Congressman Stephen Lynch issues warning about buying PPE from China

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch is urging government agencies, schools, and businesses to use their federal COVID-19 relief funding to buy medical protective equipment made in the U.S. rather than China.

“We’ve got China hacking federal agencies, hacking our military and hacking our domestic companies, we’ve had theft of intellectual property,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday. “We shouldn’t put our future and our safety in the hands of a government that’s been hostile to the interests of the United States.”

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan provides billions of dollars for the purchase of masks, gloves, gowns and other equipment needed to help protect people against COVID-19.

There are plenty of companies in Massachusetts and across the nation manufacturing such equipment, he said after a tour of the Hynes Convention Center mass vaccination site in Boston.

“We’re asking all those given money to purchase PPE in the U.S.,” Lynch said. “Support that market that we’re trying to create here in the U.S. There are companies all over the U.S. that are trying to provide product for the protection of U.S. citizens, but that can’t happen if we continue to buy product from China.”