There have been many times throughout history when the federal government’s performance was so ineffective, inept, incompetent, and embarrassing that Congress had no choice but to establish a special commission to investigate. The coronavirus pandemic rampaging through the country and the government’s inadequate, frenzied attempt to combat the spread is one of those times.
The United States is now in the midst of a pandemic that has virtually shut down entire cities, forced people to change their daily routines, and sent a message to society about how vulnerable we truly are. The virus has also demonstrated to the public and the world that their government is dangerously unprepared for these types of threats.
In the months since the coronavirus was first detected on American soil, the Trump administration has committed one error after another in what can only be generously referred to as a dastardly series of failures. The extent of the blame is so large that no single agency or individual is solely responsible. It rises to the White House, where President Trump continued to dismiss the virus as if it was the common cold, to Congress, which has treated public health as a second-tier priority compared to less-important issues. It took a collapse in the stock market to finally get Trump’s attention, and even then, bureaucratic tussles over which agency was in charge and which senior official was reporting to whom hampered the government’s coordination.
The coronavirus has done to the U.S. what no terrorist group or nation-state has the power to do: expose how vulnerable the country is and how feckless U.S. political leadership can be. The public health crisis is placing an enormous burden on the hospital system, with doctors and healthcare professionals toiling with the barest of resources. The American Hospital Association has asked Congress to provide a $100 billion relief package to help hospitals cope with the costs of caring for the thousands of patients streaming through their doors. Emergency rooms in New York City and Los Angeles are either overcapacity or close to losing bed space. According to the Wall Street Journal, doctors at Tisch Hospital are reusing gowns and masks because there aren’t enough to go around. Governors are so desperate that they are begging apparel companies to produce medical supplies.
The U.S. may have a nearly $20 trillion gross domestic product and the most lethal, dynamic, sophisticated, and highly professional military on the planet, but in terms of public health, it can feel as if we are living in a third-world country. By the time the government gets a handle on this pandemic, as many as 2.2 million people could lose their jobs.
How on Earth could the U.S., the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, be so horrible at protecting its people from a contagion? Why didn’t U.S. officials listen to experts who brought their concerns about the coronavirus to the table? And more importantly, what can Washington do to better prepare itself for the next public health disaster?
Republicans and Democrats alike should be getting to the bottom of what went wrong. As soon as the pressing business of passing a massive stimulus bill and saving the economy is complete, lawmakers should establish a nonpartisan commission staffed with respected experts in the field of public health to investigate the federal government’s policies, procedures, and tactics to the root. Call it the “Special Commission on the Coronavirus Epidemic.”
Special commissions may sound like a Washington solution to a very difficult problem. But if staffed appropriately and given subpoena power, sufficient resources, and appropriate access to do its work, commissions can be a public service by uncovering systemic deficiencies and forcing lawmakers to address them.
The Church Committee in 1975 unearthed a series of intelligence committee abuses decades in the making. The result: the formation of permanent congressional oversight of the intelligence community and the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The 9/11 Commission in 2004 forced national security officials across many agencies to reckon with their mistakes. The product was the establishment of the office of the director of national intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center, and regularized intelligence coordination between the CIA and the FBI on national security threats that affect the nation. The intelligence community suffered a lot during these reviews, but the CIA, FBI, NSA, and Pentagon are better off for it.
The public deserves answers as to why this pandemic got so bad so fast. They also deserve accountability from public officials, regardless of which agency they work for, who either didn’t take the virus seriously or made poor decisions. Something akin to the 9/11 Commission is urgently needed. The alternative, a nation unprepared for an even deadlier infectious disease in the future, is too frightening to contemplate.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
