Senate contenders put campaign on hold for Ebola hearing

Twenty-three lawmakers returned to Washington on Thursday to grill Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden about the Ebola outbreak, including two candidates in competitive Senate races.

Frieden appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight subcommittee, which is made up of 26 members.

{mosads}Reps. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), who are contenders of two close races that could decide control of the Senate in the Nov. 4 midterm elections, were among the 23 lawmakers who showed up to the hearing in the middle of the seven-week, pre-election congressional recess.

By returning to Washington fewer than three weeks before the elections, Gardner and Braley gave themselves the chance to demonstrate their concern about the Ebola outbreak and the administration’s response.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is a member of the subcommittee, also turned up for the hearing. 

Thirteen Republicans were present: Gardner, Scalise, Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (Pa.), full committee Chairman Fred Upton (Mich.), Michael Burgess (Texas), Phil Gingrey (Ga.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), Bill Johnson (Ohio), Billy Long (Mo.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.), Andy Harris (Md.) and Mark Meadows (N.C.). Harris and Meadows are not members of the subcommittee.

Ten Democrats were in attendance: subcommittee ranking member Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), full committee ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.), Braley, Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), Kathy Castor (Fla.), Peter Welch (Vt.), John Yarmuth (Ky.), Gene Green (Texas), Jim Matheson (Utah) and John Sarbanes (Md.). Matheson and Sarbanes are not members of the subcommittee, but do sit on the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

By comparison, only 19 lawmakers returned to Washington for the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on the Secret Service on Sept. 30, including two who were not members of the 40-member panel.