Nearly five months into this pandemic, nurses and other frontline workers STILL do not have the personal protective equipment (PPE) they need. Over 164 registered nurses have now died from COVID-19 as a result. You have an opportunity and an obligation to urgently address this crisis.

A recent survey of 23,000 nurses in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and four territories found that a whopping 87 percent of respondents reported having to reuse a single-use disposable respirator or mask with a COVID-19 patient. This is very unsafe and puts nurses at greater risk of contracting the virus.

It is the responsibility of health care employers to provide safe workplaces, including proper PPE, to all their staff. The HEROES Act legislation passed by the House of Representatives includes key provisions that would finally get lifesaving PPE to frontline workers. The bill mandates an OSHA emergency temporary standard on infectious diseases to protect frontline workers and it establishes a transparent, efficient, and effective system to manage the medical supply chain and to ensure that the Defense Production Act is fully utilized to increase PPE production. Both of these measures will save the lives of our nurses across the country, and must be included in the Senate legislation.

I demand that the U.S. Senate take swift action to include both the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard and full use of the Defense Production Act to scale up production and distribution of PPE in this next COVID-19 bill.