House Passes Senator Hassan’s Bipartisan Bill to Overhaul National Stockpile and Expand Domestic Manufacturing

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives passed the companion to Senator Maggie Hassan’s bipartisan bill to make long-overdue improvements to the Strategic National Stockpile, which is maintained by the federal government to ensure access to medical supplies during public health emergencies.  

The Strengthening America’s Strategic National Stockpile Act will help reduce America’s dependence on foreign adversaries like China for critical supplies, boost domestic manufacturing, and improve transparency to ensure the effectiveness of the Strategic National Stockpile during future public health emergencies. Senators Hassan and Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) and Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-08) introduced the bill earlier this year.

“The pandemic underscored the urgency to address the litany of problems with our Strategic National Stockpile – which was severely underprepared for the current public health crisis,” Senator Hassan said. “The House took an important step to strengthen our Strategic National Stockpile and boost domestic manufacturing by passing this important legislation. Our bipartisan bill will help create jobs and reduce our reliance on foreign countries for vital medical supplies, and I will keep working to get this bill over the finish line.”

The bipartisan Strengthening America’s Strategic National Stockpile Act would:

• Improve maintenance of the stockpile to ensure stockpile items are in good working order and ready to use if and when a crisis hits;
• Increase manufacturing of critical supplies in America to diversify sources of personal protective equipment and partner with industry to replenish existing stocks;
• Provide more federal resources to states to expand or maintain their own strategic stockpiles; and
• Bring transparency to stockpile allocations by requiring a report to Congress on all requests for stockpile supplies during the pandemic and the response to each request.

To read the bill text for the Strengthening America’s Strategic National Stockpile Act click here. To read the section-by-section, click here.

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