Coalition for a Prosperous America Urges FEMA to Prioritize Domestic Manufacturers in Recovery Effort

WASHINGTON, April 30 -- The Coalition for a Prosperous America issued the following news release:

The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), whose members include manufacturers and agricultural producers throughout the United States, sent a letter to Pete Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). CPA's letter urged Gaynor to revise FEMA's focus on awarding "low price" contracts in COVID-19 relief efforts.

"We appreciate the Trump administration's timely recovery efforts in the current pandemic," said CPA Chair Dan DiMicco. "However, we are troubled by FEMA's use of low-price contracts when moving forward with the reopening of the U.S. economy. A smart, coordinated response effort should include domestic suppliers whenever possible in order to boost job creation at home and get important industries back on their feet."

CPA believes that FEMA's "lowest price contracts" would impose higher long-term costs for the nation. Awarding contracts for needed recovery items based on a lowest-price price formulation will simply encourage more subsidized imports--and short-change U.S. producers who follow the rules of global trade. The coronavirus pandemic has already exposed the limitation's of America's import supply chains, and Americans would like to see the nation reduce its deep dependence on China and other overseas producers. Emphasizing domestic production in FEMA's bidding process would be a helpful first step to bring back needed manufacturing sectors.

"America's over-reliance on China should sound alarm bells at FEMA," said Michael Stumo, CEO of the CPA. "FEMA should be working to ensure that U.S manufacturers are ready and able to respond to the next pandemic. To do so, FEMA should amend its current policy, which focuses solely on lowest-price contracts. It's time to incorporate a policy that looks to rebuild and maintain domestic productive capacity for critical supplies. Our goal should be to lessen America's vulnerabilities ahead of a potential future pandemic not increase it."

Read CPA's letter to FEMA (https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/prosperousamerica/pages/5747/attachments/original/1588098378/200428_Letter_Fema.pdf?1588098378).