You can be seated at the witness table. I want to introduce mr. Mike bowen. Mr. Bowen is the executive vice ameritech,f prestige which is americas largest medical surgical mask maker. Your story is a very powerful one. To my colleagues, mr. Bowen has wins i think, really he an award for tenacity, because over three president ial administrations, he has been banging on the door warning, asking for, pointing out the america has a dangerous dependence on Foreign Countries for products that we need here at home. So this is very important testimony and we welcome you. We thank you for traveling to be with us today with all the extenuating circumstances to travel. We are very grateful to you. So you are not recognized for your statement now recognized for your statement. And then you will hear from the members. I am sure both your statement will provoke questions and that you will get good ones from both sides of the aisle. I should add something here, and that is, this issue of our terrible dependence on Foreign Countries for not only our drugs, our nations critical drug supply, but also, of the materials that we have been talking about, is an issue that has been shared the concern is shared on both sides of the aisle. Previously, we have had Bipartisan Legislation on it. But we want to hear from you. We want to hear your story. I think it is a very important one and i know the members will as well. This pointnvite at e Ranking Member to welcome our guest, because he is our constituent. Always a good day to have a texan at the witness stand. We know we are going to hear the truth. I will say, i have been on this committee since 2005. And my second term on the committee, 2007, chairman dingell had a hearing on the amount of active pharmaceutical ingredient that we imported from other places, in particular, china. Shortly after that, we had a problem with hepburn contamination. Weve had a number of hearings on this with leadbased toys, melamine in our pet food. There has been a number of concerns about why we continue when, the supply chain from time to time, its detrimental to us. If theres any bright spot in this Current Crisis we are in, it made be that finally after 13 or 14 years, weve seriously they to make stuff here, are providers for ourselves, and quite frankly, you know, America First really should mean something. I welcome you here today, mr. Bowen. We are anxious to hear what you have to say. Made in america. Anyway, welcome, mr. Bowen. You have the floor now. You have five minutes for your testimony. If you want to place your statement in the record, just speak or read. Its up to you. Welcome and thank you for joining us today. You need to turn your microphone on. Mr. Bowen good morning. Thank you for your invitation. It is my pleasure to testify. My name is Michael Bowen and i am the executive Vice President of prestige ameritech of north richland hills, texas. And i have been in the medical Device Industry since 1986, and with prestige ameritech since 2006. Prestige ameritech was founded by president and ceo dan reese in 2005. I am going to give a brief overview of my interactions with barda and its directors, but first ill give some pertinent mask industry history. Until 2004, 90 of all surgical masks worn, and im including surgical respirators, in the u. S. Were domestically made. That year, all of the major domestic mask sellers switched from selling domestically made masks to selling imported masks. Prestige ameritech recognized this as a security issue in 2006. We thought that once americas hospitals learned that their mask supplies were subject to diversion by foreign governments during pandemics, they would switch back to u. S. Made masks. We were masks. We were wrong. In november of 2007, we received a phone call from barda asking for a tour of our mask factory. Barda was acting on george w. Bushs president ial directive 21, the purpose of which was to review americas disaster plans. Brenda hayden with barda gave a presentation which showed that barda was concerned about the foreigncontrolled mask supply. We were thrilled that barda had discovered the issue until discovered the issue, until brenda said that barda was only charged with studying the problem. We were disappointed, but took consolation in the fact that finally a federal agency knew that the mask supply was in danger. We were happy to have an ally. Two years later, i received a call from brenda hayden. She started the conversation by have a situation. Her serious tone caused me to asked her if she was talking about a pandemic, and she said yes. She asked if we could ramp up production, and i said yes. We built more machines, bought an abandoned Kimberly Clark mask factory, and tripled our workforce. Americas hospitals needed us and we rose to the occasion. We told them about the high cost of ramping up. They said that they would stay with us. Unfortunately, with us. Unfortunately, most returned to buying cheaper foreignmade masks when they became available. The company survived by laying 150 people by taking pay cuts, and taking on more investors. The h1n1 pandemic wasnt severe enough to cause Foreign Health officials to cut off mask shipments to america, so our predictions didnt come true yet. In a weakened state, but undaunted, prestige ameritech continued saying that the u. S. Mask supply was headed for failure. We just didnt know when. In 2014, to give my security story more credibility, i formed the secure mask supply association. Paraphrasing ben franklin, i told three competing domestic mask makers that if we didnt hang together, we would hang separately. China was poised to put us all out of business and put the country at even greater risk. Crosstex, gerson, and medicom agreed with me and joined the smsa. Unfortunately, the smsa. Unfortunately, the secure mask supply associations warnings also went unheeded. During my quest to secure the u. S. Mask supply, i had the privilege of working with three barda directors, dr. Robin robinson, dr. Richard hatchett and dr. Rick bright. They were helpful