WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) issued the following statements regarding the president’s naming of Ron Klain as the Ebola Response Coordinator, commonly referred to as “Ebola czar."
“The United States’ handling of the Ebola virus here at home has left Americans across the country petrified about the preparedness and response efforts. The public is desperate to believe that we will be safe from Ebola’s spread. I was glad the president got off the campaign trail to finally focus on Ebola, but with this appointment of a ‘czar’ with no health background, he just got right back on," said Upton. “What has been missing from this administration’s response to Ebola is not a new figurehead; what we need is a strategy to get ahead of this, and restore the public’s faith that they are safe. Yesterday, we held an urgent hearing on our response efforts, hoping to gain a better understanding of what officials are doing to train health care workers in emergency rooms and hospitals and stop the spread of the virus here at home and in Africa. The administration needs to immediately institute travel restrictions to get this situation under control, properly train health care workers to identify and treat Ebola patients, and remain focused on stopping the spread of Ebola at its source in Africa."
Murphy added, “This appointment is both shocking and frankly tone deaf to what the American people are concerned about. Installing yet another political appointee who has no medical background or infectious disease control experience will do little to reassure Americans who are increasingly losing confidence with the Administration’s Ebola strategy. Not one of the medical experts who testified at our hearing yesterday said what is needed to stop the spread of the Ebola virus is a czar, spokesman, or campaign operative with no relevant experience telling them what to do. We need leadership from the president and changes to the current policies to end the scourge of Ebola here and in Western Africa. Changes we can advance right now to protect the public health include travel restrictions, stronger quarantine measures, and expedited review and approval of therapies and vaccines for Ebola. Keeping an open-door travel policy that relies on an honor system is deeply troubling to Americans because, as we’ve seen with the known U.S. cases of Ebola infection, the screening, self-monitoring and self-reporting at airports have been demonstrated failures and put Americans at risk."
