Congress begins new phase in coronavirus effort – calling Fauci, other frontline leaders to testify

Congress this week takes on a new yet familiar role in the federal response to crisis – conducting hearings to learn what frontline officials in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic have to say, ask them questions and hold them accountable. 

The five officials scheduled to testify in either the House or Senate include a federal vaccine scientist turned administration whistleblower and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

The hearing represent a new phase for Congress, which so far has largely focused on the more immediate effort of passing legislation to provide trillions of dollars to help U.S. businesses and taxpayers during the virus, which has largely shuttered the national economy.

Though Fauci has made numerous TV appearances since the pandemic took hold in the U.S. about eight weeks ago, Senate leaders are eager to hear Fauci’s official testimony, as he continues in his role as key member of President Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Fauci is scheduled to testify remotely Tuesday before the GOP-led Senate HELP committee along with Federal Drug Administration Director Stephen Hahn, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield and Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration’s assistant secretary for health.

On Thursday, the Democrat-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear remote testimony from Dr. Rick Bright. 

Bright was removed from his post as the leader of the NIH's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority over a purported disputes about responding to the pandemic and a vaccine. Bright claims he was reassigned, or demoted, to lesser position within the National Institutes of Health and as a result has filed a whistleblower complaint. 

Though member of both chambers have been on Capitol Hill in recent weeks to vote on spending measures, Congress had effectively been on recess since about mid-March. The Senate returned to session last week, but the House has yet to officially return. 

Trump has opposed Fauci testifying before the House, referring to chamber Democrats as "a bunch of Trump haters."