and encouraged me to continue warning people about the mask supply. I will say more about that. After years of doing this, i quit many times. The only reason i kept doing it was because of the directors at barda. They said that they would express their concerns about the mask supply to anyone that i could get to call them, anyone except reporters. They werent allowed to talk to reporters. They also werent allowed to endorse the secure mask supply association. Dr. Robinson was going to until hhs attorneys told him that it could cost him his job. He called me personally on vacation to tell me that. I can confirm that the emails in dr. Brights complaint are mine. They are merely the latest of 13 years of emails i sent to barda in my effort to get hhs to understand that the u. S. Mask supply was destined for failure. Robinson, hatchett and bright all wanted to remedy the problem, but in my opinion didnt have enough authority. America was told that governmental silos were torn down after 9 11. After 9 11 so that different federal agencies could Work Together for National Security, but i didnt see evidence of that. The dod, va, cdc and hhs could have worked together to secure americas mask supply. I had suggested this on many occasions to barda and to the cdc. I will be happy to answer any questions that you have about prestige ameritech, the u. S. Mask supply, or my interactions with barda, the cdc, or rick bright. And again, its my pleasure to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Bowen, again, for traveling across the country to be with us and for your testimony. We will now move to member questions. I will recognize myself for five minutes. Yourlready touched on acknowledgment of your emails or description about your actions that were in dr. Brights complaint, so i will move past that. To the best of your knowledge, is the section of dr. Brights complaint about the mask supply accurate . Mr. Bowen yes. Should hhs and the administration been able to foresee, in your view, the mask shortages caused by the pandemic . Bowen un yes mr. Yes. How many of your mask lines are not activated right now . Mr. Bowen 4. 4 . My goodness. As we have a run on supplies, you have four lines that could be working and manufacturing highgrade masks for those that need them in our country . Mr. Bowen yes, but not like turning on a light switch. Its a very long process. Spend a moment to tell us what it takes to bring those up. If you are to receive orders now to activate those lines, explain that to us. How many will more how we more masks could you be manufacturing right now . Mr. Bowen he could be making about 7 million and 95 respirators a month. Say that again. Respirators and 95 per month. Again, its not like turning on a switch. We didnt build these particular machines. They are from china and we got them in an acquisition several years ago. My emailed to rick bright, in that email, i said, i think we are in trouble. We have these machines. It would be expensive and hard to get them going but if this going to be back, that could happen. So that was my offer. Often, especially for lawyers in courtrooms and elsewhere, when you are going to ask a question, they say you should know the answer. I think i know the answer to this question but i want to hear your view on it. We have allowed this supply, this very important supply of protective articles to other countries. Do you believe its because of saving nickels, dimes, and quarters . Mr. Bowen i call it chasing pennies to china. And look what it has cost us. Mr. Bowen its cost us lives. Its cost us lives. Its cost us lives. If theres someone that would like me to yield the rest of my time, i would be glad to. If not, we can go to the Ranking Member of the full committee, mr. Weldon. Thank you, mr. Bowen. Bowen en thank you think it thank you. Mr. Bowen, thank you. Thank you for being here and i appreciate your testimony, which i read last night. The laste end of panel, i received a copy of an email you sent to dr. Bright on january 31 of this year. This email appears to be the one included in dr. Brights complaint, though it was one of the exhibits not publicly posted by the Washington Post. Two days later, mr. Bowen sent yet another email to dr. Bright and dr. Wolf once again issuing a dire warning about the imminent mask shortage. Among other things, he advised and i quote, this week, we sent 1000 masks to china and hong kong. I believe your email actually says one Million Masks to china and hong kong. My yearsued, and all of predicting that u. S. Mask supply would one day collapse, i never pictured myself selling masks to china. I have it from two reliable sources, china has begun telling chinese mask makers not to let masks lead china. He continued, i think china will cut off masks to the usa. If so, u. S. Hospitals are going to have a very rough time, as over half the supply is made in china. A horrible situation will become unbearable. Mr. Bowen thats my email yes sir. This is cited as an email r. Bright. O even the complaint acknowledges it isnt you know from you to dr. Bright, right . Dr. Bone that was my emailed tasha dr. Bowen dr. Bowen yes, that was my you know that was my email. I was reading from dr. Brights complaint. I received what appears to be a copy of this email. I think it is cited wrong in the complaint. The email i received is dated january 31, 2020. It includes all the language that i just read to you from the complaint, and this is exactly needs all thetee exhibits cited by dr. Bright, not just the one selectively obtained by the Washington Post and needs the full emotions email chain. This document also says, this email to dr. Bright and laura my, it says and i quote, Government Strategy is to help the u. S. Government if and only if the v. A. And dod become my customers after this thing is over. Dr. Bowen yes, sir. I would like to submit the mail for the record. We will send you an electronic copy as per our agreement. Have,wen, you said you you know, you want to help u. S. Government, you want to help