Letter to President Donald Trump - Aderholt: Implement "Buy America' policies to secure medical, pharmaceutical supply chains
Letter
Dear President Trump,
I appreciate the work your administration has done to address the health security threat posed by the
COVID-19 virus. This global pandemic has highlighted the risk Americans face from an overreliance
on imported products in securing public health.
This virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has rapidly spread across the globe with over 1.4
million cases confirmed according to Johns Hopkins University. With China producing significant
quantities of the world's medical supplies and active pharmaceutical ingredients, this centralization
of global supply imposes significant health security risks should U.S. access be threatened or
interrupted. Through China's actions to hide the severity of the outbreak in their country, it is clear
that they do not take their responsibility to international partners seriously.
While it is important to support our international allies in confronting this pandemic, we must
prevent foreign control over the supply and price of health-related commodities in the United States.
In order to assure an uninterrupted supply, it is critical to encourage the development of enough
domestic capacity to avoid placing the lives of Americans in the hands of foreign suppliers.
Buy America policies create demand for domestically produced goods, helping to sustain and grow
domestic manufacturing and the millions of jobs it supports without additional spending. Americans
expect that their taxpayer dollars will be used to purchase high-quality products produced in America
by American workers and the businesses that employ them, not help China grow its domestic
industry while enabling the collapse of U.S. manufacturing.
I encourage the use of existing authority to implement additional Buy America requirements for
federal procurement of medical supplies and active pharmaceutical ingredients, helping use taxpayer-financed purchases to rebuild our public health industrial base in support of our national security.
Sincerely,
Source