Meng Leads NY Delegation Letter to the Head of FEMA Calling for Greater Transparency and Centralized System for Acquiring Supplies and Equipment

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) announced today that she led members of the New York Congressional Delegation in sending a letter to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) calling for the agency to provide greater transparency in how it distributes supplies and equipment, and to create a centralized system to procure items such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators.

Meng and delegation members sent the letter in an effort to ensure that FEMA is sending more resources to states that have the greatest needs such as New York, as NY hospitals continue to lack necessary supplies and equipment.

The lawmakers are also seeking in their correspondence to have a national centralized purchasing and procurement system created to ensure that states such as New York can obtain critical supplies directly from FEMA. Reports have illustrated that states have complained they are competing for critical supplies on the commercial market after FEMA acquires them.

"The epicenter of this unprecedented public health crisis is right in the State of New York," the lawmakers wrote. "The skyrocketing cases of COVID-19 in New York State, currently at over 130,000 cases, are forcing our hospitals to operate beyond their normal capacity with limited resources, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), ventilators, and staff. We have been warned that more than half of New Yorkers will be infected with COVID-19 and we fear that lives will be needlessly lost due to insufficient and misallocation of resources."

Those who signed the letter include Reps. Nydia Velázquez, Thomas Suozzi, Adriano Espaillat, Joseph Morelle, Jerrold Nadler, José Serrano, Paul Tonko, Carolyn Maloney, Eliot Engel, Sean Patrick Maloney, Kathleen Rice, Brian Higgins, Gregory Meeks, and Yvette Clarke.

The text of the letter is below and a copy of the correspondence can be viewed here.

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Administrator Peter T. Gaynor

Federal Emergency Management Agency

500 C Street S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20472

Dear Administrator Gaynor:

As members of the New York congressional delegation, we write to urgently request the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to give full and complete transparency in its procurement and distribution of ventilators to states and to establish a centralized system to procure resources and distribute them to areas of greatest needs.

The epicenter of this unprecedented public health crisis is right in the State of New York. The skyrocketing cases of COVID-19 in New York State, currently at over 130,000 cases, are forcing our hospitals to operate beyond their normal capacity with limited resources, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), ventilators, and staff. We have been warned that more than half of New Yorkers will be infected with COVID-19 and we fear that lives will be needlessly lost due to insufficient and misallocation of resources.

New York State officials estimated that in less than a week's time, hospitals in New York will not have enough ventilators and as a result, would have to make the harrowing decision of which patients do not get ventilators, essentially giving them a death sentence. One less ventilator is one less life that had the hope of being saved, and every life is worth saving.

A national structure to effectively procure critical resources, such as PPE, ventilators, staff, and medication, for states does not exist. As a result, the federal government and states are at bidding wars, competing to acquire the same products from the same manufacturers, distributors, and global markets. Further, adding insult to injury, the federal government then sends it to the commercial market, forcing states to buy and compete for the same products yet again. Not only is this a waste of government funds, this is a waste of time, time which many do not have. As such, we urge FEMA to establish a centralized system where purchasing and procuring critical resources is solely conducted by the federal government and then distributed directly to states, eliminating the commercial system and any need for intermediaries.

The methodology used to determine how and where supplies, including ventilators, are distributed must be transparent. There should be no confusion on where supplies are going and what volume are to be expected. We urge FEMA to be transparent on its distribution methodology to give states and the American people confidence that the federal government is and will continue to distribute critical resources to areas of the greatest needs and in the hour of need.

We look to FEMA to help protect and save the American people from COVID-19. With COVID19, ventilators are our lifelines.

Sincerely,