1600 Daily The White House • May 14, 2020 Nancy Pelosi’s Left-Wing Wish List

The White House • May 14, 2020

Nancy Pelosi’s left-wing wish list If House Democrats are focused on helping Americans get through this global pandemic safely, they sure have a funny way of showing it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s latest extravagant, $3 trillion spending proposal is Washington at its worst—and most predictable. While President Trump, governors of both parties, and frontline workers band together to fight this virus as one country, House Democrats see an opportunity to exploit this crisis to pass their partisan agenda. Millions of Americans are out of work. President Trump is trying to get them back on the job by safely reopening our country. Instead of helping him do it, here is what Democrats in Congress have decided is worth holding Coronavirus relief hostage for: A BAN on information about low-cost health insurance. That’s right—House Democrats want to forbid the government from sharing any information with you about lower-cost health options such as association plans or short-term plans. Even as families try to cope with job and wage losses, Speaker Pelosi doesn’t want them to learn about options that are up to 60 percent cheaper than Obamacare.   Mass voting by mail. A “Coronavirus relief” bill might seem like the wrong time and place to dictate how states run their elections. Democrats disagree.   Stimulus checks for illegal aliens. Rather than protect American citizens by requiring a Social Security Number for taxpayer-funded stimulus, Pelosi’s bill would give illegal immigrants the ability to receive up to $1,200 in direct payouts.   Bailouts… for government. Democrats want more than $1 trillion in cash for state and local governments, mostly in the form of unrestricted aid that doesn’t need to be used to offset Coronavirus costs. They also threw in a $25 billion bailout for the Post Office. The list goes on. At a moment when Americans most need Washington to look out for them and cut the partisan drama, Democrat leaders once again chose to put their far-left base first. MORE: “Democrats’ new $3 trillion Coronavirus spending wishlist is another embarrassing farce” President Trump is protecting our national stockpile When the Coronavirus struck, President Trump knew that America needed to act quickly. He worked with Congress to secure $16 billion to build up our national stockpile with ventilators, masks, respirators, pharmaceuticals, and other critical supplies. As a result, America today has an abundant supply of ventilators, N95 respirators, and resources for testing—a crucial area where we now lead the world. But that’s only the start. President Trump knows that America’s long-term self-reliance depends on our supply chain. “Our goal for the future must be to have American medicine for American patients, American supplies for American hospitals, and American equipment for our great American heroes,” he says. “Now, both parties must unite to ensure the United States is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word.” Today, the President traveled to Pennsylvania, visiting a distribution center that’s played a key role in helping to restock America. Just since February, the Owens & Minor Distribution Center in Upper Macungie has deployed 1.75 million N95 respirators, 3.4 million gowns, 80 million gloves, and much more across our country. “You’re making America proud,” President Trump told them. President Trump: “We are reclaiming our heritage as a nation of manufacturers!”  WATCH: Our supply chains need to be HERE, not overseas Photo of the Day President Trump arrives in Allentown, Pennsylvania | May 14, 2020

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT OWENS & MINOR, INC. DISTRIBUTION CENTER Owens & Minor, Inc. Distribution Center Allentown, Pennsylvania

