Trump Did Not Use the Defense Production Act?The simple answer to the "question" is that the Dems and MSM are lying when they insinuate that he did not or seldom did it or hasn't used it recently. As can be seen from the length of this post, Trump used it a lot.
The DPA has several sections that pertain to different cabinet departments. Trump's first action was to delegate to the Secretary of Health and Human Services the task of determining what sorts of critical products would likely come to be in short supply - including materials necessary to produce products and bottlenecks to production and distribution - that would require use of the DPA. Some ten days later Trump delegated to the secretaries of pertinent cabinet departments the authority to make loans and engage in contracts. In other words, rather than go about using the DPA willy-nilly, Trump first started the process of determining needs and set up the organizational structure for addressing those needs, immediate and future.
As will be seen below, the DPA was seldom used to compel production of something (twice?). Most actions were contracts to purchase products and investments in production capabilities. All very nutsy-boltsy, all not thrilling news stories, and hence didn't get a lot of public visibility. The Dems and MSM are cynically gaming this lack of awareness when they lyingly insinuate that Trump failed to use the Defense Production Act.
For chronological context:March 11, 2020 - World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic;
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/11/who-declares-the-coronavirus-outbreak-a-global-pandemic.htmlMarch 13, 2020 - Trump declared National Emergency;
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-trumps-emergency-declaration-over-coronavirus-means-for-arizona/ar-BB11a6RODefense Production Act Invoked or Used:March 18, 2020 - Trump invoked the Defense Production Act delegating to the Secretary of HHS the task of determining what products and components are critical in responding to Covid-19 and President Trump's authority, as necessary, to contract for, facilitate or compel production of, and distribute where needed those products;
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-prioritizing-allocating-health-medical-resources-respond-spread-covid-19/ ,
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/03/18/secretary-azar-statement-president-trumps-invoking-defense-production-act.htmlMarch 23, 2020 - Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to forbid hoarding, speculating, and price-gouging of PPE and sanitizing products;
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-hoarding-health-medical-resources-respond-spread-covid-19/March 27, 2020 - Executive order delegating to the Secretaries of HHS, DHS, and Defense President Trump's authority to make or guarantee loans, purchase and commit to purchase, and other actions to obtain and facilitate the domestic manufacture of PPE, ventilators, and other medical necessities;
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/eo-delegating-additional-authority-dpa-respect-health-medical-resources-respond-spread-covid-19/March 27, 2020 - Trump signed a Defense Production Act order to General Motors to make ventilators;
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/trump-orders-general-motors-to-make-ventilators-under-defense-production-act.html, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-order-defense-production-act-regarding-general-motors-company/March 27, 2020 - Under DPA order, GM and Ventec partnering to produce ventilators; GM will also produce surgical masks at its Warren, MI, ramping up to 50K a day in two weeks, with potential to produce up to 100K per day;
https://www.venteclife.com/news/ventec-life-systems-and-gm-partner-to-mass-produce-critical-care-ventilators-in-response-to-covid19-pandemicMarch 30, 2020 - Under DPA, Honeywell has begun expansion of its Phoenix, AZ which produces N95 masks;
https://www.honeywell.com/en-us/newsroom/pressreleases/2020/03/honeywell-further-expands-n95-face-mask-production-by-adding-manufacturing-capabilities-in-phoenixMarch 31, 2020 - In response to March 27 DPA order, GM repurposing Kokomo, IN factory to produce Ventec ventilators;
https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/gm-hiring-local-workers-to-build-ventilators-in-kokomo/article_4818254c-72bb-11ea-9c48-9b461b7fcc9e.htmlApril 2, 2020 - Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to direct 3M to produce more N95 masks;
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/03/826945445/defense-production-act-would-compel-3m-to-change-mask-production-and-export, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-order-defense-production-act-regarding-3m-company/April 2, 2020 - Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to help GE, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, eRoyal Philips, and Vyaire Medical get the supplies to make ventilators;
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/coronavirus-trump-used-defense-production-act-on-these-companies-so-far.html, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-order-defense-production-act-regarding-purchase-ventilators/April 3, 2020 - Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to forbid export of PPE masks and gloves;
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-allocating-certain-scarce-threatened-health-medical-resources-domestic-use/April 8, 2020 - Under the DPA, HHS announced contract with Philips to produce 2,500 ventilators for Strategic National Stockpile by end of May;
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/04/08/hhs-announces-ventilator-contract-with-philips-under-defense-production-act.htmlApril 8, 2020 - HHS announced the first contract with GM to produce 30,000 ventilators to be delivered to the National Stockpile by the end of August;
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/04/08/hhs-announces-ventilator-contract-with-gm-under-defense-production-act.htmlApril 13, 2020 - HHS announced new contracts for ventilator production under the DPA to General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, and Vyaire, mentioned in Trump's April 2 DPA order, as well as contracts with Hamilton and Zoll, also under the DPA;
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/04/13/hhs-announces-new-ventilator-contracts-orders-now-totaling-over-130000-ventilators.htmlApril 14, 2020 - GM began mass production on an order of 30,000 Ventec ventilators, 600 ventilators to be shipped this month, the full order to be completed by August;
https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a32169651/gm-starts-ventilator-production-in-under-a-month/April 16, 2020 - Under the DPA, HHS announced a $336 million contract with GE for 50,000 ventilators to be produced by July 13;
