Chairman Clyburn’s Opening Statement at Hearing on “Moving Beyond the Coronavirus Crisis: The Biden Administration’s Progress in Combating the Pandemic and Plan for the Next Phase”

Mar 30, 2022
Press Release

Washington, D.C. (March 30, 2022) – Below is Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Chairman James E. Clyburn’s opening statement, as delivered, for today’s hearing with senior Biden Administration officials on “Moving Beyond the Coronavirus Crisis: The Biden Administration’s Progress in Combating the Pandemic and Plan for the Next Phase.”

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Opening Statement 
Chairman James E. Clyburn 
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Hearing 
 “Moving Beyond the Coronavirus Crisis: The Biden Administration’s Progress in Combating the Pandemic and Plan for the Next Phase” 
March 30, 2022 

This is a hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.  When we were established with this name in April 2020, we were experiencing the worst public health crisis since the 1918 flu pandemic, and we were experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.   

Today, however, while there is still significant oversight of the response to the crisis for the Select Subcommittee to conduct, the word “crisis” no longer accurately describes the coronavirus in our country.  As President Biden declared in his State of the Union address, the coronavirus, and I quote him here, “need no longer control our lives.” End of quote.  

This statement is based on sound science.  Recent CDC recommendations provide that mitigation measures like mask mandates are not needed in counties with low or medium COVID-19 Community Levels, a CDC metric based on coronavirus case rates and hospital capacity.  Based on this recommendation, mask mandates are currently not needed in counties where more than 99% of Americans live.  Across the country, schools are open, businesses are thriving, and the American people are safely going about their pre-pandemic lives. 

Make no mistake:  We did not move beyond the crisis by chance.  Our success is the result of deliberate policy decisions and the decisive leadership of the Biden Administration.  And if Congress fails to provide the Administration the resources needed to continue to combat the virus, we increase the risk that we will return to crisis.  I look forward to hearing more from the three senior Administration officials with us today about our success in getting to this point and how we can maintain and build on this success moving forward. 

As we begin this discussion, it is essential that we take stock of how we got here: 

Within days of taking office, President Biden rescued a vaccination campaign that had been chaotic and floundering under the prior Administration.  The American Rescue Plan provided the necessary resources to take this campaign to every community in our country, including the most underserved and overlooked.   

Even in the face of vaccine hesitancy that has been legitimized by too many of my colleagues, the Biden Administration’s vaccination campaign has been a historic success. 

There is a visual I would like for you to take a look at here. And as this chart reflects, today more than 217 million Americans are fully vaccinated.  According to a recent study, these vaccinations have prevented 10 million hospitalizations and saved more than one million lives.   

And thanks to concerted action by the Administration—including the distribution of vaccines to Community Health Centers—that helped close those racial vaccination gaps, these benefits of vaccination have been shared equitably. 

The American Rescue Plan also enabled the Biden Administration to provide schools the resources they needed to stay open safely, to make life-saving treatments available for free, and to launch an unprecedented program that sent millions of coronavirus tests to American households after the highly infectious Omicron variant emerged late last year.    

These initiatives have enabled us to safely emerge from the crisis phase of the pandemic—coronavirus hospitalizations are the lowest they have been in nine months, and large-scale interventions are not needed.   

But just because we have moved beyond the crisis doesn’t mean we will automatically stay beyond the crisis.   

Earlier this month, President Biden released his National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, which details a comprehensive strategy to protect against and treat the virus, prepare for new variants, ensure schools and businesses stay open safely, and continue leading the global vaccination effort.   

This plan, however, is not self-executing.  Congress must provide resources for its implementation.  If Congress does not act swiftly, we risk losing valuable tools that have allowed us to get beyond the crisis.  Losing these tools would increase the risk of the crisis returning. 

As you can see on this chart, if Congress does not act: 

  • The federal government will no longer be able to make monoclonal antibody treatments available for free; 

  • We risk losing our capacity to maintain robust testing, leaving us vulnerable to new variants and may drive more infections; 

  • If the science shows additional booster shots are needed for everyone, we would not be able to secure enough doses; and  

  • The Administration would be forced to scale back its purchase of coronavirus treatments for our most vulnerable citizens. 

These are just some of the disastrous consequences of inaction—all of which are entirely avoidable.  I will reiterate what I said at our roundtable earlier this month: to my colleagues concerned about the cost, when it comes to public health crises, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.   

I want to thank our witnesses for testifying today.  I particularly want to thank you for your flexibility in allowing us to reschedule the hearing to accommodate Congressman Don Young’s memorial service on yesterday—while we were looking forward to seeing you in person, which was not possible once we rescheduled, we are fortunate to have the ability to hear from you virtually.  I look forward to hearing more about the new phase of the pandemic, the Biden Administration’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, and how Americans would be impacted if Congress fails to provide the necessary funding. 

Thank you. 

117th Congress