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AT OWENS & MINOR, INC. DISTRIBUTION CENTER Owens & Minor, Inc. Distribution Center Allentown, Pennsylvania 2:56 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Oh, that social distancing.  Look at you people all spread out, six feet.  That’s pretty impressive.  But we like it the old way a little bit better, don’t we? AUDIENCE:  Yeah! THE PRESIDENT:  And we’ll be back.  We'll be back to that soon, I think.  I really believe it.  And we were received by thousands and thousands of people coming in.  And they came in from all over and all the way from the airport to here.  It was really something special.  So it was really great. Sit down.  Let’s have a little fun, and we’ll talk, and then we’ll talk about the business and the great job that you’re doing.  And we really appreciate you being here.  Thank you very much.   I’m honored. In the heart of the Lehigh Valley -- now, just so you know, I have brother who is a great brother.  Passed away a long time ago.  Fred.  And he went to Lehigh University.  I’ve been up here many times actually.  And I gave a commencement address years ago at Lehigh University.  It’s a great school.  But whenever I think of this area, I think about my brother. But I really am honored to be with the extraordinary workers of Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Every day you prove that American workers are truly the best in the world, and that's what they are.  And we're showing that now.  We're starting to make more and more product in the United States. I was with some of your representatives.  Associates, they call themselves.  I don't know -- I assume if they’re associates, you're all making the same money.  I hope so.  (Laughter.)  They call themselves associates.  Sounds nice, right?  More and more I see that.  But it's good.  And they're good, and they're doing a great job, frankly. But they're talking about so much of the product now is made in the USA, whereas in the past, it wasn't.  It wasn't.  But they were talking about 90 percent -- 80 to 90 percent is made -- of what you distribute is now made in the USA, and that’s taken a long while for us to get it.  I started that right from the beginning.  It’s probably one of the major reasons that I'm here.  It's called “America First.”  We want America first.  We love the world.  We want America first. Today we're announcing a groundbreaking initiative to replenish and modernize our Strategic National Stockpile.  The cupboards were bare.  You've heard me say it a lot.  When we came into this administration, those cupboards were bare. I've come to this major medical supply distribution hub because the workers here at Owens & Minor have a critical role in this national effort.  And it's a critical role that you’ve fulfilled incredibly well, or I wouldn't be here.  I would have found someplace else.  (Laughter.) And thank you for those beautiful hats.  I appreciate it.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.) Thank you very much. From the moment this terrible virus reached our shores, each of you has worked relentlessly to get the vital supplies to our healthcare warriors.  And they are warriors, aren't they?  When you see them going into those hospitals and they’re putting the stuff that you deliver.  But they're wrapping themselves, and the doors are opening, and they’re going through the doors, and they're not even ready to go through those doors.  They probably shouldn't.  But they can't get there fast enough. And they're running into death just like soldiers run into bullets, in a true sense.  I see that with the doctors and the nurses and so many of the people that go into those hospitals.  It's incredible to see.  It's a beautiful thing to see.  But I really call them “warriors.”  We're all warriors; everyone in our country is a warrior.  We have to be because of what happened.  And it should have never happened.  It should have been stopped at the source. But each of you has worked relentlessly to get those supplies to our healthcare warriors and all across the hospitals, and specifically for this plant, in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. As you know, the pandemic has inflicted profound hardship, especially in the areas that you serve.  Within one heartbeat, America grieves for every life and every family, all of those that have been lost and all over the world.  A hundred and eighty-six as of this morning -- 186 countries.  What a horrible shame. And we thank God for the courage of those on the frontlines.  And you make it possible for them. Just as the men and women of Allentown have done in every generation -- I know it well -- the workers at this facility have answered the call in America's hour of need.  Many of you are working long before dawn.  You get up and you go to work, and long after midnight.  I know your hours.  I was talking to your people and your representatives.  They say, “You wouldn't even…” -- I’m saying, “What are the hours?”  They said, “You won't even believe it.”  I said, “But I work those hours too.  We all work.  We're all working hard.” You're driving forklifts, staging pallets, packing, picking, loading, and shipping all sorts of things all over these primarily three states.  Since February, you have deployed an amazing 1.75 million N95 respirators -- and you make them now yourselves -- 3.4 million gowns, 80 million gloves, and much more. And on behalf of our nation, I want to thank you because you're making America proud.  We really do -- we thank you very much.  Thank you all.  Thank you.  (Applause.) I'm grateful to Owens & Minor president Edward Pesicka, along with your chief operating officer Jeff Jochims. We're also joined by Secretary Alex Azar, doing a terrific job.  And your statement to the press today was fantastic.  He made a very impassioned, strong, powerful statement today. FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor.  Pete, thank you very much.  Great job.  Fantastic job.  You’re dealing directly.  And you and Admiral John Polowczyk.  Where’s the Admiral?  Admiral?  Great job.  Thank you very much.  Are they doing a good job here, Admiral?  Huh?  Good.  When the Admiral says “yes,” that means you’re doing a good job.  (Laughter.) And the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Adam Boehler.  Thank you, Adam.  Fantastic. Every incredible worker here today is part of the greatest mobilization of American society since World War Two.  You know that, right?  We've done things with generators and ventilators and so many different things.  We're making products that nobody ever thought we’d ever need in any mass form. Ventilators is the biggest thing.  We made plenty of ventilators, which was very little in the country, because most hospitals didn't need very many.  And all of a sudden, they said, “We need hundreds of thousands of ventilators.  We need the kinds of numbers that you wouldn't believe.”  And we were mobilized, and with Adam and with the Admiral and with all of these people, and Jared -- somewhere, Jared is here. What they did is incredible.  We brought geniuses in from Silicon Valley.  And all of a sudden, within a short period of time, we had 11 plants out making ventilators.  And you wouldn't believe what it is.  And now we're -- we have so many.  Every state has more than they need. We filled up our stockpile.  We have over 10,000 now.  And we filled it up.  We're ready to go in case anything happens, but I don't think anything will happen where you're going to need any more.  And we're now helping other countries with ventilators because nobody can make -- you know, you can’t make them.  They’re very tough to make, very expensive.  They’re -- I say it's tougher than making a car.  And we make the best ventilator too. So we -- they’ve done a fantastic job.  And two months ago, you couldn't get a ventilator.  We were left virtually none. Over the past few months, the federal government has partnered with Owens & Minor and other distributors to launch the very successful and historic Project Air Bridge, which is really being thought of and spoken of in glowing terms.  Nearly 150 flights have brought 95 million masks, 16 million gowns, and 921 million gloves to America.  Can you believe that?  Nine hundred and twenty-one million gloves.  It’s not even conceivable. Guided by our team, workers like you distributed over 1 billion pieces of protective gear to places in need.  A truly remarkable accomplishment.  After meeting the immediate demand, we’ll be transforming and transitioning from Project Air Bridge to Sealift, where we're using big ships, giant ships.  It's less expensive, and they can carry a lot more.  And we don't need the speed anymore because we're very stocked up. Now as our country begins a safe and gradual reopening, we're launching a monumental effort to replenish and rebuild the Strategic National Stockpile.  We also did that, by the way, with fuel.  When oil went down, we replenished our Strategic National Reserve. And we got it for a great price.  Would you believe what went on with fuel?  But now it's starting to go back, and we're saving our energy industry, because people didn't need too much gasoline when there were no cars on the road.  And I said to the governors -- I said, “You know, there are no cars on the road.  