[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 184 (Wednesday, October 20, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H5681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TAKING A HARD LOOK AT THE NATIONAL STOCKPILE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Ms. Slotkin) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SLOTKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to pass 
my bill, the Strengthening America's Strategic National Stockpile Act, 
so that we never again are dependent on foreign manufacturers for the 
supplies we need to keep Americans safe.
  This bipartisan bill, brought to this Chamber by eight Democrats and 
eight Republicans, would make sure our country never again endures what 
we went through in those early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when we 
all received those urgent calls, only to learn that our stockpile, the 
national stockpile, would only provide a fraction of what we needed, 
many pieces inside expired, some of them molding.
  This bill would ensure that we have a properly maintained national 
stockpile of medical supplies so that our doctors, nurses, and 
frontline workers have the personal protective equipment they need to 
protect themselves while helping others.
  Put yourself back into the mindset of April 2020: frantic calls and 
e-mails from essential workers begging for help. As cases of COVID 
surged, both in our hospitals and in our nursing homes, our frontline 
workers made it clear that they simply didn't have enough protective 
equipment to keep themselves safe.
  In fact, the National Institutes of Health conducted a study on why 
we have a shortage of protective equipment. Through that study, they 
found that the U.S. anticipated--we knew--that our national supply 
would come up short, and they estimated that we would need 3.5 billion 
N95 masks to protect Americans from a pandemic that affected only a 
third of our country. This is why we cannot move on without cleaning up 
our system.
  In 2020, every Member of this body was hearing from doctors, nurses, 
and first responders who were bravely battling this disease and 
improvised face shields and homemade solutions to protect themselves.
  I still think about the physician in Brighton, Michigan, who compared 
his job to being a soldier on the front lines, wearing only a T-shirt 
and a baseball cap instead of body armor and a helmet; or the nurses in 
Mason, Michigan, who had to share one gown, not per person, but for the 
entire staff on a COVID ward.
  In response, I found myself doing anything and everything I could to 
secure protective equipment for Michigan: calling mask manufacturers, 
negotiating with companies in China, and fighting for each and every 
shipment. I was sending Ziplocs of 10 masks to our nursing homes 
individually. If a Congresswoman is negotiating in the dead of night 
with a Chinese middleman for masks, our supply chains have officially 
failed us.
  This searing experience shook me to my core. We can and must do 
better to protect Americans and to learn from our mistakes.
  This bill, the Strengthening America's Strategic National Stockpile 
Act, would ensure that if States ever need to turn to it, our stockpile 
will be fully supplied, maintained, and ready to go.
  It requires constant maintenance and inventory checks to make sure 
items aren't expired. We need to make the distribution process 
transparent. It helps States to create their own local stockpiles, and 
it prevents waste of taxpayer dollars by allowing the stockpile to sell 
excess supplies to other agencies before they expire.
  Perhaps most importantly, this bill incentivizes production of 
critical medical supplies right here at home, in the United States. 
Through a $500 million program, the stockpile will partner directly 
with American manufacturers to expand capacity and strengthen our 
domestic supply chains.

  Now, in Michigan, we get it. Before the pandemic, the mere mention of 
supply chains was enough to put some to sleep. But the last year and a 
half has changed that. The issue is now on the front page of every 
paper and at the heart of every key business and policy decision.
  From masks to microchips, the disruptions we have experienced have 
forced us to pull back the curtain and take a hard look at the systems 
we rely on in our daily lives. Michiganders have been saying this for 
30 years. If you outsource our supply chains too far to China, it 
becomes a national security issue, and it has.
  Here in Congress, we have a responsibility to respond to the way this 
crisis has shook our communities for our first responders and our 
businesses. I ask my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to vote 
``yes'' on this critical piece of legislation. Help clean up the mess 
that was on display last year. That is our job and our responsibility 
to the next crisis.

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