not be partisan. It should be 
part of what you do to protect yourself and to protect others. 
And I wish every elected official took the same approach. 
Unfortunately, in too many parts of our Country, the basic 
steps that could keep students and educators and community safe 
have been politicized. So much so that instead of promoting 
basic steps like wearing masks in schools, some Republican 
Governors and state legislators have been trying to outlaw 
them. Schools have been pushed to the brink by this pandemic.
    But instead of giving them help, those Republican Governors 
and state leaders are threatening school funding, banning mask 
requirements, and undermining efforts to get people vaccinated. 
They are not only ignoring and in some cases denying the fact 
that we are in a pandemic, they are making denial a badge of 
honor. Let's be clear, there is nothing honorable about putting 
kids and educators and their families at risk to score 
political points. And the risk is real.
    New data from CDC confirms schools without mask 
requirements are three and a half times more likely to have a 
covered outbreak, while cold case rates in school districts 
with mask requirements are half that of those without them. For 
anyone truly concerned about public health and safety, there 
should be no question about putting that real world data into 
practice, because this is not a game to the school leaders who 
are being threatened and harassed for doing the right thing. It 
is not a game to students who want to be able to go to school 
without contracting a deadly disease that could hurt them, or a 
family member who is immunocompromised, or a sibling who is too 
young yet to be vaccinated. And it is not a game to parents who 
want to be able to put their kids on the school bus without 
worrying they are putting their child at risk. They are 
counting on policymakers to take this pandemic seriously.
    Now, looking down the dais here today, I know there are a 
lot of perspectives on COVID-19 represented here, but I hope 
all of us can send a message that the basic public health 
measures we need to help kids keep safe and learning in school 
should not be political, they should be American, because we 
still have a lot of work ahead to get our schools and students 
through this pandemic, and we have got to do it together. 
Everyone eligible who has not gotten vaccinated should get 
their shots. States and localities need to keep following the 
science and doing what works to keep kids safe and learning in 
school.
    The Biden administration needs to continue to build on the 
progress made so far to promote vaccinations, increase testing 
capacity, and make sure schools and districts have the guidance 
and the support they need to spend those funds. And our work 
will not end when this pandemic does. We will all have to work 
together to repair the damage COVID-19 has done, address 
students' academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs, 
and help our schools build back stronger and fairer. That means 
addressing the sharp drop in enrollment this pandemic caused, 
the sharp rise in mental health issues among kids, and the fact 
that COVID has sent many students learning back significantly, 
particularly students whose families earn low income, students 
of color, English learners, and students with disabilities.
    It also means addressing the inequities and systemic racism 
that have long plagued our education system and have made this 
pandemic so much harder on so many students. So today I look 
forward to hearing from both of our witnesses on these 
challenges and working with them and with the President to help 
students, parents, educators, and schools across the country 
get through this crisis. With that, I will turn it over to the 
Ranking Member Burr for his opening remarks.

                   OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR

    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. Let's 
start with some good news. For the most part across the 
country, children are back in public schools. That is not 
really new for private schools, which mostly stayed open during 
the highs and lows of the pandemic. But public schools have now 
taken steps to ensure that students and teachers are able to 
get back to school and back safely. These are based on lessons 
learned from schools that stayed open during the pandemic.
    For example, a study out of Duke University and UNC looking 
at North Carolina school districts showed that in-person 
learning can continue with minimal transmissions of covered by 
being thoughtful, having a plan, taking common sense steps to 
make students and teachers safe. More good news, thanks to 
Operation Warp Speed and the development of vaccines, most 
teachers are vaccinated, though that number needs to get 
higher. And now that boosters are available for workers in high 
risk settings who got the Pfizer vaccine.
    I hope teachers will get the booster as well. Hopefully, 
individuals who receive Moderna and Johnson and Johnson 
vaccines will have information on boosters soon. Even more good 
news. We now also have vaccines for children, 12 and up. Also, 
Pfizer reports that they have good data on lower dose--on a 
lower dose of their vaccine for children's age 5 through 11 and 
have submitted that data for FDA review. It is my hope that we 
will have a vaccine for children under 12 very soon. And good 
news continues with therapies. We have at least six effective 
treatments for those who get COVID, and more treatments are on 
the way. Unless, of course, this Congress were to pass 
legislation that imposes price controls that kill the incentive 
to innovate and explore science so more treatment and cures can 
be developed.
    I have said from the very beginning of this pandemic that 
vaccines and therapeutics are going to be our way out. We have 
seen the power of these vaccines and treatments, and we all 
have a responsibility to do what we can to turn the tide on 
this pandemic. I continue to encourage every American who is 
eligible for a vaccine, or a booster shot to get it without 
delay. While all of that is good news, the Administration needs 
to do a better job getting therapies approved--therapeutics 
approved and working with the industry to increase supply of 
therapeutics that work.
    Now for the bad news. We are here today to hear from the 
Biden administration, Secretary of Health and Human Services 
and Department of Education about their efforts. Gentlemen, 
welcome back to our hearing room. The President has said that 
opening school is a national priority. I agree. As his cabinet 
members for Health and Education, the responsibility falls 
squarely on your--in your hands to develop the Federal response 
and help state and local leaders have the tools they need to 
keep schools open and students and teachers safe. But I am very 
displeased that your staff have failed to live up to the 
commitment you both made to me privately and publicly to be 
responsive to my oversight requests.
    On August 25th, I sent you both letters asking a series of 
questions I received from students, parents, teachers, school 
administrators, and public health officials from my state, from 
people across the country, as well as many of my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle in Congress. I received a thoroughly 
inadequate response yesterday, less than 24 hours before this 
hearing. Gentlemen, Congressional oversight is not an option. 
These questions were simple, there were no tricks.
    In fact, this letter was aimed at helping you inform this 
Committee about what was happening around the country as 
schools were already in the process of welcoming students back 
in the classroom when I wrote the letter. In many places in the 
country, we are almost 2 months into the school year, so this 
really isn't a back to school hearing, it is a back in school 
hearing. In many places in our Country, we share goals as to 
how to help school districts stay open. Which is why I sent the 
letter in August.
    I asked about the $97.8 billion in testing money that was 
made available to HHS to learn how it was being administered, 
how schools were able to access this massive amount of money, 
and whether Head Start would have access to the money, and how 
we were accounting for the testing needs of private schools in 
your plan. Of course, the schools are still asking about 
testing. It seems you have failed to communicate to them how to 
access these dollars. I asked about the supply chain of test 
and your testing strategies, because people still cannot access 
rapid tests when stores are out of stock and people go back to 
waiting days for testing results.
    You have squandered the gains we have made in scaling up 
the capacity last year. I also asked about the $190 billion in 
funding for our schools and why 92 percent of that money still 
remains unspent. You can't have it both ways. Either the money 
was urgently needed and should be spent quickly, or schools 
don't need the money and it should be reallocated to other 
priorities tied to COVID.
    This isn't a slush fund for unrelated priorities of future 
needs. I also asked for a snapshot of basic data about 
infections, breakthrough cases, hospitalizations, and 
fatalities so we could have a clear picture of what is 
happening on the ground. You should have easy access to that 
data. There is no reason not to respond--respond in a timely 
manner to share with me and this Committee. I asked about the 
availability of therapeutics for children to help ensure that 
children who get COVID have access to life saving treatments 
and that parents and health professionals know about those in 
advance.
    I asked about the scientific evidence behind masks, because 
the more you can share sound science and data, the more you can 
use that to persuade people that science exists. When you 
resort to pounding the table, quite frankly, you are losing the 
argument. Which brings me to the inappropriate use of civil 
rights law by the Administration, which further politicizes the 
issue and ignores the importance of state and local policy 
decision-making.
    I believe that your civil rights investigation into states 
that have banned mask is counterproductive. The theory behind 
it is unwise, and the potential for abuse of our part--of our 
bipartisan civil rights laws causes grave harm to all of us. If 
you want to use the bully pulpit to encourage mask or you want 
to use the bully pulpit to criticize and condemn those who have 
banned mask mandates, that is the perk of your job. Developing 
preposterous legal theories and abusing the powers you have to 
try to bully your political opponents into submission is a step 
too far.
    I turn to you for your agency's help in developing clear 
and consistent answers to questions for my constituents, people 
around the country, and more importantly, my colleagues who 
will vote on what that pathway is in the future. Waiting for 
over a month for a reply is not acceptable. This is the first 
time either of you have appeared before our Committee since you 
were confirmed. If you aren't going to respond to oversight 
letters in a timely fashion, we certainly can't wait 6 months 
for you to reappear before this Committee again to answer 
critical questions from the American people.
    Maybe we should just ask you to appear before us once a 
month until the pandemic is over so that we make sure we are 
getting responses to these and other vital questions in a 
timely fashion. The reason I raise the importance of our 
oversight work is that it helps to inform us where to go 
legislatively. As we transition into the fall and winter, 
students and teachers will be spending more time indoors. We 
will likely see more cases of COVID, flu, and other respiratory 
illnesses.
    We will need to determine how to manage a potential surge 
in the demand for testing and treatments that will come with 
the holiday season. We need a clear, straightforward strategy 
of what must happen in the next 60 to 90 days and beyond so 
Americans don't have to spend another holiday season apart from 
their friends and their family. Last week, some of my 
colleagues and I wrote Jeffrey Zients to ask about the 
Administration's strategy, and I hope to get a more timely 
response from him than I have from the two of you. Finally, I 
need to take a few moments and confront the stonking at the 
picnic.
    The reckless spending tax and spend agenda of partisan 
majority is threatening to tear apart this Congress and the 
country. You have the barest of majorities, just three seats in 
the House. Only the vice President breaking the tie in the 
Senate. Republicans get the role of chair and--Democrats the 
roll a chair and Republicans the role of ranking. It is not the 
moment for grand and sweeping legislation to reshape every 
aspect of the American family on your own.
    It is unconscionable to take issues in this Committee's 
jurisdiction, propose to spend $723 billion on these priorities 
without a hearing, without a markup where we can offer 
amendments, without consulting anyone outside of those writing 
this terrible piece of legislation about the real world effects 
of these proposals on faith based providers, on small mom and 
pop childcare providers, on the cost of college and state 
oversight of community colleges.
    If you succeed in ramming through partisan legislation like 
this, Republicans and Democrats may no longer be able to agree 
on higher education or childcare or national service or even 
public health. Bipartisanship means getting some, not all of 
your wish list.
    Bipartisanship means having to accept the other side may 
have some good ideas. We reach on easy compromises here. We 
work ideas out so that more, not less, of the elected Members 
of Congress, the representatives of the American people can say 
yes. It is sometimes slow. It is frequently messy, but it 
brings about unity and lasting change that is supported by the 
American people. If that is not the goal, I don't know why any 
of us are here. Madam Chair, I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Burr. I will now introduce 
today's witnesses. Today the Committee will hear from Xavier 
Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Miguel 
Cardona, Secretary of Education. Secretary Becerra, Secretary 
Cardona, thank you both for joining us today. I am very pleased 
to welcome you back before this Committee and I look forward to 
your testimony. Secretary Becerra, we will begin with you.

STATEMENT OF HON. XAVIER BECERRA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN 
                    SERVICES, WASHINGTON, DC

    Secretary Becerra. Chair Murray, and Ranking Member Burr, 
it is a pleasure to appear before you alongside Secretary 
Cardona. At HHS, the health and safety of our students, their 
families, and our school personnel is our top priority, always 
not just during a pandemic. COVID has robbed so much from our 
children, a safe and comprehensive learning environment, a 
normal school year, time with mentors and friends.
    For some, the costs have been even greater. Roughly 40,000 
children have lost a parent to COVID-19, and more than 1.5 
million have lost a caregiver. The numbers only tell part of 
the story. It is the empty chair at the dinner table, the open 
seat in the bleachers. It is the quiet homes and crowded 
hospitals. It is not having the chance to say goodbye. That is 
the real story. We owe it to our children to make the classroom 
as safe, nurturing, and instructive as possible.
    Every step we take and take together can save lives. That 
is our mindset at HHS. Thanks to President Biden's leadership 
and robust funding from Congress, our Department has made 
critical investments in COVID mitigation to help schools stay 
open safely. We have learned a great deal in 18 months. 
Vaccination, masking, testing, increased hygiene, distancing, 
and improved ventilation all can significantly reduce COVID-19 
transmission when layered appropriately. And make no mistake, 
vaccinated Americans against COVID is the most effective 
prevention strategy for our schools.
    The science is clear. I call your attention to chart one. 
While the COVID-19 rate for children has increased nationwide, 
data from August show that children and adolescents in low 
vaccination states are being hospitalized at four times the 
rate of their peers in high vaccination states. Add in data for 
adults, and the lesson is undeniable.
    As you can see from chart two to today, COVID is attacking 
our children, or at least vaccinated population at rates even 
greater than adults in states with low vaccination rates. That 
is why this Administration is taking several steps to turn the 
Delta variant tide. HHS will require the nearly 300,000 
educators at Head Start programs to be vaccinated.
    Our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, is 
working with partners to broadcast the importance of 
vaccinating children, teachers, and school personnel. HHS is 
also coordinating public education campaign that lifts up more 
than 14,000 trusted community voices to remind everyone that 
vaccinations are safe and effective. Our Food and Drug 
Administration has reaffirmed it will follow the science on 
COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than 12. The agency is 
working around the clock.
    I am hopeful that pediatric COVID-19 vaccines will become 
available in the coming months for children 5 to 11 years of 
age. Our National Institutes of Health, NIH, is working to get 
parents and care providers the data they need to make good 
decisions for their kids, both today and for the long term. And 
thanks to the American Rescue Plan, community health centers 
have administered nearly half a million COVID vaccines to 12 to 
18 year olds and conducted more than 2,500 vaccination events 
at school based clinics, mobile vans, and pop up clinics. 
Testing is another cornerstone of our strategy.
    In April, HHS provided $10 billion for screening testing to 
help schools reopen safely, and more than $2 billion to scale 
up testing in underserved populations. We partnered with the 
Department of Defense to make $650 million in investments to 
expand testing opportunities for K through 8th schools in 
underserved congregate settings. Masking has also shown 
extraordinary results.
    On September 24th, CDC published data that showed schools 
without school mask requirements were three and a half times 
more likely to have a covered outbreak than schools with an in 
school mask requirement. The pandemic is not only taking lives, 
it is devastating our kids' mental health and we are not 
waiting to act. In May, HHS announced $14 million from the 
American Rescue Plan to expand access to mental health care by 
integrating telehealth services in pediatric care.
    We have made the largest investment ever in mental health 
and substance abuse block grants to states. And in August, our 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 
SAMHSA, announced additional grants to strengthen resources for 
our Nation's youth. This is just a snapshot of our efforts. 
Over the past 6 months, I have met with parents and teens in 
Georgia, visited the tribal leaders in Seattle, and farmworkers 
in California's Central Valley. I met with faith leaders in 
Oklahoma, families in Dallas, health workers at hospitals in 
New Orleans.
    Madam Chair, I have seen firsthand the resilience of our 
people. They are counting on us to keep their children, 
tomorrow's leaders, healthy and educated. But as Robert F. 
Kennedy reminded us, their future is not a gift, or a 
guarantee, it is an achievement.
    I appreciate your support for HHS through this crisis, and 
I am committed to working with all of you to achieve the 
healthy future for our children. And it is what they deserve. 
Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Secretary Becerra follows:]
                  prepared statement of xavier becerra
    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and distinguished Members of the 
Committee--thank you for inviting me to address you today, and for all 
of the work you're doing to help us end this pandemic and move our 
Nation forward.

    Secretary Cardona--it's a pleasure to appear with you.

    Today, I'm here to talk to you about our agency's response to 
COVID-19 and our efforts to keep kids healthy in the classroom--both 
during this pandemic and for years to come.

    Childhood should be a time of hope and possibility, not worry and 
despair. And yet, our Nation's children are living through one of the 
most challenging moments in modern history. The world as they knew it 
has been turned upside down, and we need to be there for them during 
this vulnerable time.

    At HHS, the health and safety of students, parents, school staff 
and educators, and school systems is a top priority. Thanks to the 
leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, and robust 
funding from the Congress, our agency has made critical investments in 
COVID-19 mitigation to help schools reopen safely, and we're seeing 
promising progress.

