Coronavirus Response
Protecting Against the Coronavirus
On Friday, President Trump signed the coronavirus emergency funding package passed by Congress. This funding package provides an aggressive surge in resources to combat and contain the virus. Earlier this week, I chaired a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to examine the actions the federal government is taking to contain the spread of the coronoavirus, COVID-19, and prevent future pandemics.
The continued spread of the virus should focus us on addressing top priorities. First, we must ensure that we are protecting our medical responders: doctors, nurses, and other medical staff, as well as first responders at Customs and Border Protection and the Centers for Disease Control.
Learn more and watch the hearing here.
Information about the coronavirus and how to protect yourself can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.
Burisma Investigation
In an interview on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Wednesday, I spoke about our continuing oversight into possible corruption involving the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and my plans to consider a subpoena as part of those overnight efforts.
Video of the interview can be found here. Here's an excerpt from that interview:
One of the things we are preparing right now is a timeline, and it is incredibly interesting and it raises all kinds of questions. It connects all kinds of dots. What I'm hoping to be able to do within the next couple of months is gather enough information, verify it through things like this subpoena and then issue at least an interim report so the American people can see what this possible corruption is. And again, it is bullying from a well-connected, swampy consulting firm.A CBS News story about the investigation can be found here.
Presidential Transition Enhancement Act
I applaud President Trump for signing the Presidential Transition Enhancement Act into law this week. I introduced this bipartisan legislation to fix issues that arose during the Obama-Trump presidential transition. It codifies current ethics practices of presidential transition teams.
Regardless of what party wins an election and takes the White House, it is imperative that presidential candidates' transition teams have full confidence in the services provided by federal agencies and that the transition of power is as smooth as possible.
Handing over the keys to the entire $4.45 trillion federal government is a colossal undertaking. This legislation makes important improvements to streamline the transition process.
Learn more here.
New District Judge Nominee for Wisconsin
On Monday, I signed the blue slip in support of Judge Brett Ludwig's nomination to join the U.S. District Court for Wisconsin's Eastern District. Judge Ludwig received bipartisan support from my judicial nominating commission and also Sen. Baldwin's. Ludwig will fill a spot on the federal bench that has been open since February of 2016.
The Senate has confirmed 193 federal judges during President Trump's time in office. In fact, Trump nominees make up 1 in 4 circuit court judges on the bench today.
Read more here.