This is a good time to fix your highways.  Fix your highways now.”  Some did and some didn't.  Right?  They didn't.  They were worried that two people working 35 feet away from each other or driving a tractor, or whatever they might be doing, they'll catch the virus. But the ones that did were really helped because you went from being these massive traffic jams to having no traffic.  And I can tell you Florida was a state.  Great governor.  And Ron was -- was -- he told me he; he said, “I'm doing it.”  I said, “That's a good thing.”  Not everybody did it.  Ron DeSantis of Florida.  Governor of Florida. But some did, and they've saved tremendous amounts of money.  And, in rush hour, they're building and they hardly had to close a lane.  So, you know, there are a lot of good things you can do.  But some -- some people decided not to do that. Under the previous administration, the Stockpile was depleted and never fully refilled.  Most of the N95 masks were distributed during the N1H1.  Now, you know who says that, right?  “N1H1.”  Who says that?  Sleepy Joe Biden.  (Laughter.)  Remember?  He said the “N1H1.”  I said, “Isn't it the other way around?”  They said, “Yes, sir.”  But he said it, so it doesn't make any difference.  (Laughter.) But during the H1N1 -- and that's the swine flu -- and it was a pandemic in ’09 that was not well handled at all.  It got very poor marks. Never again will another President inherit empty shelves or expired products.  At least -- hopefully, in five years you're talking about.  It may be 9 years, it may be 13 years.  But you'll never have to deal with empty shelves, and you'll never have to deal with a depleted military.  The military that we took over was depleted and in horrible shape.  We've now spent $1.5 trillion rebuilding our military.  We have the strongest military we've ever had, by far.  And this is a good time to have it too.  And all of the product was built in the USA. But I'm determined that America will be fully prepared for any of the future outbreaks, of which we hope there’s going to be none.  Who would have thought?  1917.  It could have been up to 100 million people were killed, and that was the Spanish flu.  In 1917, who would have thought this was going to happen?  That's over 100 years ago. Our effort begins by dramatically increasing our reserves.  Instead of one to three weeks’ worth of supplies, which we had less than that, the U.S. government will now stockpile three whole months, much of it made in the USA. My administration has already awarded contracts for approximately 200,000 ventilators, which we're building ourselves.  And now that we're restocking, all of those great things are happening with ventilators. My administration has also ordered 800 million N95 respirators and face masks.  Face masks also we're making here.  I was -- last week, I was at Honeywell -- a great company, high-tech company -- and they're making masks.  And they're making face masks.  They're making a lot of different things that three months ago they never even thought about.  They've geared up. It's incredible what some of the companies have been able to do.  You've seen that.  What Honeywell has done -- incredible job they've done.  But many of them are manufactured by Owens & Minor.  Many of the things that we're doing and delivering happily to places that were not able to get it, done by Owens & Minor. Thanks to a major investment in Del Rio, Texas, your company plans to produce an astounding 20 million N95 masks per month.  That's more than you do here.  I don't know, are you going to take that?  I don't think so.  That won't last long, right?  But think of that: Twenty million N95 masks per month.  And that's going to be very shortly. Next, my administration is taking action to modernize the stockpiles during this crisis.  Admiral Polowczyk and his team built a cutting-edge system that allows the federal government to integrate seamlessly with our nation's largest distributors to procure, produce, and deliver astonishing quantities of supplies where they’re needed the most.  We have an incredible system.  Hope we're not going to need it, but it's there, right?  It's there.  It's there like nobody would even believe. And the press doesn't ever talk about it.  They don't want to talk about it.  There they are, right there.  They don't want to talk about it.  They are a disaster.  (Laughter.)  But that’s okay.  The people understand, and that’s all that really matters, when you get right down to it. Going forward, we'll build on this system to create a stockpile that is not only the best resourced in the world, but also evolves, to meet all of the new threats that can happen -- things that you're not even thinking about right now. We'll continue to partner with American industry and distributors, like you, to help manage and rotate our vastly expanded inventory.  The final step in rebuilding the stockpile is to bring critical manufacturing permanently back to America.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Right?  We're doing it, and we've been doing it. My goal is to produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world, and that includes medicines.  It's very important.  Too reliant on other countries.  And I've been saying that for a long time, long before I became elected President, right?  He knows.  He's been hearing it. To this end, earlier today I signed an executive order -- just signed it -- invoking the Defense Production Act to grant new authority to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.  Just a little while, on the plane.  This federal agency normally invests in economic development projects in other countries.  I said, “How about investing in our country?”  We invest in other countries. Globalists.  You know what a globalist is?  They want the globe to do well, but they don't care about us.  Now we want everybody to do well.  But we have to take care of America first.  It's got to be America first.  And you know what?  Other countries say their country first.  Why wouldn't they do that?  But we didn't do that.  We had a bunch of globalists; they didn't know what the hell they were doing. But under my order, it will now also invest in our country, helping to bring vital factories, pharmaceutical producers, and most importantly, jobs back home, where they belong.  Now, we had the greatest economy in the world.  We had the best job numbers we've ever had.  We had almost 160 million people working.  And we were never even close to that.  The best unemployment numbers we've ever had.  African American, Asian American, Hispanic American had the best job numbers in history -- in the history of our country.  They never did so well. Best income numbers.  Best stock market numbers.  401(k) numbers.  The good part is the stock market is -- because they know -- we know what we're doing, the stock market is ready to move.  Never went down like a lot of people said: “Wow, it's at 23-, 24,000.”  It was 29,000.  It never went down like people would have assumed, because they know what's happening.  They know smart people -- a lot of smart people, they know what's going to happen.  We're going to have an amazing next year.  One of our best. But we had the greatest year ever, and then we had to turn it off.  Artificially induced.  We had to turn it off.  And if we didn't do that, we would have lost 2 million people instead of -- whether it's 95,000, 100,000, one is too many.  But we would have lost 2 million people, maybe more than that, maybe somewhat less.  But think of it: Even if it was a little less, multiply what we have by 20 or by 15.  It wouldn't be acceptable.  It wouldn't be sustainable.  People would have said, “What's going on over here?”  Multiply it.  As bad as you've seen it. And, you know, you can say what you want about the flu, but I've never lost anybody to the flu that I knew.  I've been I've had people -- friends -- they have the flu and they’re sick.  They don't feel good.  And you call up, “How you doing?”  You know, three days, two days, a week later, they're fine.  Nobody ever said they died.  But I've lost five people that I know.  Two people were very good friends of mine.  And you call up two days later: “How are they doing?”  “Sir, they’re in a coma.”  I said, “They're in a coma?”  Now, they were older.  I wouldn't say they were in the greatest of health.  I wouldn’t say their weight was perfect.  Not perfect.  But they’re gone.  So it's just a terrible, terrible thing. In my administration, we believe in two beautiful rules: Buy American and hire American.  This afternoon, I also have great news on testing.  You know, we've been doing testing at a level that nobody has ever done it before.  We cannot get any, and we cannot get the press to write about it or write fairly about it.  And nobody has ever done.  We've done double what anyone else -- if you add up all of the countries in the world, we've done more testing than all of the countries in the world added up together.  Nobody has ever done anything like that.  And we have the best tests. We have tests that, two months ago, didn't even exist.  Our great companies came up with things -- Abbott Laboratories and so many others.  They came up with things that -- Roche -- they came up with things that nobody even believes.  So we have the best testing in the world.  