    Let me be clear: Schools have the tools to limit the spread of 
COVID-19. We can and must do everything to provide our children with a 
safe place to learn, especially as we continue to confront the more 
contagious Delta variant.

    The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC) show that, when prevention strategies are layered and implemented 
correctly, transmission within schools can be limited. We know that we 
will be confronting COVID-19 in our schools for the near future, but 
there are key strategies, including vaccinating, masking, testing, 
tracing, distancing, and improving ventilation, which can significantly 
reduce its transmission.

    But our efforts can't end there. Just as the Biden-Harris 
administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to this crisis, 
HHS is taking a whole-of-children approach. We are not just focused on 
protecting children from COVID-19 today. We want to keep them healthy 
long after this pandemic subsides. That means investing in mental 
health services, ensuring routine vaccinations, and conducting long-
term research so parents can make informed decisions about their 
children's health and future.

    Here's why each of these strategies is important, and what HHS and 
the Biden-Harris administration are doing to help schools implement 
them correctly and consistently.
                            I. VACCINATIONS
    Make no mistake: Vaccinating adults and children ages 12 and up 
against COVID-19 is the most efficient and effective prevention 
strategy to help schools safely return to full-time in-person learning 
as well as extracurricular activities and sports.

    Everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated immediately to help 
protect themselves from getting and spreading the virus that causes 
COVID-19, especially to those who cannot yet get vaccinated. This is 
especially important for children ages 12-15, who are currently 
eligible but whose vaccination rates remain low.

    The science is clear on this. And, sadly, so are the numbers. While 
the COVID-19 rate among children has increased across the country, the 
data show that children are becoming hospitalized at higher rates in 
states with low levels of vaccination.

    In August 2021, hospitalizations among children and adolescents 
living in states with low levels of vaccination increased 4 times more 
than hospitalizations in states with high levels of vaccination.

    That's why, on September 9, the Administration released the ``Path 
out of the Pandemic: President Biden's COVID-19 Action Plan.'' This 
bold blueprint calls for additional actions to ensure that all schools 
consistently implement science-based prevention strategies so they may 
stay open for in-person learning and maintain the health and safety of 
all students, staff, and families.

    Under the Action Plan, HHS will require the nearly 300,000 
educators at Head Start programs--which are funded by our 
Administration for Children and Families--to be vaccinated. President 
Biden also called on all Governors to require vaccinations for all 
teachers and staff--just as we are for teachers and staff in federally 
run programs.

    CDC is working with partners to spread the word about the 
importance of vaccination in school-aged children, teachers, and other 
school personnel. And at HHS, we have a public education campaign 
underway that involves lifting up the voices of 14,000-plus trusted 
messengers in communities across the country to remind everyone 
possible: vaccines are safe and effective.

    We launched a Back to School ``Week of Action'' in August to 
mobilize school districts, students, teachers, other school personnel, 
national organizations, local government leaders, businesses, social 
media influencers, celebrities, and thousands of volunteers to 
encourage young people to get vaccinated and offer accessible ways to 
do it in their community.

    We've worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the 
American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), and other 
organizations to incorporate COVID-19 vaccination into sports physicals 
for student athletes. We're working with the National Parent Teacher 
Association to equip parent leaders to host community conversations 
with pediatricians on vaccinations. And we're making it easier than 
ever for school districts to answer President Biden's call to host at 
least one pop-up vaccination clinic in the coming weeks. The Federal 
Retail Pharmacy Program continues to be an important component in our 
commitment to address the disproportionate and severe impact of COVID-
19 on communities of color and other populations who are medically 
underserved. More than 108 million vaccine doses have been administered 
and reported by retail pharmacies across programs in the United States. 
A total of 21 retail pharmacy partners are participating in the 
program, with more than 41,000 locations available online and 
administering doses nationwide. Overall, 44 percent of the doses 
administered through the program have gone to a person from a racial or 
ethnic minority group (among people with known race or ethnicity).

    As we ensure that those interacting with young children are 
vaccinated, we continue to make progress on vaccinations for children 
under age 12. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reaffirmed on 
September 10 that it will follow the science on COVID-19 vaccines for 
young children, sharing the steps the agency will take to ensure the 
safety and efficacy of vaccines for children.

    The agency is working around the clock. This review process is 
complex and relies on robust clinical trials and data, and while I 
cannot offer a specific date or timeline for when the trials and FDA's 
review of the data will be completed for each vaccine candidate, I can 
assure the public that we are working as quickly as possible to meet 
this critical public health need. And I'm hopeful that we will be able 
to make these pediatric COVID-19 vaccines available in the coming weeks 
and months.

    Our National Institutes of Health (NIH) is also working around the 
clock to get parents and care providers the data they need to make good 
decisions for their kids. When we knew that vaccines were safe in 
adults, NIH started working with manufacturers to test them in kids in 
a step-by-step approach. Now that teenagers are eligible, the NIH and 
manufacturers are actively reviewing data on the 5-112 age group, and 
we're collecting data from trials with children under the age of 5.

    When we heard from hospitals that some kids were getting severely 
sick, we activated existing pediatric research networks to understand 
which kids are at risk for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in 
children (MIS-C) and continue to look for best practices in treating 
them. We've folded long-term impacts on child development into our 
research plan and launched pilot programs on testing in schools to 
support superintendents and teachers.

    Community Health Centers represent another vital piece of our 
vaccination efforts. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we have funded 
over $7.3 billion in community health centers in our fight against 
COVID-19. With support from our Health Resources and Services 
Administration (HRSA), these centers have administered nearly half a 
million COVID-19 vaccines to 12-18 year-olds, and conducted more than 
2,500 vaccination events at school-based clinics, mobile vans, and pop-
up clinics. And in early September, HRSA awarded approximately $5 
million to 27 HRSA-funded health centers to expand school-based 
services.

    Finally, HHS is monitoring the horizon for a future where children 
younger than 12 are eligible to be vaccinated against this virus. We 
look forward to that day when all school children have the opportunity 
to be vaccinated.

    Those are just a few examples. As you can see, every division of 
our agency is playing their own critical role in getting our children 
and the Nation vaccinated against this deadly virus.
                        II. TESTING AND MASKING
    Testing is another important cornerstone of our strategy to make 
schools safe. Screening testing identifies infected people, including 
those with or without symptoms who may be contagious, so that measures 
can be taken to prevent further transmission. A modeling study found 
that weekly screening testing of students, teachers, and staff can 
reduce in-school infection by an estimated 50 percent. In April, HHS 
provided $10 billion for screening testing to help schools reopen 
safely, and more than $2 billion to scale up testing in underserved 
populations. We also partnered with the Department of Defense (DOD) to 
make a $650 million investment to expand testing opportunities for K-8 
schools and underserved congregate settings.

    As of September 17th, the FDA has authorized over 400 COVID-19 
tests, including 13 authorizations for rapid, at-home tests to increase 
availability and consumer choice. With a large number of tests now 
authorized, FDA's focus is on helping increase the availability of 
specific types of tests that will have the biggest impact in addressing 
ongoing COVID-19 national testing needs, consistent with the national 
testing strategy--including at-home tests and tests that can be used at 
the Point of Care (POC) to diagnose infection with SARS-CoV-2. FDA will 
continue to authorize at-home diagnostic tests that work while 
protecting our children from bad tests that produce false results.

    Right now, a majority of states are using POC testing as part of 
their primary strategy. This kind of testing is especially important in 
the school environment, where children often get sick from colds and 
other infections that may at first appear to be COVID-19, or vice-
versa.

    Schools establishing a screening program for asymptomatic 
individuals without known or suspected exposure may want to consider 
highly sensitive tests, tests with rapid turnaround times, pooling 
strategies to conserve testing supplies, and frequent serial testing.

    One study found that, among five programs with regular screening 
testing (at least weekly) of most students and staff in the fall of 
2020, one-third to two-thirds of total COVID-19 cases identified in the 
schools were identified through screening.

    When all of this is done in concert with other mitigation factors--
such as universal and correct indoor masking--the results are clear.

    On September 24, CDC published three reports highlighting the 
importance of COVID-19 prevention measures in schools to protect 
students, teachers, and staff and keep schools open.

    First, schools without in-school mask requirements were 3.5 times 
more likely to have a COVID-19 outbreak than schools with an in-school 
mask requirement. The second report showed that while 96 percent of 
schools have offered in-person learning during the 2021-2022 school 
year, COVID-19 continues to cause disruptions as closures due to COVID-
19 have affected more than 900,000 students. The third report showed 
that counties without school mask requirements experienced larger 
increases in pediatric COVID-19 case rates after the start of school 
compared with counties that had school mask requirements. These 
findings reinforce the importance of following CDC recommendations to 
limit spread of COVID-19 in K-12 schools including wearing masks 
indoors and vaccinating all eligible students, teachers, and staff.
               III. VENTILATION, TRACING, AND DISTANCING
    CDC guidance makes clear that K-12 schools should prioritize in-
person learning, and that schools can safely operate in-person by 
implementing layered prevention strategies (using multiple strategies 
together consistently) in alignment with CDC recommendations. Studies 
show that schools that consistently implemented layered prevention 
strategies showed lower or similar levels of transmission than the 
communities in which they are located. Vaccinations, testing, and 
masking are not the only important tools to help prevent the spread of 
disease. Good ventilation is another critical COVID-19 prevention 
strategy for schools. This can reduce the number of virus particles in 
the air and the likelihood of spreading disease.

    In this case, reduced ventilation was shown to increase 
transmission risk even more in a classroom already at risk due to 
crowding, lack of distancing, and no masking requirement.

    Another study of K-5 schools in Georgia last fall found that COVID-
19 incidence was 39 percent lower in schools that improved ventilation 
and 37 percent lower in schools that required teachers and staff 
members to use masks.

    Combined with appropriate distancing and timely contact tracing, 
these strategies can significantly reduce the rate of infection in 
schools. Just this month a study from Arizona showed that the odds of 
school-associated COVID-19 outbreak in schools without a mask 
requirement were 3.5 times higher than those in schools with an early 
mask requirement.
                          IV. BEYOND COVID-19
    Of course, this pandemic has robbed our children of far more than 
just normal school years. Roughly 40,000 children have lost a parent to 
COVID-19, and more than 1.5 million have lost a caregiver.

    These numbers are heartbreaking. But it's more than the numbers. 
It's the empty chair at the dinner table or the open seat in the 
bleachers. It's the home that's a little too quiet, and the hospital 
that's a little too crowded. It's not even having the chance to say 
goodbye.

    All of this is affecting our kids and impacting their mental 
health. Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen a disturbing rise 
in youth anxiety and depression. We also know that the pandemic has 
exacerbated a broad range of issues like food and housing insecurity, 
coping with loss, and racial/ethnic inequities. In addition, school 
closures, loss of income, and social isolation during the pandemic, all 
of which contribute to heightened stress, may have increased the risk 
for children and youth to Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. All 
these factors may increase mental health challenges in youth, including 
stress, depression, and anxiety.

    But this mental health crisis began long before COVID-19. Between 
2007 and today, the overall suicide rate for youth ages 10 to 24 
increased more than 50 percent. Suicide rates in certain groups, such 
as LGBTQ youth and youth of color, are also of concern. According to 
the Trevor Project's National Survey on LGBTQ Youth and Mental Health 
2021, more than 40 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide 
in the past year.

    The data is clear and devastating, and the Biden-Harris 
administration is not waiting to act. We are committed to continuing to 
address this multi-faceted issue to support the social, emotional, and 
physical health of our Nation's youth.

    HHS has invested billions of dollars to provide resources and 
increase access to mental health services for vulnerable groups, 
including children and youth. I want to take a moment to acknowledge 
that this Committee has been invaluable in these efforts. You all 
continue to ensure that HHS has the support we need to prioritize 
mental health care. Thank you.

    In May, HHS announced $14.2 million from the American Rescue Plan 
to expand mental health care access that will integrate telehealth 
services into pediatric care.

    We have released nearly $3.8 billion through the mental health 
block grants and $4.8 billion in substance use block grants to states. 
This is the largest-ever investment ever made in these two programs. 
And in August, our Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA) announced even more grants to strengthen mental 
health resources for our Nation's youth.

    Again, because of prioritization from this Committee, we are 
committing $80 million in supplemental funding to Project Advancing 
Wellness and Resiliency in Education (AWARE), which helps build or 
expand state and local governments' coordination to increase awareness 
of mental health issues among school-aged youth.

    We have provided nearly $1 billion in both supplemental and annual 
funding in fiscal year 2021 to Certified Community Behavioral Health 
Centers (CCBHCs), and we are investing in mental health first aid, 
including more than $17 million we're releasing to programs today.

    In fiscal year 2021, we provided $12 million in annual funding to 
CDC to work upstream and support states and communities. This includes 
implementing a comprehensive suicide prevention approach with a focus 
on populations disproportionately impacted by suicide, including youth, 
racial/ethnic minority populations, and others at increased risk.

    We also provided $5 million to CDC to better understand the burden 
of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in their communities and engage 
in strategies that can prevent ACEs from occurring, in order to help to 
promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments where 
children live, learn, and play. This work is a shared and mutual 
priority of the Biden-Harris administration.

    As millions of children go back to school, HHS is also elevating 
mental health resources for supporting students and staff. That's why 
in May, I announced a cross-department behavioral health coordinating 
council to drive change and action across all agencies in HHS. One of 
the dedicated subcommittees of this council focuses on addressing 
barriers and improving the coordination of behavioral health services 
and supports for children and youth. A national problem calls for 
Department-wide coordination, so we need to get outside of our silos 
and act together.

    I look forward to driving prevention initiatives across the 
department and building on the investments we have made already in our 
Nation's youth. And I appreciate this Committee's commitment to these 
critical programs.

    As our kids come back, we need to meet them where they are with the 
critical health care services they need and deserve--not just for the 
visible scars of this crisis, but for the invisible ones as well. HHS 
is committed to partnering with youth, families, and communities to 
ensure that children and youth have the support they need.
                             V. CONCLUSION
    I'm deeply proud of the work our department and the Biden-Harris 
administration are doing to fight COVID-19, help schools reopen safely, 
and protect our communities. And as Secretary, I have not been content 
to simply view this work from the halls of the Humphrey Building.

    Over the past 6 months, I have traveled the country to engage 
communities directly about this pandemic and the importance of getting 
vaccinated. I visited the Indian Health Board in Seattle and a 
farmworkers vaccination clinic in Salinas, California. I toured a 
health center in Oklahoma and a community hospital in Massachusetts, a 
testing clinic in Nevada, and our own CDC Headquarters in Georgia. I've 
met with patients and providers, parents and educators, health workers 
and tribal elders. At every stop along the way, parents raised the 
importance of their children's health, wellness, and education.

    While I have certainly witnessed the devastation of this pandemic 
on these trips, I have also seen the resilience of our people. They 
have weathered the worst of this storm with remarkable courage, and now 
they are counting on us--their representatives--to keep their children 
safe.

    Yes, our children are tomorrow's leaders, but they are today's 
priority. And we need to give them the tools and resources to thrive. 
That starts with keeping them healthy--both mentally and physically.

    Many of the challenges facing the health of our Nation's children 
began long before this pandemic, and they will remain long after--
unless we do something about them.

    I'm committed to working hand-in-hand with all of you on these 
issues, and I appreciate your support of HHS through this crisis.

    Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and Members of this Committee: 
Robert F. Kennedy reminded us that the future is not a gift. It is an 
achievement. We have a lot of work to do to achieve the kind of future 
our children deserve. But if we're committed, if we're determined, and 
most of all, if we work together, I believe we can make that future a 
reality.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you, Secretary Becerra. I will turn it 
over to Secretary Cardona for his statement.