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/04/16/hhs-announces-ventilator-contract-with-ge-under-defense-production-act.htmlApril 17, 2020 - GM announced that they delivered the first GM-Ventec ventilators to Chicago hospitals;
https://investor.gm.com/news-releases/news-release-details/first-general-motors-ventec-critical-care-ventilators-deliveredApril 17, 2020 - Under DPA, Honeywell has begun production of N95 face masks in a new facility in Rhode Island;
https://www.honeywell.com/en-us/newsroom/pressreleases/2020/04/honeywell-begins-production-of-n95-face-masks-in-smithfield-riApril 21, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD to invest $133 million to increase US domestic N95 mask production by over 39 million over the next 90 days; three companies were awarded contracts, 3M , O&M Halyard, and Honeywell;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2158351/dod-details-133-million-defense-production-act-title-3-covid-19-project/April 29, 2020 - DOD will invest $75.5 million in DPA funding to increase swab production by 20 million per month starting in May; Puritan Medical Products was awarded the contract;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2170355/dod-details-75-million-defense-production-act-title-3-puritan-contract/May 1, 2020 - Under the DPA and CARES Act, DOD in coordination with HHS, has signed a $126 million contract award with 3M for the increased production of 26 million N95 medical-grade masks per month, starting in October 2020;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2178152/dod-awards-126-million-contract-to-3m-increasing-production-of-n95-masks/ ,
https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110794/witnesses/HHRG-116-AS00-Wstate-LordE-20200610.pdfMay 1, 2020 - Under the DPA and CARES Act, DOD in coordination with HHS, has signed a $20.1 million contract award with Moldex for increased production capacity by 5 million N95 masks per month;
https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110794/witnesses/HHRG-116-AS00-Wstate-LordE-20200610.pdfMay 6, 2020 - Coordinated through the DPA, Bath Iron Works finalized a contract with Puritan Medical Products to deliver 30 industrial machines to help meet demand for COVID-19 testing clinical swabs;
https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/biw-signs-contract-to-build-swab-machines-for-puritan-medical-productsMay 7, 2020 - 3M announced that it received two more U.S. Department of Defense contracts to expand US production of N95 respirator masks;
https://www.massdevice.com/3m-wins-govt-contracts-to-further-expand-u-s-respirator-production/ ,
https://investors.3m.com/news/news-details/2020/3M-Awarded-Department-of-Defense-Contracts-to-Further-Expand-US-Production-of-N95-Respirators/default.aspxMay 28, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in support of HHS signed a $2.2 million contract with Hollingsworth & Vose to increase US production of 27.5 million N95 ventilator filters and 3.1 million N95 respirators per month starting in August;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2200654/dod-announces-defense-production-act-title-3-covid-19-ppe-project-22-million-in/June 10, 2020 - Under the DPA, Operation Warp Speed funded increased manufacturing capacity at Corning and SiO2 Materials Science for vials for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and for future needs;
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/06/11/operation-warp-speed-ramps-up-us-based-manufacturing-capacity-for-vials-for-covid-19-vaccines-and-treatments.htmlJune 19, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS signed a $13.5 million contract with Lydall, Inc. to increase domestic capacity of meltblown filtration media, a key component in N95 masks;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2245825/dod-awards-135-million-contract-to-lydall-inc-to-increase-domestic-production-o/July 8, 2020 - Becton, Dickinson announced the formation of a public-private partnership with BARDA, part of HHS, to develop new manufacturing lines for hundreds of millions of syringes and needles to support current and future pandemic vaccination efforts;
https://www.bd.com/en-us/company/news-and-media/press-releases/2020-07-08-bd-partners-with-u-s-government-on-70-million-manufacturing-infrastructure-project-for-mass-vaccination-campaignsJuly 13, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS awarded Renco Corp. a NTE $22.4 million contract with Lydall, Inc. to increase domestic production capacity of Nitrile beutadine rubber gloves;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2272447/July 19, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS awarded Crosstex International a $3.5 million contract to increase domestic production capacity of surgical masks;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2279253/dod-awards-35-million-contract-to-crosstex-international-inc-to-increase-domest/July 23, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS awarded Pall Corporation a NTE $4.9 million contract to increase domestic production capacity of ventilator filters;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2286217/dod-awards-49-million-contract-to-pall-corporation-to-increase-industrial-base/July 25, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS signed a $2.75 million contract with NPS to increase domestic capacity of meltblown filtration media, a key component in N95 masks;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2288304/dod-awards-275-million-contract-to-nps-to-increase-domestic-production-of-meltb/July 25, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS signed a $7.6 million contract with Hologic, Inc. to increase domestic production of consumables for sample collection and testing for Covid-19;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2288926/dod-hhs-award-76-million-contract-to-hologic-inc-to-expand-domestic-production/ ,
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/07/26/hhs-dod-invest-7-6m-hologic-expand-production-custom-sample-collection-processing-consumables-covid-19-tests.htmlAugust 4, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in coordination with HHS signed a $104 million contract with Duopross Meditech Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., Gold Coast Medical Supply, LP, HTL STREFA Inc., Quality Impact, Inc., and Medline Industries, Inc. to procure 500M syringes and safety needles for Covid-19 vaccinations;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2302139/dod-awards-104-million-for-procurement-of-syringes-in-support-of-us-covid-19-va/August 10, 2020 - Under the DPA, DOD in support of HHS signed an agreement with BioFire Defense, LLC that will triple its Covid-19 test manufacturing capacity;
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2307721/dod-hhs-announce-dpa-title-iii-agreement-with-biofire-defense-llc-to-expand-dom/
