Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) on Friday called on President Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ensure that small businesses have access to personal protection equipment (PPE) to reopen safely as shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic are lifted.
“The federal government must meet the needs of these small business owners, particularly due to the great sacrifices they’ve made, and continue to make, to survive this public health and economic crisis,” Rose said in his letter to Trump.
Rose noted that small businesses and restaurants will still be required to meet state and local requirements for necessary PPE and sanitizers to ensure the safety of workers and customers.
“It would be government-sanctioned cruelty if we finally allow them to re-open, but they can’t due to a lack of PPE and supplies,” he said.
He urged the Trump administration to use the DPA “to the fullest extent possible” to manufacture the amount of necessary PPE to aid businesses that have struggled throughout the pandemic.
Rose previously called on the administration to use the DPA for producing additional vital medical supplies for facilities in need during the pandemic.
He also voted in favor of the recent $3 trillion HEROES Act that passed mostly along party lines in the House last week, a bill Republicans are not expected to take up in the GOP-led Senate.