It could be that testing is, frankly, overrated.  Maybe it is overrated.  But whatever they start yelling, "We want more.  We want more."  You know, they always say, "We want more.  We want more" -- because they don't want to give you credit.  Then we do more and they say, "We want more." But we have the greatest testing in the world.  But what we want is we want to get rid of this thing.  That's what we want.  We want to get rid of this thing. This afternoon, I also have great news on that testing.  America has now conducted its 10 millionth test.  That’s as of yesterday afternoon.  Ten million tests we gave.  Ten million.  And CVS has just committed to establish up to 1,000 new coronavirus testing sites by the end of this month.  And the 10 millionth will go up very, very rapidly. And don't forget: We have more cases than anybody in the world.  But why?  Because we do more testing.  When you test, you have a case.  When you test, you find something is wrong with people.  If we didn't do any testing, we would have very few cases.  They don't want to write that.  It's common sense.  So we test much more many, many times. South Korea you hear about.  I spoke with the President of South Korea.  I spoke with many different presidents, prime ministers.  They can't believe what we've been able to do on testing.  They can't believe what we've been able to do on ventilators.  We're sending them ventilators -- other countries -- Italy, Spain.  Other countries.  France is having tremendous problems.  Tremendous problems.  We're helping them with ventilators.  They can't believe the job we're doing. And it's not me; it's the people -- all of these people.  But it's the people that are doing it, and they have to be given the proper credit for what they've done, because what they did is a miracle.  No other country in the world has done what we've done.  And they feel very free now to call us because they need help, especially with the ventilators, because that's hard.  That's not a cotton swab.  That's a very hard thing.  A very, very hard thing to produce. Joining us today are a few of the workers who have kept our hospitals supplied through this crisis and take part in a great, great rebuilding that's going forward.  I say it's the "transition to greatness."  The transition is the third quarter.  The fourth quarter is going to do very well.  And next year is going to be through the roof.  We have to get your governor of Pennsylvania to start opening up a little bit.  You have areas of Pennsylvania that are barely affected, and they have -- they want to keep them closed.  Can't do that. Dennis DiCarlo is a Marine Corps veteran who served our country in the Gulf War and Somalia.  Now he continues that spirit of service as an operations supervisor. And, Dennis, please come up and say a few words.  Come.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thanks, Dennis. MR. DICARLO:  Thank you, Mr. President.  I want to first start by saying thank you to all my teammates out there.  We've -- we've had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  And I want to say thank you to you guys.  You guys are the ones who did this, so thank you.  (Applause.) I know we're in a crisis situation with our country.  And, you know, people have asked me how it's changed.  For us, it's almost, with little modifications, it's day-to-day business for us as dealing with the medical supplies.  But I feel the one emphasis is on the seriousness.  And whenever you're dealing with the medical field, it's -- it's a serious thing.  But there's -- it's exponentially grown with what we're dealing with now.  And if we make a mistake, it's amplified.  So, yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  I think you've done a fantastic job.  They all like you.  Do you like him?  Huh?  (Laughter and applause.)  Fantastic. MR. DICARLO:  Thank you. THE PRESIDENT:  Hey, Dennis, thank you.  Good job.  Good man.  Give him a hand.  Come on.  (Applause.)  I could see they like you, Dennis.  They were told to be very low key.  When you walked up, they said, "We don’t care.  We're clapping for Dennis."  Thank you.  (Laughter.)  I saw what went on there.  Eric Yost is a distribution teammate who’s now in his 26th year with Owens & Minor.  And he says he has never been prouder of your work right here in Allentown.  We love Allentown.  I love Allentown.  Eric, please come up.  (Applause.) MR. YOST:  Wow, wait a minute.  I'm, like, short.  (Laughter.)  Okay.  Sorry about that. Yes, I want to thank you also.  If it wouldn't be for this great team of Owens & Minors all over the nations, we wouldn't be here today.  I want to thank you all.  Thank you again.  (Applause.) The 26 years that I've been here, we started off kind of small, back when Stuart was transitioning over to Owens & Minors.  To make a long story short, we started with little stickers.  And modern technology today revolved to where we have RFs, and we're better to equip the hospitals a lot quicker and pick it, receive it real fast. And then when this coronavirus came into place, we had to really react.  And we did a great job on that.  I mean, think about all them numbers that the President threw out there.  I mean, that's a phenomenal job.  We brought it into this building.  We got it in.  We got it out.  We got it to the hospitals that were in dire need of all this. And my hat definitely goes off to all you guys.  Thank you very, very much.  (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  That’s great.  Thank you very much. Carol Timm is a safety and training coordinator who has taken on extra duties during the emergency. Carol, please come up.  Thank you, Carol.  (Applause.) MS. TIMM:  It's an honor to share the stage with you. THE PRESIDENT:  My honor. MS. TIMM:  It really is.  And I think everybody knows I've been so excited about your visit.  (Laughs.)  I'm the safety training coordinator, and my job is to make sure everybody goes home at the end of the day, which is very important to everyone's family.  It's important to America because it's important for these people to show up the next day, because these are the unsung heroes that save lives every day, and they do it humbly.  (Applause.) Mr. President, I wish you could have been here when we get the order to start transporting the masks and the gowns and everything that needs to go out to these hospitals.  When that order came in, teammates from all different shifts just stopped without hesitation and they flowed like magic in this facility.  It was amazing to be able to see that, and they did phenomenal.  (Applause.) And you mentioned about their hours.  They don't stop working until the job is done because everything they do today saves a life tomorrow.  So they're awesome, awesome Americans.  So, thank you.  (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Great job.  Thank you, Carol.  Great job, too. And you're really blessed in this state with some tremendous congressmen who've really worked hard and been really incredible teammates. Sean Parnell is going to be fantastic, too.  I hope that all works out.  But he's going to be -- he's an outstanding person.  But they really work very hard.  And I could say that some don't and some do.  In this state, you have a lot of hard workers, so you're very well represented. But I want to thank you all, because for generations, American greatness was made, forged, and won in places like Bethlehem and Easton.  It's the home of Larry Holmes, right?  Larry Holmes.  Is he still in Easton? AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Yeah! THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, good.  Well, say hello.  He was some fighter, huh?  He used to talk about Easton.  That's great.  Say hello to Larry.  In Allentown, your ancestors in this region are the patriots who mined the coal, loaded the rail cars, and poured the steel that built our biggest cities and raised our tallest towers.  I built some of them.  It's -- this is the place.  This is where it starts. In the 20th century, Pennsylvania workers helped put America on top of the world.  Now we're reclaiming our heritage as a nation of manufacturers.  You saw how good those numbers were -- going up, up, up.  We're going to have an interruption, but you watch what happens, starting in the fourth quarter -- probably starting in the third quarter a little bit, the transition quarter.  But you'll be -- we're going to be bigger and better than ever.  We've learned a lot.  We've also learned not to rely on others so much.  Let's do it ourselves.  Let's build it ourselves.  Let's make it ourselves. But you're going to be a nation of manufacturers, and Pennsylvania workers will once again -- you're going to lead the way.  With your help, we will vanquish the virus.  We're going to vanquish the plague.  I call it the "plague" because that's what it is. We'll get our nation back to work, and we will build our glorious future with American hands and American grit and American pride, your heart.  I want thank you to everyone at Owens & Minor.  I want to thank you for this great area of the world.  As I told you, I think of Fred.  Fred -- my brother Fred. God bless you and God bless America.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  (Applause.)                          END                 3:25 P.M. EDT