   STATEMENT OF HON. MIGUEL CARDONA, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, 
                         WASHINGTON, DC

    Secretary Cardona. Good morning, Chair Murray and Ranking 
Member Burr. I am honored to be alongside my colleague and 
friend Secretary Xavier Becerra, speaking about the critical 
work of safely reopening our Nation's schools for in-person 
learning. President Biden made it clear on his first day that 
getting all students safely into the classroom is a top 
priority. That has been my priority as well.
    I am proud that the vast majority of America's 50 million 
students are in school full time learning in person. Schools 
are the heartbeat of communities. They are like second families 
to students and staff. They are thrilled to beat together 
again. In many areas, schools are the only place where students 
have access to STEM laboratories, music and theater, 
gymnasiums, social services, and nutritious meals. Especially 
amid the pandemic, schools also empower parents and caregivers 
to get back to work and access the vital services that they 
need themselves.
    Last week I visited 5 states and 11 cities during the 
Department of Education's return to school road trip. I saw 
sheer joy, the joy that students and educators feel about being 
back together, learning in person. My team and I saw students 
reconnecting with friends in band practice, on the basketball 
court, in the classrooms, and yes, even in the cafeterias. The 
Biden administration has worked hard to help make that a 
reality. Schools are the most effective means of ensuring 
students receive the academic, social, emotional, and mental 
health support they need to thrive. First, the American Rescue 
Plan, or ARP, has been a historic lifeline.
    Our education system didn't serve our students well before 
the pandemic, particularly students of color and students from 
low income backgrounds. With $130 billion, ARP is empowering 
states, school districts and educators to safely reopen schools 
and address education inequities that COVID-19 highlighted and 
in many cases made worse. But these funds are just the first 
step.
    At the Department of Education, we are a service agency. We 
are supporting districts to implement ARP funds and sharing 
best practices. We have released multiple resources and have 
convened conversations with education leaders to provide 
tailored support for schools and districts. We spent a lot of 
time listening. Our work is far from over, but we have seen 
great progress. When the Biden administration took office, 23 
percent of K-8 schools were operating fully remote.
    By May, just 2 percent were remote. I am proud to say that 
we are going to be launching a data dashboard soon where you 
can see re-opening data throughout the country in real time. 
Currently, about 96 percent of school districts are fully 
reopened for in-person learning. Only a handful are utilizing 
hybrid or remote models for brief periods to contain the spread 
of COVID-19. While we must stay vigilant, I am proud to say 
that despite an increase in a variant of COVID-19 about a month 
before school started, America is back to school.
    Moving forward we will promote health and safety in 
schools, we will support students' social and emotional needs, 
and we will accelerate students' academic learning. And health 
and safety, we know mitigation strategies work. The data is 
proving that. We cannot risk another year of shuttered 
classrooms and canceled sports performances or extracurricular 
activities. We owe it to our students, and we owe it to our 
families to follow the science and implement evidence based 
mitigation strategies in our schools such as masking and 
physical distancing.
    Regarding our students' social and emotional development, 
they have suffered enough. Students' wellness must be factored 
into the reopening. School districts are determining their 
students' needs and hiring social workers and school 
psychologists and implementing new mental health supports. And 
finally, we are assisting school districts in their work to 
address lost instructional time. Not only as an educator, but 
as a father, I can tell you that learning in front of a 
computer is no substitute for in-person learning. Districts are 
using ARP funds to invest in tutoring, extend the learning 
time, and much more.
    Despite the adversity we faced, I am more optimistic about 
the future of education than ever before. I have seen teachers 
face unprecedented challenges with determination, creativity, 
and an unwavering love for their students. I have seen families 
come together to support the education of the children.
    I have seen education leaders make tough decisions knowing 
that they are not always going to be popular, but they are 
putting the students' needs first. And I have seen students 
flourish. Their resilience is our inspiration at the Department 
of Education. States are using ARP to build back better. The 
education system we had before March 2020 is not the goal. We 
can and we must do better. Thank you. And I look forward to 
your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Secretary Cardona follows:]
                  prepared statement of miguel cardona
    Good morning, Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr.

    It is a pleasure to speak to you today alongside Secretary Becerra 
about the critical work of safely reopening our Nation's schools and 
campuses and setting all students up for success this school year.

    President Biden made clear on the first day of his Administration 
that getting all of our students safely back into the classroom for 
full-time in-person learning was one of his top priorities. We know 
that school buildings are so much more than four walls and a roof. They 
are the heartbeat of towns and cities across the Nation. Schools are 
where our young people come together to learn side by side, and forge 
deep bonds with their classmates and teachers. Schools are where our 
students play, and develop critical social, emotional, mental health, 
and academic skills, and where they explore their passions in the 
theaters, laboratories, gymnasiums, art rooms, and computer science 
labs that can only be found on school grounds. And schools allow for 
parents and caregivers to get back to work and for students to access 
critical school services, including nutritious meals, counseling, and 
social services. In short, school buildings are the best vehicles we 
have for empowering our young people to live up to their full potential 
and to maintain vibrant and thriving communities.

    Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, our 
expectations have been consistent and clear--we want all schools to 
safely offer all families 5 days a week of full-time, in-person 
learning. At the U.S. Department of Education this remains our top 
priority, and for the past several months, under the leadership of 
President Biden, the Department of Education, the Department of Health 
and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, and many more, Federal officials have been working 
tirelessly to support a healthy, equitable, and joyful return to 
school.

    While the work is far from done, we saw these efforts pay off last 
winter and spring. In January, when the Biden-Harris administration 
took office, 23 percent of all K-8 schools were operating fully 
remotely, leaving millions of students without the ability to learn in-
person, and many without access to remote learning even when offered. 
By May, the percent of all K-8 school operating fully remotely had 
dropped to only 2 percent and nearly every school in America was 
offering in-person learning. Early estimates from this school year show 
that about 96 percent of school districts are offering families fully 
in-person instruction. Only a small percentage of schools are switching 
on a temporary basis to a hybrid or remote model to contain the spread 
of an outbreak in the school and then quickly returning to in-person 
once it is deemed safe, and a proper quarantine process has completed.
Steps the Biden-Harris Administration has Taken to Accelerate the Safe 
                          Reopening of Schools
    The Biden-Harris administration has taken several critical steps 
thus far to help States and local school districts safely reopen our 
Nation's schools, and support schools in meeting the social, emotional, 
mental health, and academic needs of our students.

    Funding

          We provided $122 billion in American Rescue Plan 
        Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds 
        to help schools safely reopen--including to implement 
        strategies recommend by the CDC to prevent transmission of 
        COVID in schools, address inequities exacerbated by the 
        pandemic, and support the social, emotional, mental health, and 
        academic needs of students.

          The Department of Education also distributed $800 
        million in American Rescue Plan funding to help States and 
        school districts identify students experiencing homelessness 
        and provide wraparound services to support their full 
        participation in school activities.

          We released more than $3 billion under the American 
        Rescue Plan to support children with disabilities, helping more 
        than 7.9 million infants, toddlers, and students with 
        disabilities across the country.

          In April, the Department of Health and Human Services 
        distributed $10 billion in funding for COVID-19 screening 
        testing for teachers, staff, and students in K-12 schools.

          FEMA is providing 100 percent reimbursement for 
        school reopening costs.

    Resources to support state and local leaders

          Our Department has provided three volumes of the 
        COVID-19 Handbook focused on safely reopening schools and 
        meeting the needs of students in K-12 and higher education, and 
        launched a clearinghouse of best practices to share with 
        educators across the Nation.

          The Biden-Harris administration, including the 
        Department of Education, has also released several resource and 
        guidance documents to support the implementation of best 
        practices on ventilation; hosting school-based vaccine clinics; 
        using community school approaches to meet the needs of the 
        whole child; strategies for effective instruction when students 
        are temporarily unable to attend school in-person, like when 
        they are in isolation or quarantine; addressing lost 
        instructional time, including the impact on the mental health 
        of students; and supporting all students' rights in educational 
        environments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

          Our technical assistance has included the ``Lessons 
        from the Field'' webinar series, which has focused on a range 
        of issues including safely reopening and sustaining in-person 
        operations, improving indoor air quality, addressing mental 
        health needs, and re-engaging the students most impacted by the 
        pandemic. We also launched the Summer Learning and Enrichment 
        Collaborative to bring states, school districts, and community-
        based organizations together to focus on evidence-based summer 
        interventions to support students' social, emotional, mental 
        health, and academic success.

          Our Office for Civil Rights released a Question and 
        Answer document that provides answers to common questions about 
        schools' responsibilities under the civil rights laws and is 
        designed to help students, families, schools and the public 
        support all students' rights in educational environments. We 
        published Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of 
        COVID-19 on America's Students, a report that explores how the 
        impacts of COVID-19 are falling disproportionately on students 
        who went into the pandemic with the fewest educational 
        opportunities. We also released a fact sheet that provides 
        information about "long COVID" as a disability, and, together 
        with the Department of Justice, we put out a fact sheet on 
        Confronting COVID-19-Related Harassment in Schools.

    Vaccinations

          The Biden-Harris administration has prioritized 
        vaccine access for school staff, by issuing a directive making 
        teachers eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in March, setting a 
        goal of getting all school staff who wanted the vaccination to 
        be able to get at least one shot in the month of March, and 
        resulting in about 90 percent of educators vaccinated today.

          The Biden-Harris administration is also working to 
        expand access to the vaccine for young people, by issuing a 
        call to school districts to host onsite, pop-up vaccination 
        clinics at schools, in partnership with the Federal pharmacy 
        program; and incorporating COVID-19 vaccination into sports 
        physicals for student athletes.

                        Return to School Roadmap
    For the 2021-2022 school year, we launched our Return to School 
Roadmap for parents, educators, schools, and districts to prepare for 
the safe and sustained reopening of schools this fall. The roadmap 
includes actionable resources and examples from the field on how to 
address our three priorities in returning to in-person learning safely: 
(1) prioritizing the health and safety of students, school personnel 
and families, (2) building school communities and supporting students' 
social, emotional, and mental health, and (3) accelerating academic 
achievement by addressing learning gaps accumulated from lost 
instructional time.

    I will touch briefly on each of these three pillars, and now that 
the school year has begun, will provide a quick glimpse into the 
incredible work we are continuing to see from school communities across 
the country in these three areas.
              Ensuring Safe and Healthy In-Person Learning
    We learned last school year that with the right safety measures in 
place, schools can safely offer in-person learning to all families 5 
days a week. Studies show that schools that consistently implemented 
layered prevention strategies--as recommended by CDC guidance--showed 
lower or similar levels of transmission than the communities in which 
they are located. This is due to the heroic work of our teachers, 
school leaders, and school staff, who were able to implement mitigation 
strategies while also keeping learning fun, engaging, and high-quality.

    For the current school year, CDC guidance makes clear that K-12 
schools should prioritize in-person learning and do so by continuing to 
implement layered prevention strategies (using multiple strategies 
together consistently). This includes helping everyone eligible get 
vaccinated, universal and correct indoor masking regardless of 
vaccination status, diligent sanitization and hygiene practices, using 
contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine, improving 
ventilation, and maintaining physical distance to the maximum extent 
possible.

    There are so many great examples of districts using ARP dollars to 
go above and beyond to safely reopen schools for students. We know that 
effective ventilation systems clean and disperse air, decreasing the 
risk of various airborne illnesses including COVID-19. We also know 
that our Nation's underserved students are attending schools that often 
do not have effective ventilation systems. Adequate ventilation has 
been a concern in Philadelphia's school buildings. The district 
responded to concerns by using their funds to purchase air and surface 
purifiers to reduce the number of contaminants in the air.

    We know that vaccines are the best way to prevent the spread of 
COVID-19. To support vaccine access, several Maine municipalities and 
district sites also served as vaccination sites in the spring of 2021, 
and this fall many are working with local providers to host COVID-19 
vaccine clinics for age eligible students and staff. South Carolina has 
launched a vaccine community confidence campaign complete with toolkits 
and easily distributed materials for families. Minnesota has developed 
and promoted the Roll Up Your Sleeves campaign to increase vaccination 
rates, which includes targeted outreach to 12-17-year-olds as well as 
connecting local public health departments to school districts and 
charter schools to provide onsite school vaccination clinics for 
students, staff, and community members.

    To support testing, New Mexico is leveraging ARP dollars to offer 
screening testing for students and staff at all of their schools. 
Alaska is facilitating diagnostic and screening testing in schools and 
will continue to work with its state Department of Health and Social 
Services to provide resources and supports for mitigations plans for 
districts and schools.

    We also know that there are some states that are standing in the 
way of school districts implementing strategies aligned with CDC 
guidance to maintain health and safety. To support local educational 
agencies (LEAs) that adopt and implement strategies to prevent the 
spread of COVID-19 consistent with the guidance from the CDC, the 
Department of Education launched the Project to Support America's 
Families and Educators (Project SAFE) grant program. Project SAFE is 
intended to improve students' safety and well-being by providing 
funding to LEAs that are financially penalized for doing so by their 
state educational agency (SEA) or other state entity. The Department 
has awarded the first two Project SAFE grants, which will protect 
students in Alachua County (FL) Public Schools and Broward County (FL) 
Public Schools.
            Social and Emotional Learning and Mental Health
    We know that in order to excel academically, students need a strong 
social and emotional foundation. Students have suffered so much over 
the past 18 months, and we cannot unlock a student's potential unless 
we also help them heal and recover from all the trauma and hardship the 
pandemic has brought. For many students, schools are the only place 
where they can access mental health professionals, school counselors, 
nurses, and support structures they need--including their friends--to 
help them through the adversity of the last year. I'm pleased that 
across the country, we're seeing American Rescue Plan funds being used 
to prioritize our students' mental health needs, and tend to their 
social and emotional development, by hiring more of these invaluable 
education professionals.

    Nevada is reserving ARP funds to hire 100 school-based mental 
health professionals, , and Alaska is using ARP funds to help social 
workers offer key services to remote districts such as virtual lessons 
in self-care and methods to reduce student stress, depression, and 
anxiety. ARP funding will also allow the Kansas Department of Education 
to address a state-wide shortage in licensed professionals trained to 
address the documented social and emotional needs of students. 
According to Communities in Schools (CIS), CIS of Washington is 
expanding integrated student support services to four counties and 16 
rural schools with ARP funding, anticipating serving approximately 
2,500 students. The New York City Department of Education is using ARP 
funding to hire over 600 mental health professionals to provide care as 
students returned back this fall. This means that every school will 
have at least one full-time social worker or school-based mental health 
clinic.
            Addressing the Impact of Lost Instructional Time
    Every parent and caregiver across the country knows how challenging 
the last year was for our students. It was tough for us adults, too--
with many of us taking on the role of parent and teacher at home. I 
want to give thanks to all the parents and caregivers across America.

    Over the last year, what was made clear is that sitting behind a 
screen simply isn't the same for most children as learning in a 
classroom among their peers. And we know that many students may have 
been disconnected from their school communities for weeks, months, and 
for some, over a year.

    It's our responsibility--as leaders and as educators--to do 
everything in our power to help our students excel. This is especially 
important for communities hardest hit by the pandemic, who may have 
been furthest from the opportunity to learn and succeed to begin with. 
This means investing in building teacher capacity to meet students 
where they are and accelerate learning, high-quality, evidence-based 
tutoring programs, extended learning options, and other opportunities 
to support student academic success during the school year.

    Many state leaders are meeting this challenge. The Louisiana 
Department of Education will allocate ARP funds to school systems 
through grants that prioritize those students most impacted by the 
pandemic. The State's plan emphasizes accelerating learning--which 
connects instruction to new learning rather than remediation--and 
includes tutoring in reading and math. North Carolina is seeking to 
address the impact of lost instructional time through interventions 
such as $30 million for high-impact tutoring statewide, $19 million for 
updated assessment tools and new testing platforms, and $35 million for 
a competitive grant program for summer school and after-school 
extensions. New Hampshire has launched the Recovering Bright Futures 
program which creates for students who suffer from anxiety or who have 
experienced learning loss, small, in-person, multi-age learning pods. 
Students receive individualized instruction and participate in project-
based instruction in the pods, with the goal of rekindling curiosity 
and accelerating learning so they can catch up with their peers.
                          Building Back Better
    If prioritized together, the three landmarks in the Return to 
School Roadmap will enable more students and communities to heal, 
learn, and grow together this fall. However, we cannot go back to the 
way things were in March 2020. Our students deserve more. The American 
Rescue Plan built a strong foundation for us to begin to recover. It 
has empowered schools across the country to bring their students back 
into the building and address critical social, emotional, mental 
health, and academic priorities. But we owe it to our students to Build 
Back Better from the pandemic and overcome the inequities that existed 
prior, and we can do so by passing the Build Back Better agenda.

