Porter had a similar moment just a few days before our interview, when her questioning of Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suddenly made her one of the most visible members of Congress in the current crisis. Would the CDC pay for Americans to get tested for COVID-19? she asked Redfield, using a whiteboard to calculate that a single test could cost $1,131. Redfield, at first, seemed unwilling to commit. But Porter insisted, and ultimately, he gave in: “I think you’re an excellent questioner,” he said. “So my answer is yes.”

Securing the pledge was, for Porter, a small victory in the grand scheme of this growing global catastrophe. As a member of Congress, she has unusual access to the people managing the current crisis. But when I talked with her, she also came across as just another American working to get her family through this fraught and frightening moment. I asked Porter how she views the role of Congress in this pandemic, and why she believes that the Democratic leadership is not acting with nearly enough urgency. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Elaine Godfrey: I watched your questioning of Robert Redfield, as did many Americans. Describe that moment.

Representative Katie Porter: As much as I care about banking regulation and the problems that it causes, this is life or death. He came with the kind of answers as if I’d asked him about interest rates at the Federal Reserve or capital holding requirements. But I was literally asking him, Are you willing to save lives? And so I think I kind of pushed in a more forceful way. Because life is potentially at stake.

Read: America is woefully underinsured.

Godfrey: Do you think there will be follow-through?

Porter: Free testing is part of the Families First Act [the economic-relief package the House passed earlier this week]. So there’s a legislative overlay coming here too, we hope. But in the meantime, hopefully people who are symptomatic will call their provider and get that screening to figure out if they need to go to get tested, without fear about how much they’ll have to pay out of pocket.

We should be asking the CDC director to step up and use [his] authority to make sure that people don’t go without treatment because of cost.

Godfrey: Big picture, how do you view the role of Congress right now? What is your role in this moment?

Porter: First and foremost, it’s to disseminate correct and accurate information to our constituents. One of the ways we do that is through media, through tele–town halls. The second thing that we need to be doing is model the behaviors and changes and the public-health measures that we are asking others to take.

We’ve asked businesses to allow telework. We’ve asked schools to implement remote learning. Yet Congress is not itself doing those things. If we all gather together on the House floor in a group of 430-plus people, we are creating a public-health risk, and so I’ve been pushing hard since last week for remote voting procedures. Potentially, I think we’re going to need to hold remote hearings as well.