Three Nominations Sent to the Senate

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:      Keith W. Dayton, of Washington, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Ukraine.      Danny Lam Nguyen, of the District of Columbia, to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for the term of fifteen years, vice Carol A. Dalton, retired.      John C. Truong, of the District of Columbia, to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for the term of fifteen years, vice Wendell P. Gardner, Jr., retired.

PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP IS ENSURING WE HAVE THE STRONG NATIONAL STOCKPILE AND INDUSTRIAL BASE NEEDED TO MEET ANY CHALLENGE

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP IS ENSURING WE HAVE THE STRONG NATIONAL STOCKPILE AND INDUSTRIAL BASE NEEDED TO MEET ANY CHALLENGE “We inherited a broken, terrible system.  And I always say it: Our cupboards were bare.  We had very little in our stockpile.” – President Donald J. Trump   ENHANCING OUR PREPAREDNESS: President Donald J. Trump is working to ensure a fully stocked, resilient national stockpile and a domestic industrial base capable of meeting any future challenge. President Trump and his Administration are releasing a plan to restructure the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), implementing lessons learned from recent pandemics. Our next generation SNS will be improved by increasing supplies of critically-needed items, integrating predictive analytics to determine needs, leveraging technology to provide real-time visibility of supply chains, and reducing dependency on foreign supplies. Additionally, President Trump is signing an Executive Order providing the authority to ensure America is producing critical goods necessary to build up our strategic stockpiles. Under the order, the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will provide financing to key industries producing vital goods and services. With the health and security of our Nation as the primary goal, this order will secure our supply chain and make our country more independent, self-sufficient, and resilient. The President’s actions will protect the American people, make sure our Nation is more prepared, and prime our industrial base to respond to any future challenge. RESPONDING TO CHALLENGES: President Trump is determined to address the challenges and stockpile deficiencies uncovered during the initial coronavirus response. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump Administration found that the Nation’s stockpile was insufficient. Previous SNS inventories lacked the breadth and depth to respond to pandemic demand, only stocking 28% of needed items and containing less than a month’s supply of key items. Under the former system, the ability to determine what products were most needed, rapidly replenish items, and target the distribution of critical products to high-need areas was lacking. Since less than half of personal protective equipment (PPE) is manufactured in North America, our supply chain was extremely vulnerable to foreign production interruptions. The coronavirus pandemic exposed the need to increase domestic production and reduce foreign dependence on items critical to our Nation’s health and national security. DELIVERING CRITICAL SUPPLIES: Under President Trump’s leadership, the Administration has successfully procured and delivered supplies to Americans in need. President Trump and his Administration, in collaboration with manufacturers, have worked tirelessly to ramp up production and delivery of critical medical supplies across the Nation. The President launched Project Airbridge to bring supplies from all over the world to support America’s frontline healthcare workers. The Administration partnered with the private sector to secure donations and production of PPE and other medical supplies. President Trump effectively leveraged the Defense Production Act to mobilize our country and secure massive amounts of PPE and ventilators. Thanks to President Trump’s efforts and the power of the private sector, every American who has needed a ventilator has had one.

EO on Delegating Authority Under the DPA to the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to Respond to the COVID-19 Outbreak

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 EXECUTIVE ORDER - - - - - - - DELEGATING AUTHORITY UNDER THE DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION TO RESPOND TO THE COVID‑19 OUTBREAK       By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) (the "Act"), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:     Section 1.  Policy.  In Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), I declared a national emergency recognizing the threat that the novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 poses to our Nation's healthcare systems.  In recognizing the public health risk, I noted that on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the outbreak of COVID-19 (the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2) can be characterized as a pandemic.     To ensure that our country has the capacity, capability, and strong and resilient domestic industrial base necessary to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is the policy of the United States to further expand domestic production of strategic resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, including strengthening relevant supply chains within the United States and its territories.  It is important to use all resources available to the United States, including executive departments and agencies (agencies) with expertise in loan support for private institutions.  Accordingly, I am delegating authority under title III of the Act to make loans, make provision for purchases and commitments to purchase, and take additional actions to create, maintain, protect, expand, and restore the domestic industrial base capabilities, including supply chains within the United States and its territories ("domestic supply chains"), needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.     Sec. 2.  Delegation of Authority Under Title III of the Act. (a)  Notwithstanding Executive Order 13603 of March 16, 2012 (National Defense Resources Preparedness), and in addition to the delegation of authority in Executive Order 13911 of March 27, 2020 (Delegating Additional Authority Under the Defense Production Act With Respect to Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19), the Chief Executive Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is delegated the authority of the President conferred by sections 302 and 303 of the Act (50 U.S.C. 4532 and 4533), and the authority to implement the Act in subchapter III of chapter 55 of title 50, United States Code (50 U.S.C. 4554, 4555, 4556, and 4560).     (b)  The Chief Executive Officer of the DFC may use the authority under sections 302 and 303 of the Act, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the heads of other agencies as he deems appropriate, for the domestic production of strategic resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, or to strengthen any relevant domestic supply chains.     (c)  The loan authority delegated by this order is limited to loans that create, maintain, protect, expand, or restore domestic industrial base capabilities supporting:         (i)   the national response and recovery to the COVID‑19 outbreak; or         (ii)  the resiliency of any relevant domestic supply chains.     (d)  Loans extended using the authority delegated by this order shall be made in accordance with the principles and guidelines outlined in OMB Circular A-11, OMB Circular A-129, and the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as amended (2 U.S.C. 661 et seq.).     (e)  The Chief Executive Officer of the DFC shall adopt appropriate rules and regulations as may be necessary to implement this order.     Sec. 3.  Termination.  The delegation of authority in this order shall expire upon termination of the 2-year period during which the requirements described in section 302(c)(1) of the Act (50 U.S.C. 4532(c)(1)) are waived pursuant to title III of division B of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (Public Law 116-136).     Sec. 4.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:         (i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or         (ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.     (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.     (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.                               DONALD J. TRUMP   THE WHITE HOUSE,     May 14, 2020.

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP BEFORE MARINE ONE DEPARTURE