    From creating universal high-quality preschool, to fixing our 
Nation's school infrastructure, to investing in educators, to improving 
career pathways, to providing free community college, we have an 
opportunity right now to transform American public education for 
generations to come. We can build truly equitable schools that finally 
close the opportunity and achievement gaps that have existed in our 
education systems for far too long. We can set all our children up for 
success by investing in our strongest asset--our people--and ensuring 
that America remains competitive in a global economy. These resources 
will allow us to build an education system more equitable and excellent 
than ever, where every student--no matter their race, ethnicity, 
religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, income, disability 
status, age or background, is seen, valued, and set up to succeed.
                               Conclusion
    Thank you again for the opportunity to share about our priorities 
for a safe, joyful, and equitable launch of this school year. I am 
committed to working collaboratively with each of you and to set all of 
our students up for success.

    Thank you, and I will do my best to respond to any questions you 
may have.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Secretary Cardona. We will 
now begin a round of 5 minute questions and I ask my colleagues 
to please keep track of the clock and stay within those 5 
minutes. And I will begin. Secretaries Cardona and Becerra, it 
has been a challenge over the last year and a half to know how 
to keep ourselves and our families safe, especially when it 
comes to our children and schools. Some states and localities 
are following the science and public health guidance and 
putting in place safety measures. Others are not.
    In fact, in some schools, basic measures to keep students 
safe are prohibited by extreme Republicans politicizing masks 
and vaccines. A recent survey showed the majority of parents of 
color needed ventilation in classrooms, vaccinated teachers, 
social distancing, masking and COVID-19 testing in place to 
feel safe sending their children to school in person.
    Yet, we know these things are not happening consistently 
for our families. I think it would be helpful for parents and 
families to hear straight from each of you the following. One, 
when should a child wear a mask and what additional measures 
should schools be taking to keep kids safe? Secretary Cardona, 
I will start with you.
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you for the question. And we share 
that goal to make sure that we are building confidence in our 
schools, so parents feel comfortable sending their children, 
all children. And it has been very clear. We have a year's 
worth of experience doing this already, not only at the state 
level. Before we had vaccines, before we had the testing 
protocols, before we had a year's worth of experience, we were 
safely reopening schools because we followed what works.
    I will tell you, I will start off by saying it is really 
important as educators that we work really closely with our 
health experts like we are doing at the Department with HHS, 
CDC, and our U.S. Surgeon General to make sure that we are 
listening to medical experts when we are making decisions. 
Masks prevent the spread of COVID-19. And in schools that have 
high spread, and which we are seeing across the country, it is 
critically important that masks are being utilized. The 
promotion of vaccinations for students that are eligible is 
critically important to reduce spread and make sure that the 
illness isn't serious if students do contract COVID-19.
    Quarantining when students are--do have COVID or are were 
exposed to someone that did until they are able to get tested, 
that is critically important. Our schools must be safe for 
learning, and we have to make sure we are communicating what we 
are doing to keep students safe. It is our responsibility to 
follow the science. As my colleague here, Secretary Becerra has 
shown, in places that do follow the mitigation strategies, we 
are able to keep students in the classroom without disruption. 
It is our responsibility to keep our students and our staff 
safe.
    The Chair. Secretary Becerra.
    Secretary Becerra. Madam Chair, the evidence has spoken. 
The science is clear. Vaccines are the safest, most effective 
route to keeping our kids safe. Even if you are under the age 
of 12, it is still important for everyone who can vaccinate to 
vaccinate, to keep everyone, including our children, under the 
age of 12 safe. Masks, the Arizona study showed very clearly 
those places that don't use masks in school are three and a 
half times more likely to create an outbreak in the school than 
those schools that do use masks.
    As Senator Burr said, it is common sense. None of us here 
probably would enter a car and start driving without buckling 
up. 50 years ago, some people protested using seatbelts. Today, 
we don't. We know how safe and effective they are. Same thing 
with vaccines, same thing with mask, same thing with social 
distancing. Same thing with better ventilation. Same thing with 
better hygiene.
    We know what works. It is common sense. And I would just 
tell each and every parent, please use common sense. Don't let 
anyone stop you from protecting your kids.
    The Chair. Thank you to both of you. Since the early days 
of this pandemic, I have been very focused on making sure 
testing is widely available as a tool to prevent and respond to 
outbreaks. And I was, as you all know, frustrated at the Trump 
administration's failure to articulate a testing strategy and 
address supply shortages, and communicate clearly and 
effectively. I have pushed very hard to make progress on that 
front. I know the Biden administration moved quickly to fix 
many of the early issues with testing.
    But I want you to know I am troubled, however, by the 
continuing testing challenges, which includes some schools not 
having access to enough tests. Right now, we know testing would 
be a critical part of safely reopening schools, especially for 
those students who are too young to get vaccinated. So, 
Secretary Becerra, I wanted to ask you, what specific steps is 
the Federal Government taking to make sure tests are accessible 
to schools and what guidance is being provided to make sure 
they are being used effectively?
    Secretary Becerra. Madam Chair, first, I want to make sure 
it is clear there is a supply of test kits available. It is 
that the demand has grown dramatically and the demand for 
certain types of tests so that the distribution has been 
difficult to get to certain places. But generally speaking, 
nationwide, there is sufficient total testing capacity across 
the Nation to meet our needs. And this includes the combining 
of all lab-based point of care and over the counter testing. 
What have we done? Well, you are probably aware that earlier 
this month President Biden announced the use of the Defense 
Production Act so that we could procure some $2 billion in 
rapid point of care tests and over the counter at home COVID 
tests.
    We are going to continue to mobilize and work with our 
industry partners to make sure that we can get into contracts 
that allow for multiple testing manufacturers to expand 
production. And we are actively engaged with states to mitigate 
supply chain constraints while the domestic manufacturing 
expands to meet the demand.
    But we have seen in the last few months demand increase 
month over month, some 300 to 650 percent, and it has been a 
demand that has not been evenly spread. And that is why you see 
pockets where people say there is a shortage. There is 
sufficient supply, it is just getting it at the right places 
and coordinating well.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Burr.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I welcome the 
Secretaries this morning. Secretary Becerra, you had a bit of 
an enterprise in the U.S. Government that incorporates many of 
the agencies that dragged COVID policy in this country. Let me 
ask you, are you supportive of a mandate for COVID vaccines for 
12 year olds and over in K through 12 education?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, thank you for the question. 
This Administration from the President on down has been very 
supportive of moving forward with requirements to make sure 
that our people are safe.
    Senator Burr. It is a very specific question. Do you 
support mandating that 12 year olds and over in K through 12 be 
vaccinated?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, again, if you ask me the 
question, as a Secretary of Health and Human Services, I can 
tell you that my jurisdiction does not include schools and 
requiring 12 year olds.
    Senator Burr. But you represent an enterprise that drives 
all of the policies that go into COVID. Does the HHS Secretary, 
is he supportive of mandating that K through 12, 12 years and 
over that they mandatorily be vaccinated?
    Secretary Becerra. I am very supportive, both personally 
and as Secretary of Health and Human Services of a school 
district, of a local jurisdiction, of a Governor that says it 
is time to keep our kids in school safe, and we will therefore 
move toward requiring masks or vaccinations, but I am----
    Senator Burr. But not the Federal Government?
    Secretary Becerra. The Federal Government doesn't have 
jurisdiction to tell schools what to do.
    Senator Burr. Okay. Secretary Cardona, do you believe that 
parents ought to control whether their children are vaccinated 
and whether they are and have input into what their children 
are taught in K through 12?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator. I 
do believe the role of educating students should involve 
parental involvement. And I do believe that schools are 
adequately able to engage student parents through that process.
    Senator Burr. Now, you do support mandates on 12 year olds 
and over in K through 12, because you and I had a conversation 
on the phone on that, right?
    Secretary Cardona. I support efforts that states, and 
districts are doing to protect students and staff so that they 
can continue with in-person learning.
    Senator Burr. Does that mean you are opposed to a Federal 
mandate of children 12 and over in K through 12, a Federal 
mandate that would require all of them to be vaccinated?
    Secretary Cardona. I believe that the decision about 
mandating should be at the state and local level. And I support 
the efforts being made to promote vaccines and require them in 
places where we know spread is high. In fact, the data show 
that in places where the vaccination rates are highest, there 
is less interruptions in learning. And the goal is to safely 
reopen schools, but also to keep them open.
    Senator Burr. Both of you have put great emphasis on the 
data that is behind the decisions you make. Secretary Becerra, 
the President made an announcement on August the 18th that 
boosters would be available on September 20th for all 
Americans. Clearly he was out in front of the scientific data. 
Why would we set an arbitrary date and tell the American people 
you will all get a booster if you have gone 8 months past your 
initial boost?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, I think the President has been 
very clear throughout. He believes in vaccinating America, and 
he believes that he should be vaccinated as well. When he 
mentioned September 20th, what he was telegraphing to the 
country is get ready. We are going to start vaccinating, 
getting that boost as soon as we can. Of course, the science 
will drive the ultimate result, as we have seen as well.
    Senator Burr. Well, you have got five agencies under your 
leadership, CDC, FDA, Surgeon General, NIH, NIAID, and they all 
wrote a letter, they all signed a letter. Let me just read to 
you what it says. We are prepared to offer booster shots to all 
Americans beginning the week of September 20th and starting 8 
months after the individual second dose. There is no clarifier 
in this.
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, I think if you read the rest of 
the letter, you will see that it does put a qualifier saying, 
subject to the science.
    Senator Burr. Secretary, one of the challenges that we have 
today is that the communications message is so muddled that the 
American people don't know what to believe and what not to 
believe. In large measure, because one can interpret this is a 
decision was made before the scientific data was available. 
What if the scientific data had not come out on the 20th? What 
if a decision could not have been made then? I think we share a 
bipartisan belief that we have tried from the beginning to 
follow the science.
    Secretary Cardona, I am concerned that taxpayers and 
lawmakers will never know what the $191 billion appropriated 
for K through 12 pandemic relief paid for. According to the 
information my staff received from the Department of Education, 
as of September 10th, K through 12 schools spent $18 billion, 
less than 10 percent of the $191 billion of Federal coronavirus 
emergency relief money appropriated at the end of March, and 
GAO reported that the Department's current method to track 
funding will not let lawmakers know how these funds are being 
used to address pandemic related needs of children. And the 
Department agreed to do something about it. What have you done?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you, Senator. The funds that were 
provided for our schools are really funds provided for our 
students to help them recover. And I have seen firsthand in my 
visits to states the creative ways districts are reengaging 
students and reconnecting those school communities.
    As a former Commissioner of Education, I can tell you 
firsthand states are going to first use their ESSER I money. 
But we also know that this is a--the path to recovery from the 
pandemic and from the impact on children is going to take more 
than 1 year. We do have a data dashboard on the drawdown, and 
we are going to continue to get information on that. We have an 
outreach team that works directly with our states, not only to 
learn what they are using the funds on, but also to share best 
practices.
    At the end of the day, our educators have been heroes to 
protect our students and get them safely back in the classroom. 
And they are also assessing what the needs are of our students. 
And again, last week alone, I saw tremendous innovation to make 
sure that we are not only assessing what students lost in terms 
of instruction, but also meeting them where they are with their 
social, emotional needs, and ensuring that our schools are 
safe, which includes new ventilation systems, which I saw in 
DeKalb County, Georgia, and in other places that I visited.
    I am completely confident, and I trust that educators are 
going to put the children's need first, and they are going to 
make sure that this recovery provides long term solutions for 
these students, not only to get to where they were, but to 
thrive higher than ever before.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Thank you, Chair Murray. I want to thank our 
witnesses for your appearance today and your public service. I 
wanted to ask, and maybe I will get at least a big question to 
each of you, Secretary Cardona on students with disabilities, 
Secretary Becerra on behavioral health in schools.
    I just want to put one fact on the table again that 
Secretary Cardona, in your testimony, your written testimony on 
the first page, you say January, when the Biden Harris 
administration took office, 23 percent of all K through 12 
schools were operating fully, remotely 23. By May, just 5 
months, less than 5 months into the Administration, the percent 
of all K through 12 schools operating fully remotely had 
dropped to 2 percent, from 23 to 2. So that is good news.
    I think it is directly related to dollars that the Federal 
Government has provided, to date over $189 billion to schools. 
And I note for the record, the Rescue Plan was $122 of that 
$189. So two-thirds of the dollars appropriated were done 
through the Rescue Plan the Democrats passed. Secretary 
Cardona, first, I wanted to start with students with 
disabilities. About 7 million, as you know, in the Nation, 
students in public schools receive special education services.
    It is an understatement to say that the pandemic has been 
challenging for those students. Most of them had to adapt to 
online instruction. Others had to have their related services, 
such as physical or occupational therapy, reduced or adapted. 
So many challenges that we have read about. Individual 
education plans, which, as you know well, are required by the 
IDEA Act from years ago, often require specific therapies and 
specific services.
    Here is the question, can you tell us what guidance and 
resources the Department is providing to states and local 
school districts to get students with disabilities the services 
and the therapies that they need to set them up for success?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you for that question. It is clear 
that our students with disabilities were greatly impacted 
during the pandemic. And I recall stories of--I recall 
conversations with parents who shared with me the impact that 
their child not being able to access in-person learning had not 
only on their learning, but on their entire family. With regard 
to work, it was much more difficult for many students with 
disabilities to learn using a laptop. I recall a mother who 
wrote a book and called it, There Is a Rainbow. And at the end 
of the rainbow in this book was the school reopening. Her child 
has autism, and the remote learning is--as much as educators 
did the very best, it wasn't the same.
    We need to place special emphasis on our students with 
disabilities and their families to make sure that they are 
coming back into a welcoming environment, one that is assessing 
where the children are now, not where they were in March 2020. 
