Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff has followed through on his call for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the failures of the U.S. to prepare for the COVID-19 epidemic, as have a bipartisan pair of House lawmakers, Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and John Katko (R-NY).
The discussion draft Schiff is circulating of his bill sets up a commission to "examine U.S. government preparedness in advance of this pandemic, the Federal government’s response to it, and provide recommendations to improve our ability to respond to and recover from future outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics." It's modeled closely after the legislation that was enacted in 2002 for creating the 9/11 commission, and has been provided to the members of that commission as well as lawmakers and outside experts. He is proposing a 10-member bipartisan commission "with a variety of backgrounds in relevant fields, including public health, epidemiology, emergency preparedness, armed services, and intelligence." It would be established in February 2021, after the election and after the pandemic's (hopeful) end.
“After Pearl Harbor, September 11, and many momentous events in American history, independent, bipartisan commissions have been established to provide a complete accounting of what happened, what we did right and wrong, and what we can do to better protect the country in the future,” Schiff said in a statement announcing the discussion draft. “Though we are still in the early days of the Coronavirus crisis, there is no doubt that such a comprehensive and authoritative review will be required. This is not an exercise in casting blame or scoring political points, but something that the American people should rightly expect from their government as an exercise in accountability. In designing such a commission, I believe that the 9/11 Commission provides an established and proven model, one which Congress should adapt to the purposes of the Coronavirus.”
The discussion draft from Murphy and Katko is very similar, though slightly more restricted in the charge for the proposed commission's purpose than Schiff's, which seems to give the would-be commissioners more leeway to determine the scope of their mission. The ultimate aim of both is to determine where the government failed this time in order to better prepare for the next time.