By Tristan Hill
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — President Donald Trump issued a statement Thursday announcing expansion of the use of Defense Production Act authority to increase production of ventilators.
The DPA gives the president the authority to order certain cabinet secretaries to direct private companies to prioritize government contracts that are deemed essential to national defense, despite potential loss of business due to shifting production.
The president said that his, “order to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Homeland Security will help domestic manufacturers like General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, Royal Philips, and Vyaire Medical secure the supplies they need to build ventilators needed to defeat the virus.”
He continued, saying that he is, “grateful to these and other domestic manufacturers for ramping up their production of ventilators during this difficult time.”
The announcement comes almost a week after the president signed a Presidential Memorandum authorizing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use, “any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators.”
Trump accused GM of, “wasting time,” in a prior white house statement.
Before releasing the memorandum, the president signed an executive order declaring ventilators and protective equipment as, “essential to the national defense.”
Despite his hostility toward GM, Trump explained his use of the DPA, saying that,”Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course.”
The DPA was first enacted in 1950 to establish a defense infrastructure for the Korean War.
The act has been invoked by various presidents less than ten times since it was passed by congress.
President Trump last invoked the DPA in 2017 to facilitate production of, “items affecting aerospace structures and fibers, radiation-hardened microelectronics, radiation test and qualification facilities, and satellite components and assemblies,” and, “items affecting adenovirus vaccine production capability; high strength, inherently fire and ballistic resistant, co-polymer aramid fibers industrial capability; secure hybrid composite shipping container industrial capability; and three-dimensional ultra-high density microelectronics for information protection industrial capability.”
The COVID-19 pandemic marks the first time the DPA has been used in the face of a global health pandemic, but not the first that it has been invoked for production of health equipment.