We required states to ensure that IEPs are being updated for 
this school year, and many states understood this important 
responsibility and did it in the spring so that they can start 
the year off where the children are now.
    We know individualized education plans are the best 
strategy for these students to reach their potential and 
updating those is critically important. Furthermore, Senator, 
we--from February, we were providing handbooks and special 
attention was given to supporting students with disabilities 
and also supporting educators that serve students with 
disabilities with training and helping them have more 
opportunities to understand the social, emotional impact of our 
students with disabilities.
    We understand the priority it is. We are going to continue 
to serve our educators and our students and our families with 
children with disabilities.
    Senator Casey. Thanks very much. Secretary Becerra, on 
behavioral health. Obviously, a lot to talk about. Let me just 
make a quick reference to the question. What resources are now 
available for both--excuse me, for teachers and school 
administrators to support students' mental well-being during 
this time?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator Casey, thank you for the 
question. I know this is a priority for you. We have made the 
largest investments in mental health and substance use disorder 
in the history of these programs because of the American Rescue 
Plan that you and others in this Congress passed. And I am 
pleased to say that close to $1 billion has gone out so far to 
support the mental health services that are needed throughout 
our Country, including in our schools.
    We have put out close to $5 billion for substance use 
disorders services. Most of that money, as you are aware, is 
administered, run through the states. Then they feed it over to 
the local Governments and the schools. And so we have done more 
because you all pass the American Rescue Plan than we have ever 
done before, and we know we have to do more.
    Senator Casey. Thanks so much. Thank you, Chair Murray.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Paul.
    Senator Paul. Mr. Becerra, are you familiar with an Israeli 
study that had 2.5 million patients and found that the 
vaccinated group was actually seven times more likely to get 
infected with COVID than the people that had gotten COVID 
naturally?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, I have to get back to you on 
that one. I am not familiar with that study.
    Senator Paul. Well, you think you might want to be if you 
are going to travel the country insulting the millions of 
Americans, including NBA star Jonathan Isaac, who have had 
COVID, recovered, looked at a study with 2.5 million people and 
say, well, it looks like my immunity is good as the vaccine or 
not.
    In a free country maybe ought to be able to make that 
decision. Instead, you have chosen to travel the country 
calling people like Jonathan Isaac and others, myself included, 
flat earthers. We find that very insulting. It goes against the 
science. Are you a doctor, a medical doctor?
    Secretary Becerra. I have worked for over 30 years on 
health----
    Senator Paul. You are not a medical doctor. Do you have a 
science degree? And yet you travel the country calling people 
flat earthers who have had COVID, looked at studies of millions 
of people, and made their own personal decision that their 
immunity they naturally acquired is sufficient. But you presume 
somehow to tell over 100 million Americans who have survived 
COVID we have no right to determine our own medical care? You 
alone are on high, and you have made these decisions, a lawyer 
with no scientific background, no medical degree. This is an 
arrogance coupled with an authoritarianism that is unseemly and 
un-American.
    You are the one ignoring the science. The vast 
preponderance of scientific studies, dozens and dozens show 
robust, long lasting immunity after COVID infection. Even the 
CDC does not recommend measles vaccine if you have measles 
immunity. The same was true for smallpox. But you ignore 
history and science to shame the flat earthers, as you call 
them. You should be ashamed of yourself and apologize to the 
American people for being dishonest about naturally acquired 
immunity.
    You want more people to choose vaccination? So do I. You 
want to lessen vaccine hesitancy? So do I. You want to have 
that happen? Quit lying to people about naturally acquired 
immunity. Quit lording it over people, acting as if these 
people are deplorable and unwashed. Try persuasion instead of 
Government cudgels. Try humility instead of arrogance. Try 
freedom instead of coercion. But most of all, try understanding 
that there is no more basic medical right than deciding what we 
inject into our bodies today.
    After hearing that millions of people in the study prove 
show without a doubt that there's a great deal of immunity from 
getting it naturally, do you want to apologize to the 100 
million Americans who suffered through COVID, survived, have 
immunity and yet you want to hold them down and vaccinate them? 
You want to apologize for calling those people flat earthers?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, I appreciate your question and 
appreciate that everyone has their opinion. We follow the facts 
and the science at HHS. We use the expertise of the medical 
professionals, the scientists at HHS to make decisions. It is a 
team effort, and we rely on what is on the ground showing us 
results.
    Senator Paul. Except for the dozens and dozens of studies. 
In fact, most, if not all of the studies show robust immunity 
from getting the disease naturally. The CDC says if you have 
had measles and have immunity, you don't have to be vaccinated. 
The same was true of smallpox. You are selectively doing this 
because you want us to submit to your will. You have no 
scientific background, no scientific degrees, and yet you 
aren't really concerned about 100 million Americans who had the 
diseases. You just want to tell us, do as you are told. That is 
what you are telling us. You want to mandate this on all of us. 
You are going to tell us, if I have 100 employees, you are 
going to put me out of business with a $700,000 fine if I don't 
obey what you think is the science.
    Don't you understand that it is presumptuous for you to be 
in charge of all the science? Have you ever heard of a second 
opinion? I can't go to my doctor and ask my doctor's opinion? I 
mean, this is incredibly arrogant, combined with this 
authoritarian nature that you think, well, we will just tell 
all of America to do what I say, and they better or we will 
fine them or put them in jail or not go to school or not let 
them travel.
    The science is against you on this. The science is clear. 
Naturally, acquired immunity is as good as a vaccine. The 
Israel study actually showing it is better. This isn't an 
argument against the vaccine, but it is an argument for letting 
people make a decision who already have immunity. You are not 
willing to consider natural immunity?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, our team has reviewed every 
study that is out there on COVID, whether it is from Israel, 
from the U.S. or wherever else. They have used the facts that 
have been provided through the rigorous research that has been 
done to reach conclusions. 660,000 Americans or more have died 
because of COVID. We are trying to do everything we can to save 
as many as possible. We are using the facts. We are following 
the science and following the law.
    Senator Paul. Nobody is arguing the severity of this, but 
you are completely ignoring the science of natural immunity. So 
is Fauci. So is the whole group. You are just ignoring it 
because you want submission. You want everybody just to submit 
to your will. Do as you are told. Despite the evidence, the 
large body of scientific evidence that says naturally acquired 
immunity does work, is an important part of how we are all 
going to recover from this. So is the vaccine.
    But when you add them together, we are in a much different 
place than if you ignore them. 100 million Americans by 
conservative CDC estimates have had the disease. 200 million or 
more now have been vaccinated. It is a good thing. Combined 
together, it is how the disease is--nobody wants to get the 
disease. We are not advising anybody to get the disease. But if 
you are unlucky enough to get it, think of the nurses and 
doctors and orderlies who all bravely took care of COVID 
patients, there was no vaccine for a year and a half. They took 
care of people, risk their lives. They got it survived.
    Now people like you are arrogant enough to say you can no 
longer work in the hospital because you have already had the 
disease. We are going to force you to take a vaccine that the 
science does not prove is better than naturally acquired. That 
is an arrogance that should be chastened.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Hassan.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you so much, Chair Murray and 
Ranking Member Burr for this hearing. I want to thank both 
Secretary Cardona and Secretary Becerra for being here today to 
discuss this important issue, keeping our students safe and in 
school. And I just want to note at the top here that as the mom 
of a young man with severe disabilities, I am particularly 
grateful for Senator Casey's questions about what we are doing 
to help students who experience disabilities.
    It is not just that, of course, they need their 
individualized education plans met, but it is also true, just 
as you pointed out, Secretary Cardona, that often school is the 
only place that some of these students can get certain kinds of 
services. In some cases that may be physical therapy, 
occupational therapy, speech and language. And when schools are 
also prevented from taking public health measures, these 
students often are also the most at risk for severe 
complications from COVID-19.
    It is a catch 22 for parents. And I just want to thank 
Senator Casey and all of you for everything you are doing to 
help protect children with disabilities. Secretary Cardona, I 
wanted to start with a question to you. In addition to the 
teacher shortages many have discussed, schools in New Hampshire 
and across the country are struggling to fill other openings, 
ranking from paraprofessionals and social workers to bus 
drivers and custodians, roles that are essential to keeping our 
schools open for in-person learning.
    Some school districts are addressing these workforce gaps 
in various ways, including with hiring bonuses and paying 
parent drivers to help get kids to school. Secretary Cardona, 
how can school districts use their elementary and secondary 
school emergency relief funding to meet these staffing needs in 
order to keep schools open and provide essential support to 
students?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you for the question and for your 
comments about students with disabilities and families, and the 
importance that they are in our schools, and we should be 
prioritizing that as we think about reopening, as we should 
about ensuring that we address the workforce gaps safely. 
Safely reopening schools means we have enough staff to keep 
everyone safe and supported. So we do believe the American 
Rescue Plan and the ESSER funds can be used to make sure we are 
paying a salary that is competitive. People have options now. 
And, you know, I can tell you firsthand that my own children's 
experience is being influenced by whether or not they are able 
to get bus drivers to take them to extracurricular activities.
    It is a real situation. And if we are serious about 
reopening schools and making sure our children have the best 
opportunity to engage not only in the classroom but 
extracurricular activities or getting to school on time, we 
have to make sure that we are addressing these workforce gaps 
boldly.
    There are more funds now available to our districts to 
address that. But we also have to invest in pipeline programs 
to make sure that our dedicated paraeducators have access to 
programs to become teachers themselves. I am really excited 
about the opportunity in the build back better agenda to make 
sure that we are investing in our profession, paying livable 
wages, and making sure we create pipelines that with incentives 
for paraeducators and other educators to go in, to get their 
teaching credential, to serve as special education teachers, 
bilingual teachers, and other shortage areas. It is all hands 
on deck. I think we have the right policy, and we need to make 
sure we are making bold decisions to let that happen.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. I want to turn now to the 
issue of learning gaps. One report estimates that due to COVID-
19 school closures last year, elementary students were about 5 
months behind where they would typically be in math and 4 
months behind in reading. If not addressed, these gaps in 
learning will have a long lasting negative effect on the 
lifelong success of students. So, Secretary Cardona, how can 
schools most effectively identify the gaps in student learning? 
And how is the Department of Education ensuring that schools 
have what they need to do this?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you. Yes, our students missed out 
on a lot in the last year and a half. Academic gaps based on 
the fact that remote learning doesn't compare to in-person 
learning are significant. And the reality is some students 
faced more of it than others. It exacerbated opportunity gaps 
that existed. We recognize this and we also, part of our return 
to school roadmap, prioritized not only saved school reopening 
and engaging in social, emotional well-being, but also 
addressing the lack of instruction that students were not able 
to access due to the pandemic.
    We released strategies for using the American Rescue Plan 
funding to address the impact of lost instructional time as its 
own guidance document in addition to the three handbooks that 
we have that address, learning loss, learning losses could be 
controversial. I don't want to victimize our students. It was a 
lack of access to instruction.
    We have handbooks out there. More importantly, we are 
talking to states to see what they are doing. And I was 
fortunate to see summer school programs that tripled in size. 
After school programs that are happening because of the 
American Rescue Plan Fund. So they are working on that. And I 
know it is a priority for educators across the country.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. And Madam Chair, I realize 
I am a little over. I just do want to point out that the 
Department was very helpful to school districts in New 
Hampshire as they tried to use the secondary school emergency 
relief funds to improve air quality and ventilation in schools. 
And I look forward to submitting a question about how school 
districts can access those funds and work with the Department 
to make sure their schools are safe. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Cassidy.
    Senator Cassidy. Thank you all. Thank you for being here. 
First, I associate myself with Senator Paul's remarks as 
regards the need for our CDC to look at the influence of 
natural immunity and its effectiveness relative to a vaccine. 
And I agree totally that when we tell Americans that natural 
immunity does not confer immunity. That goes against the 
science. I will say that.
    Some of his other remarks, perhaps not so much, but on that 
absolutely. So, Secretary Becerra, if you can take that back to 
CDC, etc., I would appreciate that. Secretary Cardona, I think 
we can agree on this. Would you accept that the primary purpose 
of a school is to educate a child?
    Secretary Cardona. Yes----
    Senator Cassidy. Or should be--should be--yes. And we know 
there is, by the way, social services we don't want to ignore. 
My concern is during the pandemic, against science, public 
schools were much more likely to close. I am looking at data 
from the--and by the way, if we are going to look at what 
empirically works, if we are going to follow the evidence and 
the primary goal is to educate a child, I think we have to look 
more broadly than, say, just the use of a mask.
    I am looking here from something from your shop, Institute 
of Education Services, ies.ed.gov, and it is showing me that 
nationally public schools, only 47 percent were open in January 
of last year, Catholic schools 89 percent, and private schools 
92 percent. There is also significant dis-enrollment from 
public schools as parents sought to have their child educated 
even though they were being kept shut upon the insistence of 
some teachers unions, against the science, against the clear 
recommendation of, among other things, the American Academy of 
Pediatrics.
    There has been a hostility among Democrats, frankly, and 
among the Administration as regards charter schools. Seeing how 
charter schools, actually--private vouchers and charter schools 
actually give an alternative to a parent who is otherwise 
locked into a system that will not literally educate her child, 
why is there this hostility toward this alternative for the 
parents?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you, Senator. I do agree with you 
that school reopening was critically important for all students 
across the country. And I am very pleased to say that across 
the country, our schools are open----
    Senator Cassidy. Yes, but we are really talking about a 
period of time, an extended period of time where children lost 
a significant amount of their education. And I am being--and by 
the way, this is about social justice because it was the 
minority child in the inner city school that did worse by far, 
with some saying that 7 months of learning was lost among 
African-American children, on urban children, and 6 million--
seven month for the low income and 6 months for the African-
American child. And so why are we holding our parents and our 
children prisoners to a system that ignore their educational 
