US Speaker announces panel to review virus response

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The House of Representatives will form a bipartisan committee to oversee the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday.

Congressman Jim Clyburn will oversee the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, she said.

"The greatness of our nation is in its ability to rise to extraordinary challenges, no matter how big," Pelosi told reporters on a conference call. "Now is the time. We face a deadly virus and a battered economy with millions of Americans out of work."

The committee will oversee the administration's implementation of recently-passed legislation that total more than $2 trillion, and will "root out waste, fraud and abuse; it will protect against price gouging, profiteering and political favoritism," Pelosi said.

"It will press to ensure that the federal response is based on the best possible science, and guided by the nation's best health experts," she said.

Congress passed and President Donald Trump has signed into law three separate measures to aid the economy and Americans caught in the midst of the pandemic.

The U.S. surpassed all other nations for the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections with more than 217,000 cases, according to data being compiled by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The death toll in the U.S. sits at 5,316, while the number who have recovered from the virus is 8,710, according to the data.

After first appearing in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, the virus has spread to at least 180 countries and regions.

The global death toll from the virus has hit more than 50,000 with an excess of 981,200 cases. The number of recoveries has surpassed 204,600, according to Johns Hopkins.