Texas Senator Ted Cruz discusses reopening the U.S. economy as well as the current state of PPE supplies and Coronavirus testing.

Video Transcript

TED CRUZ: In terms of the supply chain, one of the things this pandemic has really illustrated is the vulnerability of the United States to China's control of our supply chain, particularly critical infrastructure, medical equipment, whether it's PPE or whether it is pharmaceuticals.

And the Chinese government engaged in a systematic strategic effort to bring as much pharmaceutical manufacturing out of the United States and into China, and it was directed at the highest levels of the Chinese government. And where we have now, depending on the pharmaceutical, is a vast percentage of the medicines we rely on in the United States is made in China.

Now one of the pieces that really illustrated the vulnerability is in the course of this pandemic, a newspaper that is controlled and owned by the Chinese government threatened to cut off pharmaceuticals from the United States of America as a weapon against us in this pandemic, and that is from an organ of the Chinese government.

And let me be clear. We're talking about antibiotics. We're talking about blood-pressure medicine. We're talking about heart medicine. If China were to do that, that's not just economic warfare. That's actual warfare. That is threatening the lives of Americans by denying them medicines that are lifesaving medicines they need.

And I think coming out of this, we're going to have a serious reassessment of how can we possibly let this happen? We cannot be dependent upon the beneficence of the Chinese communist government for lifesaving medicine.

ADAM SHAPIRO: But how do you get-- how do you get pharmaceutical companies to move their production there back to the States? What could you do? Can't order it.

TED CRUZ: So I think there are a number of steps we can take, and I expect robust debates. I'm a co-sponsor of one bill, a bill that Tom Cotton has introduced, that would, for example, allow immediate expensing for the construction of new pharmaceutical plants in the United States and would require that the US government purchases of pharmaceuticals-- and the US government is a major purchaser of pharmaceuticals-- be from pharmaceuticals not developed in China-- in other words, use the purchasing power of the federal government to move some of the supply chain back. I think that's a good first take and one of the levers we can use, and I fully expect continued discussion.

No one in their right mind would suggest that New Yorkers should go back to work tomorrow. There are other parts of the country where the numbers are not nearly as bad, and I think it makes sense to implement plans to protect the most vulnerable populations, to protect people-- the very elderly, those with serious health conditions. Those have been the populations that have demonstrated the greatest vulnerability to this virus. But at the same time, as much as possible, allow young, healthy people to go back to work and to do so in ways that are safe-- maybe using PPE, using masks and gloves, maybe using social distancing. It's got to vary based on the circumstances on the ground.

There is not a magic wand that you can suddenly have hundreds of millions or billions of tests poof into existence. I have been urging the administration to move more effectively to do things like use the Defense Production Act, which I called on the president early on to use. That's legislation that came originally out in 1941 and 1942, came out of World War II and our ability to mobilize the incredible power of the American free enterprise system to develop the tools we needed to win World War II.

I think we ought to be-- I've urged-- I called Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, and urged him use the Defense Production Act to ensure the development of PPE, to ensure the development of tests, to ensure the development of ventilators. We need to be doing more.

That being said, it is not the case that you've got to have 300 million tests for 300 million Americans before people can go back to work. We have people working now in all sorts of essential industries, and we can-- we can be prudent about it. People who are asymptomatic-- we can be prudent about it depending upon the degree of infection and established policies.

And I think the governor of Texas this week is rolling out the standards for the state of Texas. I think that is positive. But the two combined-- obviously in areas with a high concentration of the testing, testing is more critical. But we can also open up with social distancing and using the other tools of mitigation while the testing capacity is ramping up to where it needs to be.