needs when the science showed that the schools could safely 
reopen?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you for that question. I remember 
last spring and even before that, working on reopening schools. 
And what I can tell you is those schools where predominantly 
Black and Brown students attend were woefully underfunded, and 
they didn't have the funding to address the ventilation 
systems, to address some of the basic needs----
    Senator Cassidy. Now, Secretary Cardona, are you going to 
tell me that inner city parochial school that some 
philanthropies had opened up for these children, that was an 
older facility, did not have similar problems but somehow did 
not attempt to adapt? I find that--I just don't believe that.
    Secretary Cardona. Okay, what I am sharing with you, sir, 
is my visits, my experience as a Commissioner talking to 
superintendents, visiting schools with ventilation systems that 
weren't touched for 20 years, with class sizes of over 25, 26--
we make sure that schools are safe for students and for staff. 
And many of these same families were sharing their concern 
about schools not being reopened. I am very thankful for the 
money that the Federal Government provided----
    Senator Cassidy. Let me ask you--I am almost out of time, I 
apologize. That may be the case. By the way, my wife is the 
chair of a board of a public charter school, full disclosure. 
They managed. They just opened up their gymnasium. They just 
converted their lunchroom. They made it work for those children 
who disproportionately are minorities. But why shouldn't the 
parent have the choice to take her child elsewhere if she 
decides, well, it may be that they have a lousy ventilation 
system, but they have a good ventilation system, and so I am 
going to take my child to the private school with a good 
ventilation system so that my child doesn't lose 7 months of 
education this year. Why should she not have that choice?
    Secretary Cardona. Senator, it is my belief that all 
children should have access to a safe school and one where all 
children can succeed. And it was important that all schools be 
given the tools and resources----
    Senator Cassidy. If they are--and I will finish with this, 
if they are to have access, and defying science unions demand 
that a school close, why would that access not include the 
ability to take dollars that would go to the public school, 
they are not open, they are not there for the kid, to take the 
child to a school which is opened. Can you tell me, should that 
parent--just yes or no, should that parent have the right to 
take their child?
    Secretary Cardona. Well, it requires more than a yes or no. 
It is more nuanced than that. But I will say, we have been 
working closely with educators, including our unions, to safely 
reopen schools. And today, all of America's students have an 
opportunity to learn in-person safely because of the work that 
we have done together.
    Senator Cassidy. That was papering over a terrible loss of 
educational opportunity for those who are most vulnerable in 
our society. And frankly, our perception is, it is due to 
obeisance to teachers unions, not because of putting children 
first. I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you. The vote has been called and I am 
going to go over and vote and return right away. The next three 
Senators in order are Senator Smith, Senator Romney, Senator 
Baldwin.
    Senator Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you very 
much, Secretary Cardona and Secretary Becerra, for joining us 
today. It is very good to be with you. I am going to direct my 
questions to Secretary Becerra. Mr. Secretary, I applaud the 
Biden administration's commitment to keeping our children safe 
in school through vaccinations, through masking, through 
ventilation, and through testing. And this includes the 
Administration's recent announcement that they will ramp up the 
production of rapid COVID-19 tests and purchase $2 billion 
worth of rapid tests, which can detect, as we know, up to 98 
percent of cases that are infectious with COVID.
    Rapid, in home tests are a huge benefit to parents because 
they can get quick test results and they--so they know whether 
they can send their students to school after they have been 
exposed to COVID in the classroom. And it is also a huge help 
to schools that are, frankly, I have heard, overwhelmed in some 
cases by asking educators to administer tests and do contact 
tracing, and on top of everything else that they are doing.
    Rapid tests are a better alternative than lab based tests, 
which can be so frustrating to Minnesota parents and students 
as students are pulled out of school and activities are put on 
hold for the days while they are waiting the 3-days, while they 
are waiting for results. And I know that, I believe both 
Senator Murray and Senator Kaine has raised this issue.
    As we know, unfortunately, rapid tests are difficult to get 
a hold of right now. So here is my question, Secretary Becerra. 
Some policy experts believe that by reclassifying rapid COVID-
19 tests as a public health tool rather than as a medical 
device, that this could help unlock a greater supply of tests 
while also reducing the price of those tests. So could you talk 
to us about how the Administration is thinking through this 
recommendation?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, thank you. Thank you, Senator, 
for the question. And I know this is on the minds of many 
people, not just here in this chamber, but at home as well. As 
I mentioned before, in responding to some of the previous 
questions, we have the tests. It is that getting them to the 
right source at the right time has been difficult. We are now 
coordinating far greater--in far greater ways with our state 
and local partners.
    Whereas before it was at the point of contact where the 
test would be made, that the request could be made for those 
types of tests, what we are trying to do now is coordinate far 
better how all of this is done. And what I will tell you is 
that between the money that was made available through the 
supplemental appropriation that you all passed, through the 
money from the ARP, we have been able to provide substantial 
funds, $10 billion in one case, $2 billion as you just 
mentioned more recently, another $2 billion was made available 
to try to make sure that we are reaching everyone.
    We--can we coordinate better? We are going to try to do 
that with our local and state partners. We have--the Federal 
Government don't have the capacity to be the administrators of 
the test, but we can work in partnership with those on the 
ground who can do it to make sure that we go where the tests 
are needed.
    Senator Smith. Do you think that there is an opportunity to 
think about reclassifying these tests? I mean, how do you----
    Secretary Becerra. That is certainly something we could 
take a look at. I can get back to you as quickly as possible, 
talk to the team to find out if that is at all--that is 
something we could consider.
    Senator Smith. Thank you. I appreciate that. I think that 
there is an opportunity there given the high level of accuracy 
and just as another tool that the Administration could have as 
you are working to ramp up these tests, so.
    Secretary Becerra. We have been using every tool you all 
give us and we will look at this one as well.
    Senator Smith. Thank you very much. I also wanted to ask 
you a little bit about the work that we need to do to support 
students with disabilities, particularly in the context of what 
has been happening with COVID. Pardon me, this is a--I should 
have said, Secretary Cardona, this is directed toward you, 
pardon me. This is about supporting students with disabilities 
as we navigate through what has been such a difficult time in 
schools.
    I am in particular, I just want to quickly highlight a 
couple of aspects of support for students with disabilities 
that we are seeing in my home State of Minnesota. There is many 
great examples, but recently we have seen educators from 
Moorhead Public Schools in Northwest Minnesota, they have 
shared with me how they have been able to make really important 
investments for their students using American Rescue Plan 
dollars, thanks to American Rescue Plan.
    Secretary Cardona, could you just quickly, in the few 
seconds I have, discuss the Department's approach to supporting 
education of students with disabilities and mitigating the 
learning loss that they have experienced.
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you for the question and for the 
support of the great programs there. Thanks to the ARP. You 
know, we are back. Kids are back, kids are back in school. That 
is the best thing we can do for our students with disabilities 
and all students. They are back in their classrooms with their 
teachers, with their peers.
    The best thing we could do for students with disabilities 
is the same thing we can do for our students, get them back in 
the classroom with those teachers that love them, that want to 
support them. However, for students with disabilities that 
might have had interrupted learning, it is really important 
that we are monitoring where they are today, not where they 
were in March 2020, and make sure that we are using American 
Rescue Plan funds to provide enough resources, enough support, 
personnel to give the students what they need today and to make 
sure that their families feel supported as the students 
transition back. Thank you.
    Senator Smith. Thank you very much, Secretary Cardona.
    Next up, we have Senator Romney.
    Senator Romney. Thank you, Madam Chair. Secretary Becerra, 
I am going to clear up a social media rumor that you spend most 
of your time outside of Washington, DC. Is the majority of your 
time spent--the great majority spent in Washington, DC?
    Secretary Becerra. In many ways, I would say unfortunately, 
yes, because I still have a home in California as well. My wife 
is still in California.
    Senator Romney. Spend your time here. It is great. Let me 
turn to another topic, I concur with Senator Paul--I am 
concerned about natural acquired immunity with regards to 
COVID-19. And I was disappointed with your response. I had 
expected you either to say one or two things. One that the 
science is clear, that inoculation adds to one's protection 
against COVID-19. And that is--that he was wrong about the 
studies he described.
    He said every single study said that natural acquired 
immunity is better than vaccination or at least as good as. Or 
I expect you to say, look, maybe it is the same, but we can't 
determine whether people have had COVID necessarily or not, and 
therefore, we are, out of an abundance of caution, we are 
insisting they be vaccinated. Could you please get back to the 
Committee with an answer to his question so that we can know 
where the science stands and where the Administration stands? 
Secretary Cardona, I note that as young families are thinking 
about having children, they consider the plans for what it will 
mean to have a child and they consider about pre-k, about 
childcare, about college expenses down the road.
    I note that in the President's plan, the so-called 
reconciliation bill of $3.5 trillion, that the plan is that 
children--child care rather, and early learning expire after 6 
years instead of 10 years of the full program. That pre-K 
expires after 7 years. And that community college coverage 
expires after 5 years. Do you think that young parents should 
therefore plan on these programs disappearing in six, seven, 
and 5 years as proposed under the Administration's legislation?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you, Senator Romney, for the 
question. We are at a point in our Country's history where we 
have the opportunity for transformational change for our 
students and our families.
    Senator Romney. I totally agree. I don't want to go on a 
different topic here, which is the transformation--is this a 
permanent change or--transformation is permanent, but if it is 
just temporary, five, six and 7 years and all these programs go 
away, that is not transformational, that is bait and switch.
    Secretary Cardona. Well, Senator, I do believe at this 
point the families, especially post pandemic, providing 
community college access, that only helps the economy.
    Senator Romney. But should it expire at the end as it is 
planned out?
    Secretary Cardona. I am hopeful, Senator, that today goes 
really well for our families across the country and that in the 
coming years, we will find ways to continue to support those 
strategies that we know lift American families----
    Senator Romney. You mean it is your anticipation that these 
programs then that parents should count on them continuing?
    Secretary Cardona. That is the goal to have community----
    Senator Romney. Well, if that is the goal--if that is the 
goal for all these programs, not the 5-years, 6 years and 7 
years that is in the legislation, how are you going to pay for 
it? Because there is only one or two ways, either more debt or 
higher taxes. Which do you prefer?
    Secretary Cardona. Well, Senator, I know that in this 
proposed budget, no one making under $400,000 will see an 
increase in taxes. But I will tell you----
    Senator Romney. Well, that is right. That is right away. 
But if you are saying that down the road when these programs 
are set to expire, you would expect them to continue instead, 
that means any promises about not raising taxes on people 
making under $400,000 today, those are going to expire as well.
    Secretary Cardona. As a lifetime educator, I can tell you 
what is being proposed is transformational for our families.
    Senator Romney. I agree it is transformational. I am not 
sure it is transformational in the right way. I am concerned, 
for instance, that we are going to double the child tax credit, 
child tax credit, which allows people to help pay for 
childcare. At the same time, we are going to give them free 
pre-K for 2 years. Why double?
    Why give people free pre-K and double their child tax 
credit, which they could use themselves to either decide to 
care for their own children at home, to go to Head Start, to go 
to a private childcare facility. Why do we have to both double 
the child tax credit and at the same time provide free pre-K, 
and by the way, build new school classrooms to do so?
    Secretary Cardona. Sir, for me as an educator, early 
childhood education is a foundation for a strong educational 
program.
    Senator Romney. Totally agree, but why are we going to pay 
for it twice?
    Secretary Cardona. I have seen the benefit of it. And I 
know for many of these families, their ability to get back to 
work and add to their income is----
    Senator Romney. Look, I am perfectly happy with providing 
funding to families so they can provide childcare for their 
child. I think they ought to have the choice of one, providing 
it themselves if they want to, either with a family member or a 
spouse, or No. 2, sending a child to a childcare facility of 
their choice.
    But to say you are going to do that and we are also going 
to give you a public school childcare, that is two programs 
doubling the cost and it is taking away the incentive for 
people that might choose to decide to have the childcare for at 
home. I think my time is up. I am sorry. Madam Chair, back to 
you.
    Senator Smith. Thank you. Senator Romney.
    Senator Marshall.
    Senator Marshall. Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. And again, 
thanks to the Secretaries for being here to talk about the 
intersection of health care and education, something that is 
near and dear to so many of us. If we talk about the highest 
causes of death for your students, for our students, it is 
accidents or trauma. Suicide is No. 2. Homicide as No. 3. 
Cancer might be going up or down depending which age group we 
are talking about. But focus being this morning for me is on 
the emotional health and the impact on the suicide rates from 
COVID as well as our policies.
    That is what I want to focus on today and especially what 
our mandates do to the emotional health of our children. I turn 
to the conversation of natural immunity just for a second. 
Look, I have seen the data, all the moms out there have seen 
the data on natural immunity, and I am telling you, these mama 
bears are going to protect their kids. They don't see the 
benefit of a vaccine for something their children are already 
immune to. And there are risks associated with the vaccine.
    Don't get me wrong, I have had the vaccine, my parents have 
had the vaccine. I hope my parents get their booster soon. I am 
in favor of vaccines. But when we are talking about our 
children and those ones that already have immunity, I think 
that many Americans have concern about this and the emotional 
impact if those kids get kicked out of school because of this 
mandate.
    I think you both would acknowledge that getting kicked out 
of school has a huge stigma to it. And if--this is my question 
for you both, yes or no. If the CDC would acknowledge natural 
immunity and a child has antibodies, would you consider 
excluding them from the mandate? Let me say that again, if the 
CDC would acknowledge natural immunity and a child has 
antibodies, would you consider excluding the child from the 
mandate? Secretary Cardona, yes or no?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you, Senator. This answers 
requires more than a yes or no. I know states and local 
districts are the ones making decisions around masks and 
vaccines, and we rely on them. What I have done because I am 
not a medical doctor is rely very heavily----
    Senator Marshall. That is what my question is. So if the 
CDC acknowledges and a child has antibodies, would you support 
excluding that child from the mandate? Think of the emotional 
impact of that child being kicked out of school for something 
they are already immune to and the suicide rate. Secretary 
Becerra, can you answer the question, yes or no?

