Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), a member of the House Rules Committee and Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, spoke on the House Floor this morning about the importance of legislators representing those who elected them. 

During March and April, Congress passed four emergency appropriations bills. Implementation of these pieces of legislation is just beginning. It is critical that Congress is deliberate, studies and learns from action already taken, and then decides what further action is needed. The American taxpayer has entrusted Congress with this responsibility and continuing to spend money without oversight is reckless.     

As Prepared for Delivery:
Today’s rule includes a resolution to change the fundamental proceedings of the House of Representatives. Once that passes, and it will because this is a majoritarian body, we will take up a $3 trillion assistance bill. 

This is not the first time this week that Democrats have trampled on the rights of the minority. Allowing multiple Members to vote by proxy is not representative government. I will not give away the vote of the people of the 26th district of Texas to someone they did not elect. Governing is difficult, but we need to get back to work. 

More than 80,000 American lives have been lost to this pandemic. COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on our health care communities and our economy. 

We should have been having real-time implementation hearings on the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act and adjusting the policy to improve our national response. 

In an effort to show what we should be working on right now, I wrote a series of hearing request letters this week to Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairwoman Anna Eshoo, including  on the Strategic National Stockpile, mental health, racial disparities, provider relief, and testing.

We should be working through authorizing committees to improve our nation’s public health response to this pandemic. State testing capacity has gotten substantially better; however, we must reflect on what went wrong and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. I worry about what happened at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when the United States first began preparing for potential COVID-19 cases on our shores.  

Congress, recognizing the importance of widespread diagnostic testing, took action to encourage the development of localized testing strategies. Congress has directed billions of dollars toward testing in four Coronavirus response bills. Before $3 trillion more dollars of taxpayer money is spent, significantly increasing the debt and deficit, we have to evaluate the current state of response and recovery, including our testing strategy. We have to get this right for the American people. 

I yield back.