ALBANY, N.Y. — The nation‘s governors are in talks about creating a multistate consortium to oversee the purchase and distribution of medical supplies across the county — a direct response to the White House’s hands-off approach to the issue.
With the federal stockpile ill-prepared to supply medical equipment in time to meet the insatiable needs of states hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the National Governors Association said Wednesday that discussions were underway about how such a cooperative would function.
The news came as California announced plans to spend nearly $1 billion to obtain 200 million medical masks a month to support its own response and, potentially, the demands faced by other states.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, complaining that states had been competing with each other to secure such supplies, said during a Wednesday press briefing that the NGA is having a “conversation” about forming a consortium that would distribute supplies based on need.
Cuomo, a Democrat who started touting the idea in late March, said the preferred option would be having the federal government serve as “the purchasing entity“ and “master strategist of the operation.“ But if the federal government declines to play such a role, he said, then "let the states as a consortium be a purchasing consortium.“
“That’s what the National Governors Association’s conversation is,” said Cuomo, the NGA’s vice chairman.
offered no details on the plans.
"That is something the governors are discussing,” Wohlschlegel said in an interview. He declined to provide a timeline, additional details or the names of governors involved in the talks.
On the opposite coast, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, laid out his own plan to bolster medical supplies by working with a series of nonprofits and by acquiring technology that will allow for the distribution of 200 million masks every month.
Newsom, speaking at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, said the strategy would not exacerbate the competitive bidding process or freeze out other states. Quite the opposite, he said, suggesting that the strategy “advances the framework of collaboration.”
“We are not just looking at supplies in a scarce marketplace where it’s a zero-sum game, we are being additive,” he said. “We’re looking with an eye of abundancy in this respect, increasing supply, and how California in this case has been a catalyst to increase supply that will not only avail itself to the state of California but across this country and potentially in other parts of the globe.“
Newsom has said his procurement team is also working with other states’ teams “to row in the same direction.”
“We have heard from other governors, and it’s been favorable, because they understand we are helping increase supply, we are not taking away a limited number of supplies,” he said.
Cuomo on Wednesday said he had not discussed purchasing consortiums with Newsom. Cuomo has said the NGA should be the entity to organize the process because the idea of cities and states bidding against one another for supplies is “just madness.” Most, but not all, states belong to the NGA.
The distribution issues are apparent even to states with less dire death tolls.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ close relationship with President Donald Trump has eased the state’s ability to get supplies from the federal government. Still, DeSantis has complained of “tomfoolery“ in the supply chain and on Wednesday his director of emergency management, Jared Moskowitz, said state-versus-state bidding, middlemen and the black market have cost Florida expected shipments.
“We have over 600 million worth of [purchase orders] that I personally signed, that nothing could get delivered," Moskowitz told reporters in Miami. "That's not just happening here, it's happening all over the country. It’s why you see, even in California, the governor talking about putting a consortium together because everyone's competing against each other. I mean, we are competing against everybody but Antarctica for masks."
Florida is not a member of the NGA.
Cuomo floated the idea of an NGA-led consortium on March 28, when he said he would talk to members about the idea of purchasing as a unit and then distributing supplies by need. Cuomo will take over chairmanship of the NGA in August, when he will succeed Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
“This is something that has to be worked out, not just for this," Cuomo said last month, "but for the future, because this can't happen again."
Arek Sarkissian in Tallahassee, Fla., and Jeremy B. White in San Francisco contributed to this report.