Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the chairwoman for her leadership and continued respect for the oversight of this body. And I particularly thank…”

“I thank the chairwoman for her leadership and continued respect for the oversight of this body. And I particularly thank the gentleman from Illinois and his cosponsors for this very astute legislation. I join with my bipartisan colleagues to indicate that the transparency of funding by way of the budget process is absolutely crucial to be able to be guided by what is right, as well, to ensure that we, the Congress, have a knowledge of the importance of the funding process, the importance of the programs that are used for taxpayer dollars. Mr. Speaker, let me just take a microcosm of what I believe will be an important aspect of this. Why don't I take COVID-19 as an example? Mr. Speaker, I believe that we have been hearing from all over the Nation that the Federal Government needs to be in charge. The agency that I think would be most effective as a national coordinator of vaccine transport and delivery is FEMA. For safe and effective supply chain transport, delivery, and site use of vaccines, FEMA has the ability to tell other agencies what to do or to be able to be part of the success of the distribution of these vaccines. They have broad stakeholder engagement. FEMA has personnel all over the Nation, and they are not in the business of picking business winners or losers. And implementing CDC COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, they know how to do that. Mr.…”