    [Technical problems.]

    Secretary Becerra. I was about to say, you are going to be 
disappointed to know that it is not a yes or no answer because 
science doesn't act as quickly as you would like on those 
answers. What I can tell you is that we have looked at the 
science. We have looked at some of the studies and the data. 
And for example, in the State of Kentucky with regard to 
children, there was a study that showed that for those--
actually individuals, not just children. People, who were 
unvaccinated, who had COVID, showed that they were twice as 
likely to be reinfected with COVID, than those who had been 
vaccinated.
    Senator Marshall. We could argue about the studies all day. 
And I am a physician, you are a lawyer, and you probably don't 
want to go down that road, because I am telling you, the huge 
majority of the studies show that natural immunity is better 
than the vaccinations. A huge majority. And those don't talk 
just about getting the virus. Let's talk about hospitalization, 
about morbidity and mortality.
    Your jobs, neither your jobs is to decide what--if the 
statement is true that I am saying that the natural immunity is 
better, that is up to the CDC. So my question was, if the CDC 
would acknowledge it and a child has antibodies, would you 
excuse them from the mandate? But we need to go on. I am very 
concerned about migrants coming across the border carrying 
infectious diseases as well. Probably over 3 million migrants 
have come across the border illegally, legally, and many of 
which are children.
    I am very concerned about not just their COVID and the 
variants they are bringing in, but tuberculosis. Haiti has the 
highest incidence of tuberculosis in the Western Hemisphere, 
measles, mumps as well. And what are you two going to do to 
test those children before they get into our schools, and (b), 
to make sure that they get their immunizations, Secretary 
Becerra.
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, great question. And we do, as 
you know, have jurisdiction over some of those migrant children 
who are unaccompanied. And we have jurisdiction over the ones 
that are turned over to us by Customs and Border Protection. We 
make sure that no child is placed in any setting, whether it is 
in our care or in a licensed care facility or in the hands of a 
responsible custodian, without first making sure that they are 
free of COVID and they have had a vaccination. And so we make 
sure that no one, whether it is a U.S. citizen or anyone coming 
into this country, can infect someone else.
    Senator Marshall. I am sure you are measuring that somehow. 
Secretary Cardona, anything to add to the students entering to 
our school systems that have not been tested or properly 
immunized?
    Secretary Cardona. All students, including noncitizen 
students, have access to meals, to education, and any health 
care needs that they have to make sure that they are healthy.
    Senator Marshall. But there is a huge difference in access 
and it is actually happening, right. I mean, we have to be just 
overwhelmed right now. Our systems do, our schools do with 
these children. 12,000 Haitians recently have been turned in to 
the United States. And I want to share compassion and love with 
those folks. I have done mission work in Haiti. I have been to 
the border. I understand the humanity of all this. But I also 
don't want my grandchildren exposed to tuberculosis, let alone 
new variants of COVID. Madam Chair, I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am ambitious in 
hoping that we can get to three topics in my 5 minutes, all 
related to how your two Departments are working together with 
resources provided in the American Rescue Plan. I want to start 
with mental health services. Senator Casey earlier brought that 
up with you.
    As we do reopen schools and recognize the mental health 
toll that the pandemic has had on our Nation's youth and 
families, I think there should be a focus on making mental 
health care more accessible in schools, including by promoting 
and expanding the availability of school based mental health 
programs.
    I am certainly working with the Chair of this Committee in 
our other joint Committee appointment on the Subcommittee on 
Labor, HHS and Appropriations to emphasize and elevate funding 
to expand school based mental health programs in Wisconsin and 
across the country. Can you talk about how your agencies are 
collaborating to expand access to mental health services in 
schools, and what else you need from Congress in order to 
advance this effort? And start with Secretary Cardona.
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you very much for the question. 
And I will be brief, because I know you have three topics and I 
know my colleague here wants to speak. Thank you for bringing 
up the importance of social, emotional well-being of students 
and the fact that we have to build back better. We can't go 
back to how it was before. Our students have been traumatized. 
I would argue that before the pandemic, we should have been 
doing more. The collaboration has been great.
    I recently had a road trip and Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. 
Surgeon General joined, and we were talking about the 
importance of mental health access. I visited a high school 
where they are restructuring their day to provide mental health 
access and social emotional well-being for 6,000 high school 
students and the ARP funding is therefore that, the $1 billion 
in the build back better agenda, I have to mention to double 
the number of social workers, school counselors, and then the 
importance of community schools also to make sure that outside 
agencies are coming in. I can continue. It is a priority. Our 
return to school roadmap has that as a priority. We are going 
to continue to do that.
    Senator Baldwin. Great. Secretary Becerra.
    Secretary Becerra. Microphone. Oh, there we go. Senator, I 
will just simply add the Department of Education and HHS's CDC 
have been working closely together to make sure that we are 
using the data properly together. We are constantly working to 
make sure that we are informing school districts as best we can 
what the science is telling us. And so they are working 
together very closely. And that is a good sign.
    As I mentioned to you before, we have made historic 
investments in mental health and in substance use disorder as a 
result of the work that you all did to pass the American Rescue 
Plan. And I will mention something very important, not just 
between Departments, but within my own agency, because we are 
so large, and we have so many agencies that touch mental 
health.
    I established a coordinating council within HHS to make 
sure that we are all working together, SAMHSA, Administration 
for Children and Families so that we are not missing anything. 
We are working together and working with our sister 
Departments.
    Senator Baldwin. The second topic I wanted to mention is 
the funding for testing in the American Rescue Plan. I am 
encouraged by the Administration's efforts to follow the 
science, but unfortunately, conventional testing, especially in 
schools, has come with challenges. We have heard about some of 
them this morning, and we need to make sure we are advancing 
innovative approaches to keeping our kids and teachers healthy.
    At the University of Wisconsin, we are working on a 
proposal to expand surveillance of respiratory viruses, 
including COVID-19 and influenza, by collecting air samples 
from schools. Unfortunately, they have been struggling to 
access funding from the American Rescue Plan because entities 
in the state are focused on funding conventional diagnostic 
testing.
    How are your Departments working together to evaluate 
innovative approaches to testing that might be very beneficial 
to schools and school settings? And will you commit to 
providing states with the flexibility they need to expand and 
enhance testing, including through innovative proposals?
    Secretary Cardona. I will start off by saying, yes, 
definitely we recognize the importance of testing and 
accessibility. The testing, surveillance, testing for our 
students, that is how we keep our schools safe and that is how 
we are going to keep our children in the classroom, which is a 
priority for all of us.
    We have seen great examples in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, New 
Orleans, Louisiana, Louisville, Kentucky. And what we are doing 
is lifting up best practices. One of the sites that I visited 
with Dr. Murthy last week was a access family center where they 
provided testing and they partnered with the schools. So we 
went to see that firsthand to see how it worked. And we want to 
make sure we are promoting best practices to educators across 
the country.
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, I would simply add that along 
with working together Department wide, we have also provided 
about $10 billion through CDC directly to the school districts, 
to states and school districts, so they could start doing the 
testing they need. We continue to provide technical assistance, 
collaborating with them, trying to give them the guidance they 
may need to know how best to use those resources. And we are 
ready to do more.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you. I will state the last question 
for the record, and you can follow-up, but I wanted to know how 
your agencies are collaborating with experts and industry in 
the ventilation space to ensure that the improvements supported 
by the American Rescue Plan funding are designed and installed 
and maintained in a way that promotes health and minimizes 
illness among students, teachers, and staff?
    Secretary Cardona. I will have my staff follow-up with you. 
Thank you.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Tuberville.
    Senator Tuberville. Morning, gentlemen. Good to see you 
all. Secretary Becerra, been hearing a lot, of course, people 
in Alabama and all across the country, everybody is ready to 
get back to normal life. I know you are, too. Specifically our 
teachers.
    I am hearing from a lot of teachers. We have been full 
class most of the last year and a half in Alabama, but teachers 
are concerned. They are concerned that they know they are going 
to get exposed. There is no way around it. But they want to 
know that they have got an effective means once they get sick.
    For example, I had a teacher write me a letter about, she 
got sick, and she goes to the hospital, real sick, but they 
turned her back because there is no monoclonal antibodies. 
Alabama hospitals have had a pretty good supply over the last 
couple of I would say four or 5 months of the antibodies.
    Secretary Becerra, why did HHS take over the supply chain 
of monoclonal antibodies just in the last few months? Can you 
give us a good reason?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, thank you for the question. And 
I am glad you asked, because this is something on the minds of 
a lot of folks. We have seen a tremendous increase in the 
demand for these monoclonal antibodies. Let me give you an 
example. In your State of Alabama in July, your state ordered 
all those providers ordered the total of 6,800 doses. In 
August, your state ordered over 45,000 doses. In less than 2 
months it went up that quickly. And your state wasn't the only 
one.
    The difficulty is that with that immediate surge trying to 
meet, that demand became complicated. So what we have done is 
we have surged with that to make sure that we are manufacturing 
more. We are working with industry to make sure that they 
continue to manufacture more. But what we thought was important 
is to make sure that every state, Alabama, as any other state, 
had access to those monoclonal antibodies.
    What we did is rather than let those therapies be secured 
onsite by anybody onsite, we decided to let the states decide 
how to best coordinate that, so that state would make sure, 
Alabama would make sure that every Alabaman would have access 
to those monoclonal antibodies, not just that one place in one 
part of Alabama.
    The formula for that distribution is public, your staff and 
you have that. And so we would ask you to take a look, because 
what we are trying to do is have transparency guide how we make 
sure those therapies and those treatments are available to all.
    Senator Tuberville. Yes, it is my understanding in the 
second quarter of this past year that we had a huge contract 
with two companies with monoclonal antibodies. And when they 
were ready to deliver, we said we don't need them. This was in 
April, and I just want to know who in the world would turn 
those down in this time of need?
    It doesn't make sense. Now, they came back and gave us a 
lot of them because we went back to them, the companies, and 
they said, well, luckily we have held some of them, but then we 
had to crank it back up. Who would make that decision?
    Secretary Becerra. Well, so remember, the request for the 
use of the monoclonal antibodies was coming from the places at 
home in your state. And we were making sure that we were 
providing the distribution to make it possible to do that. And 
so we were meeting the needs until these last few months when 
the Delta variant really surged and all of a sudden a lot of 
people were getting sick, especially in your state.
    By the way, seven states are right now essentially taking 
in about 70 percent of all those monoclonal antibodies of the 
50 states, 7 states. And so you can see the surge has occurred 
quickly. And what we are trying to do is make sure the 
manufacturers are producing the supply that is needed.
    We are trying to make sure that distribution is done 
fairly, equitably, and it is done transparently and that there 
is accountability as well, because we don't want to find that 
an Alabaman goes without that monoclonal antibody because 
somebody else got in, shouldn't it.
    Senator Tuberville. Yes. And, we are so fired up about the 
vaccine. And I am, too. I have taken it. And it is not going to 
keep you from getting the most time, but it is going to keep 
you from getting real sick. And I think everybody can agree 
with that. But we need to focus more on therapeutics.
    I don't think there is any doubt about--and testing. I have 
talked to a lot of doctors, especially in the school systems, 
we need to be testing almost every day or every few days kids 
before they come. Now, they can have the virus if we wait till 
they get symptoms, they have had it for 2 days and they have 
already been in school, and it has been exposed. I just want--I 
just hope, I heard you say about equity, and I continue here by 
talking about equity and I believe in that. But we need to save 
people's lives.
    We can't shut down Alabama or some of these other states 
simply for the fact that we might not be taking as many 
vaccines. We cannot let people die. And especially teachers, we 
are telling them to go back to school and they want to go 
teach, but we can't do that. So I would hope that we would not 
get political with this. Red state, blue states, it shouldn't 
be about that.
    It should be about everybody, if they need it, they get it. 
And we just need to be more prepared. So Secretary Cardona, I 
have got some question for you, and I am going to put it on 
record, Madam Chair, but thank you. Very good answers. Thank 
you and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    Senator Lujan.
    Senator Lujan. Thank you, Chair Murray. And thank you to 
our distinguished witnesses for being available today. Several 
studies have found that mask usage dramatically reduces the 
spread of COVID-19, including one of rural schools in Wisconsin 
that found mask wearing reduce the spread of COVID-19 by 37 
percent. Secretary Becerra, do you agree that wearing masks in 
schools reduces the spread of COVID?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, I think the evidence now is 
overwhelming that good mask policy helps keep people safe. 
Making sure that even if you are vaccinated, you continue to 
use masking policy if you are indoors makes sense, especially 
for our kids, because we have kids under the age of 12 who are 
not vaccinated. And so there is no doubt that the studies, the 
evidence, the science has shown is that masking works.
    Senator Lujan. Secretary Becerra and Secretary Cardona, I 
am going to ask a series of yes or no questions, and I would 
ask for you to try to get through them quickly, as I have 
several others. Is the best way to keep schools open to deploy 
proven health measures like masks and testing? Secretary 
Becerra?
    Secretary Becerra. Use it--follow the science and the data 
that is helping us keep people safe.
    Secretary Cardona. Sounds like a yes. Secretary Cardona.
    Secretary Cardona. In the last year and a half have proven, 
yes, mitigation strategies work.
    Senator Lujan. Yes or no, does banning localities from 
implementing public health measures undermine the effort to 
reopen and keep schools open? Secretary Becerra.
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, we have to use common sense and 
we have to do everything to keep our kids safe. And we would 
want to make sure we are using the different treatments and 
therapies and strategies that keep our kids safe. And masking 
vaccines, distancing, ventilation, hygiene, all that worked, 
and we should be able to do all of those. And why should any 
parent not be able to do those?
    Senator Lujan. Secretary Cardona.
    Secretary Cardona. The reopening data is pretty clear. In 
places where they are more relaxed about mitigation strategies, 
they are three and a half times more likely to have spread, 
which results in school closures.
    Senator Lujan. Does banning localities from implementing 
public health measures disproportionately impact students with 
disabilities and underlying health conditions? Yes or no, 
Secretary Becerra?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, folks with disabilities, kids 
with disabilities are more vulnerable, therefore more 
susceptible to COVID. We have to do everything we can to keep 
them safe. And the most effective way to do that is all the 
different strategies that I just mentioned.
    Senator Lujan. Secretary Cardona.
    Secretary Cardona. Students with disabilities are 
disproportionately impacted when poor policies are implemented.
    Senator Lujan. Yes or no, has misinformation on masking and 
vaccine on tech platforms negatively impacted the response to 
getting kids back into the classroom? Secretary Becerra.
    Secretary Becerra. Again, the science should guide us. The 
facts should guide us. The data that shows where to go should 
guide us, and not social media, not politics. And so I hope 
that families who are concerned for their kid's safety at 
school will follow the science and the facts.
    Senator Lujan. Secretary Cardona.
    Secretary Cardona. Yes, we are focused on sharing--
following the science and communicating that in different 
platforms to make sure that our families are getting accurate 
information.
    Senator Lujan. Recently, it was announced that YouTube is 
going to stop allowing disinformation videos on vaccine and 
COVID. I applaud them and I hope the other social media 
platforms follow them. Turning to the effective use of relief 
funds, New Mexico school districts reported that the Elementary 
and Secondary School Emergency Relief Program, ESSER and CDC 
control of emerging infectious diseases funds are critical 
lifelines. With the recent doubling of teacher vaccinations in 
New Mexico, school worker shortages are one of the main reasons 
for school closures in my state.
    I am proud that my state took bold steps of investing $38 
million in the American Rescue Plan ESSER III funds to stand up 
a teaching fellows program to strengthen the teacher pipeline 
into New Mexico schools. It also invested $10 million to 
increase the number of school based mental health counselors.
    ESSER funds are also building a more equitable education 
system by helping schools to close the homework gap. Secretary 
Cardona, what other innovative uses of ESSER funds have you 
seen from states and districts that have kept our schools open 
and made education more equitable for the long term?
    Secretary Cardona. Just last week, I visited five states in 
5 days a back to school road trip where I was able to see 
firsthand how our students are happy to be back. Our teachers 
are happy to be back. We are back in business because of the 
American Rescue Plan and the funding from the Federal 
Government. And I have seen ventilation systems improved.
    I have seen students having access to school social 
workers, parents having access to support in the schools. I 
have seen better professional development. I have seen students 
in summer programs that are intended to get students to 
reengage after a year and a half of being in front of a screen 
through the use of the American Rescue Plan funds. And I have 
seen colleges also engaging students in different ways, 
creating new pipeline programs, all because of the American 
Rescue Plan.
    I am fortunate that I get a bird's eye view and I get to 
visit schools across the country and see the amazing things 
that are happening as a result of the American Rescue Plan. And 
our students are fortunate that they have educators that are 
committed to meeting their needs when their students come back. 
Many great things happening in our schools today.
    Senator Lujan. Appreciate it. And I do have some additional 
questions in the area of in-person learning and mental health 
with students, but also with those to the record. And I thank 
the witnesses for being here today.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Collins.
    Senator Collins. Thank you, Madam Chair. Secretary Cardona, 
I think all of us can agree that students suffer when they are 
not in school. And in order to avoid another year of learning 
loss or emotional turmoil and behavioral problems, some school 
districts are implementing a test to stay approach. And what 
they do is they allow symptomatic students who test negative 
for the virus to stay in school rather than quarantining them 
after another student or a staff member has tested positive for 
the virus.
    A recent study in The Lancet suggests that the test to stay 
approach can be saved. There was a randomized trial that 
included more than 150 schools in Britain that found that case 
rates were not significantly higher at schools that allowed 
close contacts of infected students or staff members to remain 
in class with daily testing than those that required at home 
quarantine.
    If our goal is to keep schools open, it seems to me that we 
should be looking at the science. Yet despite this evidence, 
the CC has said that at this time they do not recommend or 
endorse a test to stay program, even though the consequences 
are that thousands of students in this country are once again 
not in school because of quarantine.
    My question to you is, do you agree with the CC, or do you 
agree with the Lancet study and those school districts that are 
using a stay in school and testing method?
    Secretary Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question and 
for, communicating the importance of in-person learning. That 
is the best way we can get the students to support that they 
need after this year and a half. And I recognize that there is 
emerging data or studies around this test to stay. To be very 
frank, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have worked 
closely and listened to the science of CC and it is helped us 
safely reopen schools.
    We are going to continue to work with the CC and as their 
guidance changes will implement the school. But we are going to 
rely on our health experts who have guided us to the point 
where we are reopening schools across the country for all 
students.
    Senator Collins. Well, the problem is that the guidance 
from our health experts over the past year has been conflicting 
and inconsistent, and that heightens the distrust in these 
institutions at the time when the public needs to be able to 
rely upon them. And I think the latest example of this 
confusing, conflicting advice has to do with the booster shots. 
And that would lead me to my next and final question for 
Secretary Becker.
    At FDA, the longtime Director of the Office of Vaccine 
Research and Review and her deputy are leaving this fall in 
part because of the decision-making over boosters. This 
weekend, the CC Director commented and conceded the confusion 
in messaging around who should receive the booster. And this 
was after she overruled the recommendation of her own advisory 
committee.
    Two public health experts from Brown and Harvard, wrote in 
The New York Times that the new Federal recommendations go, 
``well beyond the data.'' So how can SHAHS better ensure that 
public health agencies in this country at the Federal level 
truly are following the science and produce a consistent, 
reliable message?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, thank you for the question. Let 
me put it this way, OVID does not run a linear course, and as 
we have seen now with Delta especially, it is widely, it can 
dodge, it can get around and it can be strong and fast. And we 
have to try to keep pace. We have to wait for the science to 
give us the direction on where to go, where to turn. And go 
back to what was said earlier, we have to use our common sense.
    I believe that Director Aliens used the science and common 
sense to decide how best to make sure we keep Americans safe 
with regard to boost in her latest action and I think FDA has 
done a tremendous job with the science that is also evolving 
with the variant to make sure that we keep Americans safe. The 
evidence is in.
    If you have been vaccinated, chances are you are not going 
to die. You are probably not going to be hospitalized. If you 
are unvaccinated, in fact, 99 percent of people dying today are 
unvaccinated. And so I think between FDA, CC, all of our 
different agencies, NH and others, we have done the best we can 
using the science to guide us and staying within the framework 
of the law.
    Senator Collins. Thank you.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Chicken.

    [Technical problems.]

