Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I do need to say one thing. A year ago, the gentleman had the opportunity to be in the same briefings that all of us were in. These were bipartisan briefings over in the Capitol Visitor Center. All of the experts in public health came and talked to us about the dangerous waters ahead because of this plague coming out of China. And there could be no mistaking the difficulties that were ahead, but this was information that was available to all of us. It was not information that was secret or waived by the previous administration, not shared. It was here that we were given that same information. Unfortunately, I sit on one of the authorizing committees that is responsible for pandemic preparedness. Did we do a single thing on a hearing basis during the month of February? The answer is no. We added on 1 hour to the end of a budget hearing at the end of February and by the middle of March, we had to suspend all activity in the Congress because of the pandemic. We squandered the weeks that were available to us. The President bought us some time by cutting off foreign travel from China. The problem is that we, as the House of Representatives and Democratic leadership in my committee, did not use that time effectively. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack), a valuable new freshman Member. {time} 1215”