FEMA Seeking Contractors to Deliver Portable Toilets, Showers Within 24 Hours Notice as Coronavirus Spreads – By Alana Goodman (Free Beacon) / March 10 2020
The U.S. government’s disaster response agency placed an urgent request last week seeking contractors who can deliver portable toilets, showers, and hand-washing stations throughout the United States within 24 hours notice, a potential sign of how the administration could be preparing to respond to a coronavirus pandemic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was looking for vendors who are able to provide “portable facilities, to include toilets, showers, and handwash stations during a FEMA disaster response to all U.S. state, local, tribal, and territorial government locations,” according to a “sources sought notice” the agency posted on the federal public solicitation database on March 3.
Federal agencies publish “sources sought notices” to collect information on potential vendors in a market and they often precede a formal solicitation notice for contractors. Responses were requested by March 26, 2020.
A spokeswoman for FEMA told the Washington Free Beacon that it is “promoting preparedness activities” related to the global spread of coronavirus, which topped 800 confirmed cases in the United States on Tuesday. The agency declined to say directly whether the vendor notice was part of this response effort.
“The federal government is taking aggressive and proactive steps to mitigate the spread and effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19),” said FEMA spokeswoman Janet Montesi. “Consistent with its mission, FEMA has also been promoting preparedness activities and is currently a supporting agency to HHS delivering crisis action planning, situational awareness, reporting, interagency coordination, course of action development, and logistics supply chain analysis through a Crisis Action Task Force located at the HHS Secretary’s Operations Center.”
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