DeGette blasts Trump administration changes to Strategic National Stockpile website

DENVER, CO – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations panel – which oversees the agencies responsible for responding to the spread of the coronavirus – blasted the Trump administration today for changes to the Strategic National Stockpile website.

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, states have requested necessary supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile, including ventilators for patients and personal protective equipment for health care providers. Now, however, the Trump administration is claiming that the nation's largest supply of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies is not for states to use in public health emergencies.

"The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile — it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use," presidential advisor Jared Kushner said Thursday, echoing a sentiment expressed previously by the president.

Today, the administration took the extreme step of editing the Strategic National Stockpile website to more closely match these claims.

On April 2, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website for the Strategic National Stockpile read: "The Strategic National Stockpile is the nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out."

Now, the administration has changed the site to read: "The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well."

"The Trump administration should be spending every waking moment getting life-saving supplies to our health care providers on the frontlines," DeGette said. "Instead, they're spending valuable time editing the Strategic National Stockpile website to scapegoat our state and local officials. It's despicable."

For weeks, DeGette has pushed the administration to ramp up its deployment of supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile to states.

"I request you provide clarity on how local public health departments can access and receive supplies from the SNS in order to maintain local operations in response to COVID-19," she wrote to President Trump in a March 19 letter.