“Before we begin, I do want to continue to pray for everyone who has lost loved ones from this virus. I do also want to thank all those from the medical community to the truck drivers, to the farmers, to the grocery clerks… everybody that’s making sure the country is still working through this. We can not thank them enough…
“How do we start rebuilding this country? Some of the biggest lessons we need to learn… [is] the dependency that the world has on China when it comes to PPE and medicine.
“I’m spending policy conferences over the phone advising members, educating members, on how big China has become in many of these supply chains, and that we have to break them.
“Looking specifically at areas that we can improve — the modernizing of the strategic national stockpile. Specifically, two goals must be achieved within this country: modernizing the stockpile and [bringing] pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the U.S.
“What I’ve talked about in a number of different calls… is [allowing] the private sector to keep stockpile for the federal government… and then each year they can sell it back in so we have a modernized stockpile every single year…
“If we can modernize our stockpile it would be an efficient one, and we would have more than enough for any virus coming in the future, but it would also never expire.
“And finally, we need to look at a bold deregulatory agenda to bring manufacturing back to the United States. This would include extensive tax incentives to unshackle the regulatory capture…
“We need to be sure that we never repeat the challenges we have now. Break the supply chain from China, never allowing them to have that great of influence again… We should look at every element and industry in America and analyze what percentage does China have control over…
“We’re working on how [to get] Congress back up and running. I know that the Democrats say we’re open, and then we’re not.
“One thing I know is the doctors go to work every day while Congress is not. Delivery drivers continue to work everyday, but Congress does not.
“I believe Congress is essential, that’s why I sent a letter to the Speaker about two weeks ago now [urging for a plan to re-open Congress]…
“There are ways to do this safely, by working with the medical community and also making sure that Congress is doing the job it needs to [do]. And I hope we’ll be able to do that.”