    Senator Hickenlooper. I apologize for the delay. Thank you 
both for your service. Thanks for answering all of our 
questions in what are clearly difficult times. Secretary 
Cardoon, I will start with you. Obviously, we have seen drops 
in enrollment. Colorado, we saw a drop in enrollment of 9 
percent. That is 7,000 students.
    I want to see if it is possible to what are the ways we can 
try and recapture some of those students. And if it is possible 
to give students the freedom to explore, or the flexibility 
alternative methods and such as the example of climate allows 
providing the tools for students where it is appropriate to 
actually learn outside.
    Secretary Becerra. Thank you for the question. 
Disembowelment has been an issue and there was one study, 
Bellwether Education Partners estimated 3 million students 
across the country. That is significant, and we know that our 
students that maybe were undeserved by our education 
institution are more likely to be students who are just 
disembroiled.
    What would--our priority is to get students back into the 
classroom, to knock on doors, to make sure we are doing 
everything in our power using A funds, to create programs that 
didn't exist before, to reengage families and students, get 
them the support that they need. Part of this is data. We are 
requiring chronic absenteeism data to be reported from states, 
especially if they have received accountability waivers. We are 
expecting more information on chronic absenteeism to make sure 
that we are focusing on those students that not only were 
impacted by the pandemic but haven't returned to schools.
    We have provided at least three handbooks updates with 
strategies on how to get those students re-enrolled. And I have 
to tell you, last week I listened to examples, and I saw some 
examples firsthand of what is happening across our Country. We 
have programs in different states where there are teacher 
corps, is now going out, knocking on doors, getting students 
back into the classroom. There is a lead program in Connecticut 
that has social workers knocking on doors.
    In Ohio, I was introduced to a teacher leader there who 
spent time over the summer knocking on doors, bringing students 
back in because students are more likely to engage when they 
see someone they know. And then with the outdoor instruction. 
We know--one of the innovative practices that came out of last 
year was learning outdoors.
    This is a practice that I hope continues when we reopen our 
schools. Students enjoy it more and we know they learn better 
when they are outdoors and with their peers. So that is a 
strategy and an innovation that I hope to see continue in our 
schools.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Great. Thank you very much. And I 
have seen you have been everywhere all over this country, so I 
give you tremendous credit for putting it at a time. When it 
was so needed, you are out there serving America, and I really 
appreciate that. And I can say the same thing about Secretary 
Becker. You have also been all over this country.
    I wanted to ask you, as Chair Murray and other Members 
know, I have been focused on trying to get sufficient funding, 
full funding for pandemic preparedness. The Bidden 
administration called for $30 billion to invest in research, 
manufacturing, the infrastructure, right to create a library so 
we are prepared for whichever--I think it is 25 families of 
virus, the next pandemic comes from.
    We have seen estimates that when you average it out over 
100 years, the cost to society is in the hundreds of billions 
of dollars per year. And yet for over 4 years, for $30 billion, 
we could build--make sure that we could get a vaccine within 
100 days, not 320 like this past time, which was a miracle, but 
within 100 days.
    Anyway, I wanted to see if--how an investment like this 
allows your agency to succeed.
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, first, I think the comments I 
am hearing are not just those of a Senator, but of an 
executive, someone who ran a state and has to be thinking ahead 
of the curve, right. And that is what we are trying to do. We 
are trying to get ahead of the next pandemic because we know 
something will follow OVID. And so we are trying to make those 
investments now. We are working, making sure that all of our 
agencies, whether it is CC or FDA, NH, they are thinking beyond 
what we know.
    That is where this RH funding that we are requesting will 
take us to the next level, where we coordinate with the private 
sector far more closely, be nimble and do the things we need to 
do. We are going to make sure that the supply chain, we work on 
that to make sure we never have a situation again where we 
don't have enough masks. All those things, we learn a great 
deal. OVID, as bad as it is been, taught us a whole lot. But we 
do need people who have that mentality, as you just mentioned, 
as an executive thinking what is next versus just waiting until 
it happens.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you. And I appreciate that. It 
is one thing to learn the lesson but making sure that we put it 
into the lessons we have learned into practice is, as you point 
out, equally important. And we thank you both of you for your 
service. I yield back to the chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Markdowns.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Mr. 
Secretaries, thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Important 
discussion here this morning. Many of my colleagues have 
touched on some of the issues that I wanted to raise. And so 
rather than try to repeat, let me go into a couple of different 
areas. Obviously, this past year and a half, we have really 
learned the benefits of distance learning, how we are able to 
connect virtually. While it is not the ideal, I think we 
recognize that it has helped to facilitate learning, and 
particularly in some very remote areas.
    My state is one where we have many parts of the state that 
are either unserved or certainly underserved, and it has made 
distance learning very much a challenge. In certain areas that 
underserved comes about because the cost for Internet, the cost 
to deliver broadband to these communities, is prohibitively 
expensive. You can have a family that is paying $800 a month to 
receive their services, their Internet, and it is slow, and it 
is cumbersome.
    It doesn't work for anyone. We have, I think, done a lot to 
address this inequity that we know exists within access to 
broadband. The bipartisan infrastructure bill is another great 
example of the work that we continue to do there. But we know 
that it is going to take time to buildup this broadband 
capacity to connect communities and homes. The FCC has been 
working on a rule to allow schools to use their eRate funded 
broadband to basically beam the instruction into students' 
homes.
    The FCC, as I understand it, has not yet finalized this 
rule. So to you, Secretary Cardona, are you working with the 
FCC to encourage them to get that work finalized? You know 
where we are in that, because, as they say, daylight's are 
wasting.
    Secretary Cardona. Right. Well, thank you, Senator, for 
bringing up the importance of making sure our rural communities 
also get the support that they need. This pandemic did impact 
rural communities greatly, and broadband access was really 
difficult to come by.
    We have spoken about this, and I recognize the challenge 
that it is for students in your state to access learning 
online. We are, our agency is working with the FCC to, move the 
process along. I can have someone reach out to you with updates 
so that you have more up to date information.
    Senator Murkowski. I would appreciate that, because I am 
getting those requests and I don't have anything definitive to 
provide them at this point in time. Another concern that I am 
hearing is, all right, we have got lots of money for tests, 
whether it is for the rapid test, whether it is for the tests 
that you are able to get and take home. But having access to 
Federal funding doesn't necessarily mean that you can find 
those tests. And I am hearing not only from schools, but I am 
hearing from businesses that are worried about this mandate 
that is coming out of the Administration that says either get 
vaccinated or do testing, but there is no place to get the 
testing or certainly not to get the rapid test.
    You have indicated in response to Senator Smith's question, 
Secretary Becerra that we have got the tests out there, but it 
is difficult to get them distributed. I don't know whether that 
is just within the schools, but you need to know that right now 
there is a real crush to be able to get the testing that can 
get the results back in a timely enough manner to make a 
difference.
    Right now, you go into the Anchorage International Airport, 
where I get tested every time I land, and there are no rapid 
tests that are available. They say it is due to a national 
shortage is the sign that they have posted. So where are we? 
How can we assure people that if you want the test, whether for 
work or for school, we can't just say we put lots of money out 
there? We need to know that it is actually getting out to 
folks.
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, and I think you will agree that 
we have seen the surge in these last couple of months. Delta 
has really been the driver of all this.
    Senator Murkowski. Alaska is No. 1 and we don't want to be 
No. 1. We are in a very, very, very challenged place right now.
    Secretary Becerra. By the way, before I forget, I want to 
make sure that I mentioned that we are getting ready to move 
forward on telehealth rulemaking and which might interest you 
as well. I know that broadband is an issue, but telehealth, we 
could talk about that later. But what I will tell you in terms 
of testing is that FDA has moved forward to try to provide as 
many different type of testing opportunities as possible.
    I think it is now up to some 400 different types of tests 
that could be made available. We are trying to work closer with 
the industry, the manufacturing base, to make sure that they 
know what supply will be needed. We are trying to coordinate 
far better now with the states and local Governments. We are 
trying to let the states help us determine where the tests 
should go rather than let just the people in any part of the 
state or any part of the region of the country to dictate where 
those tests should go.
    We make sure there is always sufficient supply for every 
state. And so it is one of those things where we have to work 
in close partnership with our state and local teams to make 
sure that we are coordinating well, because in some places 
there is enough supply. In others, as you just mentioned, it is 
not. And so we have to make sure we coordinate very well.
    Senator Murkowski. Well, I think we recognize that we are 
going to be dealing with this, living with this, having this in 
our schools for a lot longer than any of us would like. And so 
the availability of tests and the affordability of tests and 
the quick turnaround of tests is going to have to be made a 
priority. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member, and 
thanks to our witnesses. And I want to follow-up on Senator 
Murkowski on this, because it is the one thing that everybody 
on this Committee agrees on, vaccination. There is sadly 
political turmoil about it. I wish there wasn't. In masking, 
there is political turmoil about it, and I wish there wasn't.
    But everybody here in this Committee thinks there ought to 
be a lot of tests and they ought to be cheap and serious. I 
want to follow-up with you on this, because when you said there 
is adequate supply, there is distributional problems, that may 
be true. But it is not true that there is an adequate supply of 
affordable tests. So the cheapest test, that rapid COVID test 
you can buy over the counter right now in the United States is 
an Abbott BinaxNOW, and that is basically $12 a test. They come 
in two packs. And the second cheapest is Quidel's QuickVue 
test, and that is $15 per test.
    In Germany, you can get a rapid COVID test at the grocery 
store for less than $1. In India, a rapid COVID test at the 
grocery store is $3.50. The UK provides 14 free tests to 
everybody in the United Kingdom. The studies have shown that 
adults, if the tests are like a dollar or two, they will get 
tests to make sure they can go to work, or they will test their 
kid to make sure it is safe for them to be at school. But if it 
is $15, the willingness to regularly test yourself dramatically 
goes down.
    Since I think there is bipartisanship on the issue of we 
ought to have tests that people can afford, why are tests in 
the United States so much more expensive than in countries like 
Germany or the UK or India? And what are we doing to make sure 
that the costs are costs that people can afford?
    Secretary Becerra. Senator, a great question, and I am not 
sure I can give you the full answer, but here, let me give you 
a shot at giving you something. Remember that Germany, some of 
those European countries have a Federal system that lets them 
move much faster than we do. We have a system, a republic that 
allows the 50 states to dictate so much of this. And as I just 
mentioned, some states prepared better. Some states didn't. And 
what we are trying to do is coordinate far more with them. 
Among the billions of dollars that you all made available to us 
in supplemental appropriations, in the rescue plan, there is 
about $42, $43 billion that you made available for testing.
    $10 billion, by the way, of that was specifically for 
schools. I mentioned earlier that President Biden has called 
for another $2 billion to help make sure that the industries 
are manufacturing sufficient supply of the test. So we are 
trying to do everything we can to make sure the supplies there.
    We are trying to work, as I mentioned earlier, to Senator 
Murkowski, we are trying to work closer with our state and 
local partners to make sure that we coordinate better so we can 
make sure we are hitting the spots that need it most and we are 
never running out of supply.
    Senator Kaine. I will probably ask this for the record or 
maybe a follow-up hearing, but I would like to hear what your 
metric is about, not just supply, but what the cost should be 
to somebody who goes to a pharmacy to buy an over the counter 
test. Because, again, if the research shows that people will 
get tested, if it is a buck or two bucks or three, but they 
won't get tested if it is $15, they won't regularly test, we 
can have all the supply we want.
    If the cost isn't affordable, then people aren't going to 
take advantage of it and then one of the three legs of testing, 
vaccination, masking, the one that we agree on, we won't be 
able to accomplish and we ought to be able to accomplish the 
one we agree on. So I would hope to maybe get some metrics from 
you all about it. The President has used the Defense Production 
Act to expand supply. I hope you have a metric about 
affordability in there. And I will follow-up on that.
    I just want to say really quickly, Secretary Cardona--good 
to see you. I am really worried about teacher shortages and 
school shortages, generally. School bus drivers and guidance 
counselors. And my city of Richmond, my hometown, 435 vacancies 
at the start of the fiscal--at the start of the school year 
just a couple of weeks back. It is been a very difficult time 
for teachers.
    What are you all doing to kind of put your arms around that 
problem and focus upon teacher recruitment and retention and 
teacher preparation, because I think this is a challenge all 
across the country?
    Secretary Cardona. It is. Thank you, Senator. We are--
reopening schools was the goal. Children are back in school, we 
are back in person learning, but there are so many other needs 
that we have to focus on now. And the teacher shortage was 
exacerbated during the pandemic. What we need to do is make 
sure we are being creative and innovative with programing to 
allow for recruitment programs and pipeline programs.
    We have educators, paraeducators, climate specialists, 
liaisons in our building. We have to work with our higher-ed to 
make sure that there are clearer and quicker pathways to get 
into the profession. I saw a great program at University of 
Wisconsin, Madison, where they are doing that. They have folks 
that are interning and then getting a job in the school for a 
Masters.
    There are funds available and the agenda to help accelerate 
this, especially in special education, bilingual education, and 
some of the other shortage areas. But we really have to make 
sure we are also elevating the profession by providing the 
supports that they need--ensuring teachers are safe, let's 
start there, and making sure that we are promoting the 
profession as a viable option and that teachers are getting a 
livable wage as well.
    Senator Kaine. Senator Collins and I have a bill called the 
Prep Act that is very focused upon increasing new pathways into 
the profession and attracting more people. And I think it would 
accomplish some of those goals. Look forward to working with 
you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair, I have two questions 
for Secretary Cardona and one for Secretary Becerra. I know you 
are in Indiana recently and schools across the country are 
trying to reopen. And my travels, everybody is trying to do it 
safely. It is different in every school corporation. And I know 
that some of those meetings are a little rowdy. And this case, 
I think discussion was on mask mandates, curriculum related to 
maybe critical race theory.
    I think that civic engagement--I was on a school board for 
10 years, and I always tell people you will get an earful of 
something, it will be a good indication whether you are ready 
for something else. But I was a little disturbed and I want to 
see if you really meant the comment, and it was in relation to 
how why are they doing this?
    I am going to quote this in your response for that 
engagement was, ``I think it is a proxy for being mad that 
their guy didn't win.'' And I am quoting it verbatim here. And 
I know you probably didn't mean that. And I will give you a 
chance to retract it. Is that something you would want to take 
back?
    Secretary Cardona. I know that across the country, our 
school board meetings are a little bit more intense. But I will 
tell you, the school boards are unwavering in their support for 
returning students to school and providing a safe learning 
environment.
    Senator Braun. What about the statement--and I agree with 
you 100 percent there? Would you want to take that back to not 
politicize something where I think it is an honest, sincere 
difference of opinion across the country. And I don't know that 
I would want to be on record with that.
    Secretary Cardona. Senator, I will tell you, the lack of 
civility in some of our meetings is disappointing and 
frustrating, especially because our superintendents and 
educators and board members, and you should know you are a 
board member, they have worked tirelessly over the last 18 
months to provide a safe environment.
    Senator Braun. I know it can get rowdy and I will take it 
that you don't want to retract it at this point.
    Secretary Cardona. Rowdy--it was very dangerous in some 
places.
    Senator Braun. Indiana has led the Nation in school choice. 
And it is something that coming through the pandemic, I think 
it is clear that parents, again, ought to be the drivers of the 
equation. I think parents from K through 12 and especially with 
them that have had kids pursue a 4-year degree and they end up 
in the basement with an unmarketable degree, need to have more 
say. So they pay the bills through property taxes, then 
tuition, room and board. Fairly quick answers here, because I 
want to get to Secretary Becerra. Do you think parents should 
be in charge of their child's education as the primary 
stakeholder?
    Secretary Cardona. I believe parents are important 
stakeholders, but I also believe primary educators have a role 
in determining educational programing.
    Senator Braun. Primary--and I think that is going to be a 
little out of focus with what I think you are going to find 
across all elements of education, since they pay the bills, 
they raise the kids, they probably need to be the primary 
spokespeople for their own kids' good education. Should parents 
have more school options, including private schools?
    Secretary Cardona. As I said in previous hearings, I 
believe public education schools should be the first and best 
option. The neighborhood school children want to be in their 
neighborhood school, but parents should have options, and I 
believe they do across the country.
    Senator Braun. I think it sounds like you think there might 
need to be more options. I came from a great public school 
system. I think competition and choice always exceeds any of 
the other things when you want to get real quality at 
something. Should the money follow the student, or should it 
follow the school?
    Secretary Cardona. I believe education system should have 
strong schools for all students, and I believe we need to make 
sure we are investing in public schools because for some 
students that is their only option, we need to have that be a 
high quality option for all students.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. Secretary Becerra, we have been 
navigating through this saga, fighting the coronavirus, which 
has been challenging in many respects. The baseline of fighting 
it have been vaccines. Some countries are under 10 percent 
vaccination rates. We can see variants come from there 
normally.
    What is your opinion on making it maybe a tripod of 
therapeutics and prophylactics? And I know Pfizer is out there, 
I think addressing a real market need that we not only keep 
doing what we are doing on vaccines, but we put equal emphasis 
on curing it once you get it and preventing it in the first 
place. What do you think?
    Secretary Becerra. All of the above, Senator.
    Senator Braun. When are we going to start pushing it from 
this level to where we give resources and emphasis and a more 
broad based approach?
    Secretary Becerra. Well, I think at HHS we have been doing 
that because the fact that we are able to meet so much of the 
demand these days for therapeutics is a sign of that. But I 
want to make sure we remember that it is all of the above. And 
as my mom used to always tell me, ``mejor prevenir, que 
remdiar,'' ``better to prevent than to remediate.'' And so 
therefore masking, social distancing, all those things that 
prevent us from getting sick and therefore needing the things 
that keep us from dying are the most important things we can 
do.
    Senator Braun. Very good. I am glad to hear you are on 
board with a broader approach of remediation and protection 
from it in the first place. Thank you.
    Secretary Becerra. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine. Well, I want to thank the witnesses, there 
being no additional Senators that have questions. This has been 
a really important hearing. Both the information that is been 
put on the table and other questions that I think will come and 
follow-up will help us do our work.
    I want to thank my colleagues for their thoughtful 
questions, and then Secretaries Becerra and Cardona for the 
work that you are doing in a really challenging time and for 
having this conversation with us. Look forward to working with 
you both as we continue to help students, families, educators 
both get through the pandemic, but also grapple with the 
challenges that we discussed today so that our schools can get 
stronger.
    Many of the issues like testing we discussed are about 
schools, but they are also about the workplace and quality of 
life in the community. Any Senator who wants to ask additional 
questions should get those questions in, for the record, in 10 
business days on or before October 15th at 5 p.m.
    The hearing record will also remain open for any Members 
who wish to submit additional materials for the record. The 
Committee will next meet on October 7th, in this room Hart 216, 
to consider the nominations of Lisa Gomez to be the Assistant 
Secretary of the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits 
Security Administration and Jose Javier Rodriguez to be the 
Assistant Secretary for the Department of Labor's Employment 
and Training Administration. The Committee stands adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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