Letter to President Donald Trump - Sarbanes, Maryland Congressional Delegation Urge President Trump and General Motors to Reopen White Marsh Plant to Manufacture Ventilators

Letter

Dear President Trump:

We write to urge you to use your authority under the Defense Production Act to order General Motors (GM) to reopen its plant in White Marsh, Maryland to produce much-needed ventilators for hospitals.

On April 8, GM received a contract to build 30,000 ventilators under the Defense Production Act. It is unfortunate that the Defense Production Act was not invoked months ago so that these ventilators could be rolling off the line now, since COVID-19 has been a public health emergency since the end of January. Maryland now has over 13,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, as of April 20. As numbers continue to rise across the state and region, reopening the White Marsh plant will put high-skilled workers back to work and ensure that ventilators will be available and easily accessible in an area with multiple hotspots.

Requiring the highest health and safety standards is fundamental to protect workers who are putting themselves at risk to help our nation respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. As GM and other companies respond to COVID-19, we must ensure that they are protecting the health and safety of their workers and preventing transmission of COVID-19 in their plants.

Until its closure, the White Marsh plant employed hundreds of workers producing highly complex machinery from electric motors to transmissions. The federal government's recent contract with GM provides you with an opportunity to utilize these workers' skills. We urge you to use your authority under the Defense Protection Act to reopen the plant with the highest safety standards and put these employees back to work.

Sincerely,