Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me say first that I appreciate my colleague from Wisconsin's work on this issue. It is an important issue. It is one that our committee has been working diligently on. Since the beginning of the COVID crisis, we have held five hearings and a roundtable on exactly this issue--exploring and doing oversight on the national stockpile and its supply chain vulnerability. Just today, we marked up five pieces of legislation very similar to what my colleague from Wisconsin is introducing here and trying to pass by unanimous consent. The five pieces are the Federal Emergency Pandemic Response Act, Securing Healthcare Response and Equipment Act, National Response Framework Improvement Act, National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center Pandemic Modeling Act, and finally--this one closest to my colleague's bill--the PPE Supply Chain Transparency Act, which is actually the piece of legislation we have had the most discussion on--two amendments, including a second-degree amendment to one amendment--before passing it unanimously. So our committee has done a lot of work. My concern about what my colleague is doing here--trying to pass this by unanimous consent--is by and large bypassing the committee process. It is true her staff reached out to my staff a couple of weeks ago. We asked, have you vetted it through the Department? Apparently, she has begun that process, but this piece of legislation has not been properly vetted.…”