americans get the masks. Yet it appears that there seems to be a condition here. I assume thats because in the past, you ramped up, things want to wait, people bought from other manufacturers. Here, you are saying, my strategy is to help my existing customers and only bring on new customers who are willing to sign a longterm contract. My Government Strategy is to help the u. S. Government if and only if the v. A. And dod become my customers after this thing is over. Here we were in a crisis, as masks were going overseas. The u. S. Government is not your only purchaser, right . Mr. Bowen the u. S. Government has never bought from me, except during a pandemic. In that email, and that statement was basically saying that i dont want the government to only call me in a pandemic. Give me business during peace time so that i can survive and help you during a pandemic. Did you ever ask for a solesource contract . The dodn i have bid on and the v. A. Business and i continually lose to masks that are made in mexico because the dod does not obey the barium limit. Made in foreign masks mexico because mexico is a friend of ours. They make decisions based on price, not National Security. I would like to reclaim my time. You said you cannot turn on these lines of manufacturing very quickly. How long, if you got a big order from the government today, would it take you to produce masks . Mr. Bowen three or four months and the government wants to do that right now. Hhs is asking me to do that. I told them its going to take three or four months. They only want masks until the end of the year so i would have to hire and train 100 people and then fire them at the end of the program. Im not going to do the. Again, i dont want the government to only deal with them my time has expired. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Its a pleasure to recognize the gentleman from new york, mr. Engel, first five minutes of questions for his five minutes of questions. Thank you. Let me get this down. You, mr. Bowen. Chair, thisu madam is an excellent hearing and its an issue that we need to focus on because it has repercussions that just continue and continue. Every day, i hear from my constituents, including doctors and nurses serving on the front lines of this pandemic, about the dire shortages of personal protective equipment and therapeutics, ppes, as they call them. Recently, i helped author the preventing drug shortages act with several of my colleagues on the subcommittee, provisions which were included in the recently enacted cares act. This all ties together. I have used my role as chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee to cut through red tape and bring muchneeded supplies, like 100,000 antibody tests to new york city from china. All these actions, as you point out, are symptoms of a larger problem. Most u. S. Medical products are manufactured abroad. As this pandemic has highlighted, this leaves the United States vulnerable in Public Health crisis and obviously poses a National Security threat, the way i look at it. Mr. Bowen, as we can till this afternoon and reading all about you, things you said, things youve written, youve certainly been a leading advocate for this issue, specifically as it pertains to face masks, which have never been more in demand than now. In your written testimony, you know that in 2004, major domestic surgical mask sellers switched from making surgical masks domestically to importing them. I know you spoke a little bit about it but could you go into more deter and explain what prompted this change . Companies mask wanting to make more profit so they go to countries, well, its not just mask companies. Its people who are in the hospital industry who are competing for contracts for supplies. Its a bid type situation most of the time. The way you make products cheaply is to make them in china and mexico and other places. Supplywhy the u. S. Masks was not a coordinated effort. It was a bunch of companies coincidently deciding to save money at the same time and destroying maybe 4000 jobs in maskca, including the u. S. And putting the u. S. Masks supply under foreign control. Thats been my messages since 2006. Its really unbelievable because its not just foreign control, its a very large degree to china control. I am chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee. When we look at the geopolitical parts of the world, china is probably the biggest adversary to the United States. Not only are we leaving it in their hands, we are leaving it in the hands of an adversary and we are sort of beholden to that country. I cannot think of much that is more dangerous than the. Im sure you agree. Mr. Bowen china controls most of the worlds masks supply mask supply. A box of masks for one dollar. I dont think anybody is making any profit doing that because i sell them for about five dollars. Their prices are so cheap that they have captured most of the worlds mask market. Does their governmentsubsidized, the chinese government, the beijing government . Mr. Bowen i dont know that. All i know is that there masks cost less than the materials. I am nowhere near the cost of their products. To the chinese masks meet our standards . Some do, some dont. Ome what steps [audio drop] in United States. Mr. Bowen as i said in a letter to president obama, i dont think it requires money. I think it requires the government saying it is a National Security problem. I think it requires the cdc telling the government that they are to dependent on foreign masks. If in a public forum like this, you say this is a National Security issue, then those hospitals attorneys are probably going to get on the ball until those hospitals to buy americanmade products. They dont cost that much. The whole market is only a couple hundred million dollars. This is a 30 million problem, folks. Just for people trying to save pennies across the whole United States. Its not some multibilliondollar problem. Would you repeat that again and leaned forward into that microphone . Mr. Bowen i said this is a