Making sure the United States will never again have to face a pandemic without enough personal protective equipment is the goal of new proposed federal legislation. U.S. Representative Jackie Walorski, along with Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan, has introduced the Medical Supplies for Pandemics Act of 2020.
Walorski told Plymouth Chamber of Commerce members in a teleconference Friday that the Strategic National Stockpile was still in its infancy and, while it was growing, it wasn’t nearly where it needed to be for a pandemic. “So I’ve already got a bill that basically talks about mandating that we come out of this and immediately turn around and start identifying the needs where what we’ve learned on the shortages of the stockpile and mandating that we supply the stockpile with what we needed as a nation and that we didn’t have,” she explained.
The Medical Supplies for Pandemics Act would authorize $500 million a year through fiscal year 2023 to maintain and replenish reserves and create incentives for domestic medical supplies manufacturers. Walorski said four or five companies in her district have put their regular production on-hold to make PPE instead and plan to continue that long-term to replenish the stockpile.
She added that the White House taskforce and the Justice Department are taking aim at price gougers. “It’s happening right now, right here in our district, where face masks, N95s, cost 50 cents when hospitals ordered them months ago on their regular rotation basis. Some of the stuff is coming back from China right now at seven dollars apiece, and some hospitals have had to actually go and purchase those just to bridge the need for all of their health care workers to actually be in some kind of mask,” Walorski told Plymouth Chamber members.
Walorski felt that the pandemic has demonstrated the need to manufacture medical equipment at home, rather than relying on other countries.
Walorski’s office also announced Friday that she introduced legislation to suspend for one year the remaining penalties on senior citizens who decide to keep working or return to work after claiming Social Security benefits.