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP BEFORE MARINE ONE DEPARTURE South Lawn 12:23 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  So, we’re going to Pennsylvania, and we will have a great time in Pennsylvania.  It’s a tremendous state.  They ought to start thinking about opening it up.  You have a lot of people who want their freedom, and they’ll get their freedom very soon. We’ve been doing very well in the numbers.  And I’m going to have Kayleigh say a couple of words. Kayleigh, please. MS. MCENANY:  Hi, there.  I just wanted to outline our pandemic preparedness.  The Obama-Biden plan that has been referenced was insufficient; it wasn’t going to work.  So what our administration did, under the leadership of President Trump, is do an entire 2018 Pandemic Preparedness Report. Beyond that, we did a whole exercise on pandemic preparedness in August of last year and had an entire after-action report put together.  In other words, the Obama-Biden paper packet was superseded by a President Trump-style Pandemic Preparedness Response plan. THE PRESIDENT:  Which was much better, which was much more complete, and which was a lot tougher.  We were -- we were given very little when we came into this administration.  And they’ve done a fantastic job.  And I think we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year, and I think distribution will take place almost simultaneously because we’ve geared up the military.  And you’ll see that tomorrow. All right.  Anything else?  Kayleigh? MS. MCENANY:  We’ll have a full update tomorrow for you guys at the briefing, line by line, of how prepared we were for this pandemic, thanks to the leadership of President Trump. THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  And, Alex, you’re going with us. SECRETARY AZAR:  Yep.  Do you want me to talk about our -- THE PRESIDENT:  Sure. SECRETARY AZAR:  Yeah.  So, you know, Dr. Bright is up there testifying today.  Everything he’s complaining about was achieved.  Everything he talked about was done.  He talked about -- he says he talked about the need for respirators.  We worked to -- we procured respirators, under the President’s direction.  He said we needed a Manhattan Project for vaccines; this President initiates a vaccine Manhattan Project, diagnostic Manhattan Project, therapeutic Manhattan Project. Oh, and by the way, whose job was it to actually lead the development of vaccines?  Dr. Bright.  So while we’re launching Operation Warp Speed, he’s not showing up for work to be part of that. So this is like somebody who was in a choir and is now trying to say he was a soloist back then.  What he was saying is what every single member of this administration and the President was saying: “We need more personal protective equipment.  We need more ventilators.  We need therapeutics.  We need vaccines.”  Every single thing this President was on, this President achieved.  And Dr. Bright was part of a team and was simply saying what everybody else at the White House and at HHS was saying.  Not one bit of difference. And on hydroxychloroquine, Dr. Bright literally signed the application for an FDA authorization of it.  Literally, he’s the sponsor of it.  So, this just -- his allegations do not hold water.  They do not hold water. THE PRESIDENT:  So we have had some great response, in terms of doctors writing letters and people calling on the hydroxychloroquine.  And this guy is fighting it.  There’s no reason to fight it.  There’s no reason.  But more importantly than that, we’ve had tremendous response to the hydroxy.  We’ve had the great response to zinc, along with it, and the Z-Pak.  So a lot of people have sworn by it.  And we’ll see. But I’ll tell you what: To me -- I watched this guy for a little while this morning -- to me, he’s nothing more than a really disgruntled, unhappy person.  And I’m not just talking about Alex, because Alex said it strongly, but there are a lot of people that do not like the job he did.  I don’t know him.  I never met him.  I don’t want to meet him.  But I watched him, and he looks like an angry, disgruntled employee, who, frankly, according to some people, didn’t do a very good job. All right.  Any other questions? Q    Chairman Burr just announced he’s stepping down.  Your reaction? THE PRESIDENT:  Who is stepping? Q    Chairman Burr.  Senator Burr. THE PRESIDENT:  He announced he’s stepping down? Q    Temporarily.  During the -- THE PRESIDENT:  I didn’t know that.  No. Q    Have you ever discussed the investigation into Senator Burr with anyone at the Justice Department? THE PRESIDENT:  No, I never have.  No, I didn’t know.  When did he announce he’s stepping down? Q    A short time ago -- temporarily, from his chairmanship. THE PRESIDENT:  I don’t know anything about it.  Nothing about it.  No, I never discussed it with anybody.  That’s -- that’s too bad.  That’s too bad. Go ahead. Q    What do you mean by cutting relations with China?  What would that look like? THE PRESIDENT:  We’ll see.  We’ll see.  We got a lot of things going with China.  We’re not happy about China -- I will tell you that.  The ink wasn’t dry on a great trade deal, and all of a sudden, the plague comes in from China.  We’re not happy about it. Q    The WTO chief is stepping down a year early.  What do you think that means for -- THE PRESIDENT:  I’m okay with it.  I’m okay with it.  The WT- -- if you look at the World Trade, not only the World Health -- and we’ll be making an announcement on the World Health Organization shortly, soon.  Probably next week sometime. But the World Trade Organization is horrible.  We’ve been treated very badly.  I’ve been saying it for a long time.  And we act on it.  When I talk, we act on it.  The World Trade, they treat China as a developing nation.  Therefore, China gets a lot of the benefits that the U.S. doesn’t get.  They have other countries that are developing nations.  And the people sitting in the Oval Office should never have let that happen. I’m going to Pennsylvania. Yes. Q    Mr. President, do you think the CDC is over-counting death -- death counts? THE PRESIDENT:  I don’t know how they're counting.  I never discussed it with them.  Death is death.  We don’t want people dying in this country.  And we've done a great job.  We’ve done a great job. I’ll tell you what: What we’ve done on ventilators and what we’ve done on testing -- except the press doesn’t write it that way because you have all this fake news.  But what we’ve done on testing, we’ve now tested more than the entire world put together.  The entire world put together, we have many more tests than they do and better tests.  And the reason we have more cases is because we have more testing. We’ve done a great job, and the people -- the men and women that have done this great job should be acknowledged by the press. Q    Sir, do you have a succession plan?  Sir, is there a succession plan in place? THE PRESIDENT:  I can't hear a word you’re saying.  Go ahead. Q    Is there a succession plan -- THE PRESIDENT:  I can’t hear. Q    -- in place in case something happens?                           END            12:30 P.M. EDT

President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees   Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate: Danny Lam Nguyen, of the District of Columbia, to serve as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Danny Lam Nguyen currently serves as a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he prosecutes complex financial fraud crimes.  Mr. Nguyen previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where he prosecuted cases involving domestic violence and sexual abuse.  Mr. Nguyen was previously in private practice with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP.  Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Nguyen served as a law clerk to Judge Reggie B. Walton of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  Mr. Nguyen earned his B.A. and M.Ed. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center. John C. Truong, of the District of Columbia, to serve as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. John Truong currently serves as Senior Litigation Counsel in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where he prosecutes cases to recover money lost due to fraud and other misconduct.  Previously, Mr. Truong represented Federal officials and executive government agencies in civil litigation before Federal courts, and prosecuted criminal offenses.  Before joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Truong was in private practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP.  Mr. Truong serves as an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University Law School.  Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Truong clerked for Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  Mr. Truong earned his B.A. from the University of Southern California, his M.A. from the American University, and his J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law.

BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE PRESIDENT’S STRATEGIC NATIONAL STOCKPILE ANNOUNCEMENT

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE PRESIDENT’S STRATEGIC NATIONAL STOCKPILE ANNOUNCEMENT Via Teleconference 11:03 A.M. EDT MR. GIDLEY:  Thank you, Nick.  Good morning, everyone.  Thanks so much for taking the time to join this background briefing regarding the National Stockpile.  The ground rules are as follows: The information on this call is on background and can be attributable to a “senior administration official.”  And the content will be embargoed until 12:30. As a reminder, by participating in the call, you are agreeing to the ground rules that I have set forth.  We have several administration officials on the call.  [Senior administration official] is here.  [Senior administration official] is here.  The [senior administration official] for HHS and [senior administration official]. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to [senior administration official], and then we’ll take some questions.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Great.  Thank you very much, Hogan.  And thank you all for joining us.  I’ll give a quick overview, and then I’ll pass it over to [senior administration official] and then to [senior administration official]. Basically, we’re in a time now where we’re crossing a great threshold where we’re starting to have a lot of supply in the country and we’re focusing on the reopening.  We’re focusing on getting more supply into the country.  We’re focusing on building capacity.  And we’re focusing on redoing the Stockpile, based on everything that we’ve learned over the last couple of months, to make sure that the country has increased preparedness and increased ability to move forward. Starting with where we were after the 2009 pandemic, they did not restock the Stockpile.  They depleted a lot of the masks.  So we had a combination of a low stockpile, a lot of the materials are not made in America, and then also the Stockpile didn’t have enough of the SKUs that are needed to deal with a pandemic.  The number that we have is, only 28 percent of what was needed for a COVID patient was actually in the Stockpile.  And on the shelf, which was not replaced, you only had one to three weeks of supply for different supplies. So what we’re doing today is we’re going to be touring Owens & Minor in Pennsylvania.  That’s one of the distribution facilities that helped do a lot of great work that we had.  It helped us identify a lot of the needs throughout the country and then also distribute it. [Senior administration official] will talk about the new model we’re going to be putting in place, what our ambitions are, and then obviously talk about Project Airbridge, which was a great success at bringing over badly needed medical supplies in record time, in record volume, in order to meet the needs during the pandemic, and then talk about what we’re going to be stocking on the shelf, how we’re going to have more range and more depth to the different supplies that we’re going to have, and then how we’re going to basically have, you know, surge capacity and the ability, as Admiral Polowczyk says, “to reload the chamber” to continue to be prepared for whatever comes. And so we’re also going to focus on ways that we saw certain flaws in how the Stockpile was run that we’re going to be changing in this go-around. So this is about making sure that America is prepared for whatever comes in the future.  This is about bringing jobs and manufacturing back to America.  And this is about a much more efficient manufacturing and stockpile process, so that going forward, America is able to respond in record -- even faster than we did this time. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks.  [Senior administration official] here.  So let me just run through a few items, and then I’ll -- then I’ll end with -- I’ll end with Airbridge. So the Supply Chain Task Force has spent some time aggregating demand across the commercial, across the healthcare/medical supply chain.  So we -- we think we have a well-defined understanding of 30, 60, 90 days’ worth of demand.  And so we’ll be working to put that on the shelves in a manner where the Stockpile isn’t just a singular purchase. I brought forward some ways that DOD manages strategic stockpiles of items.  One way is shelf life management.  To allow -- to have a large 90-day supply of something to sit on the shelf, that has a shelf life, one must be able to rotate it.  And one of the ways that -- the National Stockpile is, if we have this in our commercial marketplace, a commercial marketplace can -- you know, if we put 100 boxes of something on the shelf, as long as there are 100 boxes there when we call upon them, that will be the end state.  But the commercial marketplace can issue restock -- issue restock to maintain shelf life.  It’s a commonly used inventory management practice that DOD does for commercial-like items. The second thing is access to surge capacity.  Another vignette that I’ll use here is from the DOD.  In my previous job as [redacted] I managed the [redacted].  Well, the Navy has lots of Tomahawk cruise missiles in its magazines, but we still buy Tomahawk cruise missiles every year and keep those production lines warm to be able to surge when needed. So that’ll be another element of the National Stockpile going forward, which will be access to domestic production.  And so that should be viewed not as a light switch, but as a rheostat.  That as we send those rather large demand signals to industry as manufacturing is brought back to America, a element of the National Stockpile will be accessed to surge manufacturing capability to meet those needs.  As if you issue those supplies out of the National Stockpile, then you can surge manufacturing as you go forward. I think I'll end there. And then for Project Airbridge, if you remember, I was moved from the Department of Defense in mid-March and quickly understood that, unfortunately, we don’t make a lot of these products in America.  And so the quickest way to get it here was to fly it.  And so through FEMA and Health and Human Services, we identified the items that were in critical short supply and flew those for -- either for direct purchase from FEMA or assisted the commercial marketplace to get their products here faster, to do everything we could to get needed supplies to healthcare workers on the frontlines. I look forward to your questions today.  Thank you very much. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Hey, this is [senior administration official.]  As, Hogan mentioned, I'm the [redacted] over at HHS.  And several weeks ago, Jared and the President asked us to collaborate along with FEMA and with Admiral Polowczyk and actually with the Department of Defense to take a look at our Strategic National Stockpile.  And if I had one sentence for you: What we're doing is creating a much more robust, a much more capable, and much less vulnerable Strategic National Stockpile. And you've heard the others talk about it, but it's been over a decade since we've had our last major kind of outbreak of H1N1, and the world has changed from a technology standpoint, from a clinical care standpoint, and from where domestic versus foreign manufacturing is. So, we are restructuring a whole series of relationships internally with DOD, FEMA, and HHS to respond more effectively, as well as externally, with external stakeholders -- the states, hospitals, distributors, manufacturers. So I think if you want to take away just two things, it is, again: We're going to have a much more robust, more capable, and less vulnerable Strategic National Stockpile.  And this is going to require the permanent restructuring of a whole series of relationships using information technology and contracting capabilities very differently than anyone has in the past. And I'll pause. MR. GIDLEY:  Great.  Thank you very much.  We're going to open up for questions.  But just as a reminder for everyone, the information on this call is on background and can be attributable to "senior administration officials," and the embargo is until 12:30. With that, we'll open up for some questions. Q    Hi, thanks for taking the call.  You said that after 2009, that the National Stockpile was not replenished.  But as of 2010, an article in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Disease journal said that there were 9,000 ventilators in the stockpile.  Is that not true? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I was basing my comment based on a Wall Street Journal article that basically said that in 2009 -- we're talking about masks.  But do you want to go through it, [senior administration official]? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah, just real quickly, I'll give you some facts.  Before H1N1 in 2009, we had over 100 million N95 masks in the stockpile.  And these are facts from our own Strategic National Stockpile leaders.  During that -- I don’t want to call it a pandemic, but during that event, they handed out 90 million of those masks to the states.  They were never replenished.  So when we started addressing COVID in January, we had 13 million N95 masks in the stockpile.  That’s precisely the number we had right after H1N1 in 2009-2010.  So it was severely depleted after H1N1.  Never replenished. Q    Hi, guys.  This is Blake Burman over at Fox Business.  Thanks for doing this.  Appreciate it.  I have a question for you since we've seen the bottom fall out of the labor market.  Have you -- do you have any modelling or any answers or any guess as to building up this stockpile, how many jobs that might save, how many jobs that might create since some of this now is being done in the U.S.?  And do you have a figure or a guess as to what that might mean, either over the last couple of months or in the upcoming months, or years even, going forward? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yes.  It's [senior administration official] again.  Thank you for the question.  Just a couple of things.  We're trying to address with this initiative two separate parts of the economy.  First and foremost, we are rebuilding the stockpile such that we are fortified against the resurgence of COVID -- a potential resurgence of COVID or any other upper respiratory pandemic.  