It isn’t often that we stumble upon a politician who does exactly what a politician should do during a crisis, and does it so well that it should be recorded and shown on orientation day for every politician elected to any office anywhere.

One of those very rare politicians, it seems, is Rep. Katie Porter of California.

At a hearing Thursday on the coronavirus pandemic Porter was among the members of Congress questioning Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prior to the hearing, Porter had unearthed an apparently obscure federal regulation that gives the head of the CDC the power to use government funds to cover the costs for “care and treatment of individuals subject to medical examination, quarantine, isolation, and conditional release” during a health crisis.

So Porter asked Dr. Redfield – again and again and again – if he would use that power and agree, in public, before cameras, to invoke that authority so that COVID-19 testing could be provided “free to every American regardless of insurance.”

Porter showed the art of not letting up

There was a lot of dancing around the subject at first, nice sounding answers that were essentially noncommittal.

Porter and two other representatives had sent a letter to the Trump administration about the regulation last week and I guess they hadn’t heard back.

But now the head of the CDC was RIGHT THERE and Porter was not going to let up.

She kept repeating some version of the same question.

The congresswoman said, “You need to make a commitment to the American people so they come in to get tested. You can operationalize the payment structure tomorrow.”

Finally, Redfield caved.

He told the congresswoman, “I think you’re an excellent questioner, so my answer is yes.”

Porter is a Democrat, but she wasn’t being partisan. She was operating like an elected public servant. A real one.

All other members of Congress shouldn’t just start acting like her. They should be her.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.