Coronavirus: Trump under pressure to use Defence Production Act to fight virus

The act would see US manufacturers such as Tesla make supplies for the federal government to distribute to hospitals

Ventilators. Masks. Gowns. Gloves. Cotton swabs. Health-care equipment large and small – but all lifesaving – is in extremely short supply as American hospitals prepare to be overwhelmed by the coronavirus.

There’s a national stockpile of medical equipment for such emergencies, and Congress just gave the government money to buy more. But health officials are warning that is not enough.

On Thursday, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state will need 30,000 ventilators and only has a fraction of that, an estimated 5,000-6,000. And that’s just one state. Already some hospital officials are using bandannas and sports goggles to protect themselves.

“Depending on how bad the coronavirus pandemic gets in the United States, individual cities could come up thousands of ventilators short as patients flood hospitals, researchers say,” said Christopher Rowland, of The Washington Post.

There’s one more tool at the government’s disposal to try to get hospitals what they need, and President Donald Trump is getting pressure from Congress to invoke it: push US manufacturers such as Tesla or General Motors to make these supplies and give them to the federal government to distribute to hospitals.

If it sounds like a drastic wartime option, that’s because it is. The power to do this comes from the Defence Production Act, which Congress first approved in 1950 during the Korean War to help the government stock up on wartime materials such as aluminium and copper, doubling production at that time, according to a 1982 Congressional Research Service report. Other presidents have used it to beef up the US defence industry, especially during the Cold War.

On Wednesday, facing a national emergency of a different kind, Trump said he’d sign the act – but then clarified he wouldn’t be enforcing it, saying it’s only for a “worst-case scenario”.

Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and dozens of other House Democrats think we’re there. On Thursday, she urged him to invoke the act – that’s after she and nearly 60 House Democrats wrote him a letter asking for him to do this last week.

(Reuters) (REUTERS)

“There is not a day to lose,” Pelosi said in a statement Thursday. “We must put more testing, more protective equipment and more ventilators into the hands of our frontline workers immediately.”

But Trump sounds reluctant to use these powers. He said Thursday that governors should be acquiring ventilators – but he didn’t clarify how when there is a shortage, and states may not have the money to purchase them anyway. “Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work, and they are doing a lot of this work,” he said. “The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we’re not shipping clerks.”

Hospitals, governors and even some Republican politicians such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., say it’s unrealistic to expect states to rev up private industries. The federal government has much more power to do that than any individual state can.

So how could things change if Trump actually started using this act? It would allow the president to more or less force US manufacturers to build medical equipment for hospitals.

The Defence Production Act accomplishes this in a few ways, according to a Congressional Research Service report on this:

• Trump could require US manufacturers that already make ventilators to prioritise federal government contracts for supplies over, say, Europe, which is increasing its requests. (The United Kingdom has asked its top private manufacturers to start making ventilators.)

• Trump could require US manufactures to make more face masks and other “critical materials and goods” and offer loans or promises to buy these things. The federal government could then decide in which hospitals this equipment should go.

• Trump could block proposed or pending foreign corporate mergers that threaten national security. That seems less of a concern with coronavirus, where global cooperation is necessary.

• Trump could also have companies “employ persons of outstanding experience and ability and to establish a volunteer pool of industry executives who could be called to government service in the interest of the national defence.” That could turn a company such as, say, Tesla, which primarily makes cars, into one that focuses more on ventilators. CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter his company would be willing to do it. General Motors could also get involved, Politico reports.

Over the decades, presidents have used this act for strategies large (such as building up wartime materials during the Korean War or Cold War) and small (such as spurring innovation in the defence industry).

Former vice president Joe Biden, Trump’s potential general election opponent, tweeted Thursday that Trump should invoke it.

If Trump were to invoke the Defense Production Act to have US companies start making health-care equipment, it would almost certainly be one of the most dramatic uses of the act in decades. Despite pressure from Democrats, it’s not clear if or when he’ll do it.

The Washington Post