So that’s job one. But as you heard [senior administration official] talk about this, a second part of it has to do with tremendous expansion of domestic capacity to manufacture these items.  And we’re already in the process of expanding that capacity.  Several companies have done that.  And much of that, we anticipate, will go toward the labor markets and the other sectors of the economy.  So we’re doing that for both purposes. I can’t give you an estimate of how many jobs that will save or how many people will go back to work.  But we do know that masks and protective equipment are essential for many workers who have interactions with their customers and coworkers every day.  So we’re cognizant of that. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  And I’ll just add that a big part of this effort is to make sure that people can go back to the work in the fall because not only we’ll be prepared if something comes up, but also the more that we stimulate the domestic supply and bring the supply into America, the more that industry and people will have the masks and protective equipment they need to safely return to work.  So getting this done is just a strategic effort. And if you think about why, obviously, we had to go into intense mitigation early on, it was because we were fearful of not having the hospital capacity, not having the ventilator capacity, not having enough critical supplies, not having enough tests.  And I think that now that we’ve caught up on all these items, we’re making sure that, as we go into the fall, we’re in a position where America never has to shut down again.  And a big part of this is giving people the confidence that we’re very focused so that that will be the case. Q    Hi.  Thanks, guys, for holding this call.  I wondered if you guys -- you guys spoke about just changing the relationships and utilizing IT.  If you can give an example of that.  And then also, I mean, how you, kind of, send that market signal to domestic companies to expand capacity or, if they’re offshore, bring that capacity back home.     SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  [Senior administration official], do you want to take this one? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  Sure.  Will do.  So one of things you have to understand is you can’t manage a supply chain unless you can see it.  And so one of the efforts that we did very early within the supply chain task force is we put together multiple business systems from across industry that’s providing, you know, 85, 90 percent of the supply chain capacity to the hospitals. We (inaudible) their business systems together to understand what’s coming in through the supply chain and where it’s going.  So we have visibility of the distribution. Going forward to support Health and Human Services, we are going to also bring in hospital information -- what’s on the shelves in the hospitals and how much they’re burning through, utilizing supplies.  Along with, as we expand industrial production capacity, bringing in manufacturing (inaudible) where we can. And so as you manage the National Stockpile, you’ll have visibility across the supply chain to see areas where the hospitalization information has now led to increased utilization of supplies.  You can make informed allocation decisions from the National Stockpile to those areas, and then also make informed decisions of, “Do I need to surge manufacturing capacity to add more back into the Stockpile.”  Not some -- not an IT solution that we have today, but that is being built out over time. Thank you. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I thought we'd just maybe offer a couple of numbers.  I think [senior administration official] introduced this at the beginning.  But just to put this into perspective: When COVID broke out in the U.S., we had one to three weeks’ worth of supply for most of the items in our stockpile.  And that was based on a retrospective look on how much the surge demand was for certain products. We are going to have a full 90 days’ worth.  And I think what the Admiral was talking about is, the 90 days is a buffer while we stand up surge capacity in the manufacturing markets.  So we feel -- we'll feel much more secure about that. The second thing that [senior administration official] alluded to was, of all of the items that a COVID patient in a hospital consumes during a length of stay, we only carried only 28 percent of those stock-keeping units, so to speak.  We didn’t carry a lot of the critical care drugs.  You've heard a lot about this.  We did not carry testing supplies.  These were never in the Strategic National Stockpile.  They will be in the Strategic National Stockpile going forward.  So a much broader and much deeper kind of set of supplies to keep America safe. MR. GIDLEY:  Yeah, we'll do one more question. Q    Hey, thanks so much for doing this.  I had a question for [senior administration official] as well as [senior administration official].  To [senior administration official], if you could, could you just explain a little bit more of what the surge manufacturing is?  Is that like keeping the DPA ready to go to make sure these manufacturing plants keep or have the ability to produce this vital medical needed essentials, the PPEs? And for, [senior administration official], I was hoping to ask you, how does this fit into, kind of, like the bigger picture of the President's America First priority? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure.  [Senior administration official], do you want to go first? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure.  Thank you.  So I like to think of it this way: The demand for N95 masks, pre-COVID, was -- for the medical community, was somewhere around 30, 35 million masks a month.  The COVID demand is well above that.  And so what we’ll need -- I’d like you to think of it this way: Once we get -- you know, you get through COVID period, there’ll be a steady-state medical supply demand that the American manufacturing will satisfy. Health and Human Services will then -- like I mentioned with Tomahawk cruise missiles -- we’ll enter into contract to maintain capacity, keep another line open, buy additional supplies to rotate stock into the (inaudible) of the National Stockpile for items that have shelf life. So think of it as doing the strategic things to keep capacity readily available and not another use of the Defense Production Act to create another facility, which takes time.  It’s easier to keep production lines warm than it is to build one from new. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Great.  And my guess is -- this is [senior administration official] -- in terms of America First, I think that, you know, a lot of people are saying that, you know, this pandemic in some ways has really reaffirmed the things that the President was talking about on the campaign trail, which was that America needs to -- you know, we can’t be reliant on other nations.  We need to make things here.  We need to keep jobs here in America.  We need to keep capacity here in America.  We need to control our borders.  And we have to be wary about offshoring our critical supplies to other countries because it creates a real vulnerability. So, you know, America First, you know, for the President means that, in every decision he makes, he’s looking out for American citizens and saying what’s best for American citizens.  This is the big step in the direction towards making critical products here in the USA, using, you know, American manufacturing might. He wants to keep the jobs here, create more jobs, and then hopefully -- you know, ventilators is a great example, where, you know, last year, America made 30,000 ventilators.  Everyone in the world was panicking for ventilators.  We got the manufacturing ramped up very quickly.  We used the Defense Production Act.  American ingenuity and creativity is the greatest in the world.  And we’re going to create about 200,000 ventilators.  We took care of American citizens first.  We got ventilators to New York, to New Jersey, to Louisiana, to Michigan, to Colorado, to everywhere that needed ventilators. And then now that we have an excess and the stockpile is building up, the President has been talking to allies in other countries and he’s been sending them out to other countries now that America is taken care of. So the same thing can happen with a lot of this critical supplies, whether it’s drug manufacturing, whether it’s masks, whether it’s swabs, whatever the product line is. What we’re finding now is now as we’re surpassing tests; we’ve done now over 10 million tests and we’re growing rapidly.  We’re the number one in the world by far.  A lot of countries are asking us if we can -- if we have excess production, if we’re able to supply them with tests.  And we’re almost in a position where we can start, you know, helping other countries ramp up as well. So I think that it’s America leading in the world.  We’re a leader in innovation.  We have the greatest private sector.  And when the government and the private sector partner to take on a challenge, America becomes unstoppable.  So -- SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And this is [senior administration official], just to review a couple of numbers again.  I mentioned at the start of the pandemic we had 13 million N95 masks.  We have an aspiration to eventually have a billion of those.  We’re not going to have all of those in the next 90 days, for the fall.  But we do anticipate having 300 million.  So you can do the math: 13 million to 300 million.  We have 2 million gowns.  We expect to have 6 to 7 million gowns. For many of the critical-care drugs that are necessary for people on ventilators, we had zero.  And we will have millions of milliliters of those and able to take out -- to take care of any type of surge we anticipate in the fall or beyond. So just to give you a little bit of the magnitude, that is what is going to be stocked to take care of the American people. MR. GIDLEY:  Thanks, everybody.  And just as a quick reminder as we wrap up, for the embargo time, it’s 12:30.  The call is on background from a “senior administration official.”  So you can file in about an hour. Thanks for the time.  Appreciate it.                               END       11:28 A.M. EDT