Congressional testimony on pause for White House officials handling coronavirus response

The White House is temporarily stopping top officials engaged in the response to the coronavirus pandemic from giving testimony in hearings on Capitol Hill.

“While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government approach to stopping the spread of COVID-19, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in response efforts appearing at Congressional hearings,” deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. “We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”

The pause, first reported by Politico, would apply mostly to health officials such as Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield; Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and others working on the coronavirus task force. 

It’s unclear, however, when Congress would hold future hearings. The House is on recess and has indefinitely postponed its return, and federal guidelines call for strict limits on the number of people in a room at a time to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Fauci and Redfield were among those who testified last week before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about the Trump administration’s coronavirus response.

Fauci’s testimony in particular shaped discussion of the virus last week, and he has become a leading voice in the government’s response to the disease. He issued a stark warning that the situation would worsen before it improves, acknowledged initial difficulties in the testing rollout and advised against holding large gatherings as sports leagues mulled holding games without fans or suspending the seasons altogether.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have penned letters to the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies in recent days to press them for information on testing delays and to urge more aggressive action from the administration.

There were more than 7,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. as of Wednesday afternoon, and more than 120 Americans with the virus have died, according to The New York Times.