U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said if North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr sold stock inappropriately, he should answer for it.

“Congress has laws in place in respect to this, and I expect the law to be followed,” Gardner told Colorado Politics in a stern tone Friday afternoon. “I’m sure he’ll be addressing that, and he’s asked for an ethics investigation. I certainly think that’s appropriate.”

As criticism mounted Friday, Burr, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked the Senate Ethics Committee to review his sale of nearly $1.7 million in stocks ahead of the market nosedive caused by the pandemic.

Gardner is working on the Senate coronavirus response package while he has been in self-quarantine for exposure on March 11.

The Republican Senator from the Eastern Plains talked about his role in the Senate’s Phase III recovery plan. Phase 1 is to contain the virus. Phase 2 is to provide immediate relief to workers and small businesses, and Phase 3 restores the economy, he explained.

“We still have to address COVID-19 itself,” Gardner said of the task at hand. “We have to make sure we get the response right, the resources to the states and do social distancing and flatten the curve, so that we can address the health impacts.

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“That’s the primary objective, to end this health emergency.”

Gardner first outlined his economic stimulus proposal on Wednesday, as the Senate passed the House coronavirus relief bill on a broadly bipartisan vote.

The challenge is to brace the economy to snap back during that health emergency, Gardner said.

Though he’s deeply involved, Gardner said it’s not his to carry alone.

“We’re going to need bipartisan support for this, and we’re all working on this together,” he said. “This is a Senate project.”

A respected member of the Republican caucus and the past chair of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign, Gardner has been working on unemployment insurance relief and business stabilization.

He’s been working on food supply chain issues, as well. 

“I’ve been on the phone with the Colorado Motor Carriers Association to make sure we can get any barriers removed so that they can get food and goods distributed across the country. I’ve been working with the airlines. I serve on an aviation subcommittee.”

Gardner sits on key committees that could be affected by the global crisis, including the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science’s and Transportation subcommittee on science.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he’s been working his contacts around the globe to find extra capacity for personal protective equipment and other supply lines.

Gardner chairs the foreign relations subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, and he’s not calling it the Chinese virus, or the China flu, as the president has.

“I’m calling it bad and I’m calling it COVID-19,” he said. “Obviously this did come out of China, but COVID-19 doesn’t care where you’re from. It doesn’t care what political affiliation you are. If we’re affected by it, it’s something we’re going to have to deal with, and that’s why we’re doing every thing we can.

“This economy and the American people have responded in an unprecedented way, and that’s why Congress has to take unprecedented action to get it back up and running.”