First of all, I thank Mac Thornberry for his tremendous and exemplary work in Congress, especially for all things related to the military. What a tremendous chairman, now serving as ranking member. I thank him for that service. Mr…

I mean, let me just close with a final comment that I find almost painful to make, but we all, first and foremost, want to protect the safety of U.S. Government employees.

I guess my question is, why is it that, at this point, especially with the resources we have given you, we cannot conduct expedited interviews in these relatively few cases where there is an American family that is broken up?

the Department has been very responsive, very present when we have needed help with a particular constituent.

Federal forces should only be deployed in the United States with the utmost transparency and only when it is absolutely necessary to protect our country and our citizens. What we are seeing in Portland and what we saw in Washington is…

I thank the chairman for yielding and certainly for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor and to the ranking member, Mac Thornberry, for his years of service to this country. We certainly appreciate it. This bill continues the…

I also appreciate the chance to bring some transparency to the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed efforts.

From day one, President Trump has done everything he can to minimize the severity of this pandemic and to undermine his public health experts.

Congress provided billions of dollars for COVID-19 vaccine development and manufacturing efforts and other medical countermeasures.

I'm hopeful that if we prioritize public health and strategic preparation, and the administration finally learns from its mistakes, that our collective efforts will result in a safe, effective, and accessible COVID-19 vaccine.

Today we'll explore the pursuit of vaccines that could help contain the largest public health crisis the Nation has faced in over a century.

But now that Trump is President, I still think there's a real possibility that he will pressure the FDA to lower the standards.

My fear is that FDA will be forced by the Trump administration to approve a vaccine that lacks effectiveness.

I want to make sure that you will guard against any pressure that comes from the FDA to either lower its standards, or to approve something that you know doesn't meet the standards.

Ultimately, it will be the collaboration of your efforts, in partnership with the administration and the support of Congress that will make a COVID-19 vaccine possible.

My fear is that FDA will be forced by the Trump Administration to approve a vaccine that lacks effectiveness.

I don't appreciate this notion that Federal taxpayers are bailing out states like mine.

I think there is an issue of fairness here.