Senator Hassan Participates in Call with Bipartisan White House Task Force on Reopening Country in the Wake of COVID-19

WASHINGTON – As a member of the bipartisan White House task force to reopen the economy, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan today participated in a call with a bipartisan group of Senators and White House officials, including the Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, on what is needed to safely begin to reopen more parts of the economy.

“As a member of the White House’s bipartisan task force, I pushed administration officials on the call to put forward and execute an effective nationwide public health strategy, which is the only way to help get our economy moving in the right direction,” Senator Hassan said. “This plan must include massively increasing our country’s testing and contact tracing capabilities, while also planning for future public health needs, including the manufacturing and distribution of a future COVID-19 vaccine. I also emphasized the importance of providing additional aid and flexibility to state and local governments, without which our economy will take another huge hit just as we’re trying to get the economic recovery going.”

Senator Hassan has been pushing the administration to ramp up the production and distribution of COVID-19 tests as well as necessary medical supplies. Senator Hassan participated in a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee virtual roundtable last week where she stressed the importance of increasing the nation’s daily testing capacity, as well as a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing where she highlighted the importance of ensuring that COVID-19 tests are producing accurate results. Additionally, Senator Hassan joined her colleagues in introducing legislation that lays out a framework for an effective COVID-19 response by federalizing and adding critical oversight and transparency to the supply chain for medical supplies and equipment.

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