◆ Trump administration tries to narrow stockpile’s role for states.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday abruptly changed its description of the Strategic National Stockpile and put forward a narrower vision of the role the federal government’s repository of life-saving medicines and equipment should play in supplying states’ needs.
The change comes as the White House already is facing growing anger and worry from governors over federal assistance to fight the coronavirus outbreak. But it conforms with President Donald Trump’s insistence that the stockpile is only a short-term backup for states, not a commitment to ensure supplies get quickly to those who need them most during an emergency, the latest front in a concerted White House effort to try to put the onus for battling the crisis on the states, with Washington meant to play more of a supporting role.
Trump angrily defended the approach in his Friday news conference, his early sunny demeanor darkening as he was pressed on expected death rates and his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s comments suggesting the national stockpile is not intended for states. He sparred with reporters and insisted his administration was “doing our best for New York,” the pandemic’s epicenter, even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo warns the state is in danger of not having enough ventilators to help patients stricken with coronavirus in a matter of days.
The alteration of the language describing the stockpile was reflected on government websites Friday, a day after Kushner, a White House senior adviser who has taken a larger role in the coronavirus response, offered a new argument about the supplies. After saying that states should use their own stockpiles first, Kushner on Thursday said, “And the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
And asked what Kushner meant by “our stockpile,” Trump snapped at a reporter, “You know what our means: United States of America ... our. Our. It means the
United States of America.”
Trump on Friday touted the number of supplies it was sending to the states, including 8.1 million masks to New York. The president also directed FEMA to prevent export of the N95 masks under the Defense Production Act. In new guidance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to wear masks in crowded areas, particularly in hot spots, but Trump immediately said he would not personally follow the recommendation. Until Friday, the federal Health and Human Services website had described the stockpile as “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.”