Seventy-four members of the House and Senate, most of them Republicans, raised the urgency of the situation in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and CDC Director Robert R. Redfield.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is under self-quarantine after a possible exposure during CPAC, says that members of Congress in high-risk communities will get added protection from disease.

Cruz made the statement during an interview with the Texas Tribune, which reports that this is the first time that the Senate has considered such protective measures.

The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), held a hearing Monday to review the use of enhanced protocols, including expanded availability of protective equipment, in response to the potential for international spread of the highly contagious coronavirus pandemic.

Citing the new virus outbreak, Goodlatte argued that there should be even greater monitoring of legislative action that could cause a public health catastrophe.

“We must take every precaution to ensure the safe passage of the Congress and our public servants throughout the world,” he said.

Last Tuesday, Congress approved $8.4 billion for the CDC to be able to respond more quickly to emerging and rapidly spreading viruses like the deadly coronavirus. But there are concerns about how best to identify and isolate asymptomatic carriers in the United States.

Within both House and Senate, lawmakers are increasingly jittery about a potential outbreak in the U.S., which has been slow to respond to the deadly virus.

The debate surrounding the possibility of using experimental drugs to treat or vaccinate against the virus got a big boost early this month when House Democrats reached an agreement to expand an existing program researching trial vaccinations to fight the virus.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported on a sign posted at a lunchroom in the Congressional Research Service cafeteria that warned staffers to avoid touching food being prepared in their presence.

President Donald Trump and other members of Congress took heat in recent months for downplaying the crisis and delaying testing in affected states such as California and New York.

