Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) on Tuesday revealed that members of Congress are being given personal protective equipment made in China, instead of made in the United States.
He tweeted a certificate that accompanied a box of gloves given to his and other members of Congress’s offices, that clearly said “Made in China.”
“Why the hell are members of Congress and their staff receiving PPE from China?” he tweeted. “We must get manufacturing back in America.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China, exposed how vulnerable America was to supply-chain disruptions and how dependent America was on critical supplies made in China, prompting U.S. leaders to call for critical supplies to be manufactured in America.
Waltz said in a phone interview with Breitbart News his staff, as they were inventorying the office, happened to notice the certificate, which said “Made in China.”
In addition, a box the gloves were in said they were manufactured by Shijiazhuang Hongray Group Co., Ltd., located in Hebei, China
“It’s incredible. It just goes to show how dependent we are on Chinese manufacturing. We have to bring it back home. If there’s anything we learned from COVID, it’s that gloves, masks, gowns, and certainly our pharmaceuticals can certainly become a national security issue,” Waltz said.
“We have American dollars going to purchase this stuff. Shouldn’t they be going to American factories and back into American pockets? So we’re going to pull the thread on who’s purchasing this and how it’s being purchased through the House acquisitions systems,” he said.
“This also highlights whether we’re buying computer chips that are going into our most advanced fighters or whether we’re buying our drugs or whether we’re buying our PPE, how easily the Chinese Communist Party, if we were ever to get into any kind of conflict, could either shut off the supply chain or infect it,” he added.
He said this PPE has been distributed to members of Congress throughout the pandemic.
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