There is no magic in the DPA’s mere invocation. The question is what that invocation makes possible and whether it serves the country’s complex supply needs.
As nurses sew their own face masks, hospitals ration tests and split ventilators, and ventilator drugs dwindle nationwide, a desperate America has zeroed in on the promises of the Defense Production Act, the Korean War–era statute that empowers the federal government to ramp up the manufacturing and distribution of badly needed medical supplies. Deploying the DPA to combat COVID-19 is a no-brainer, but using it effectively is not a matter of turning it “on,” like a faucet or a light switch. The nature and scale of the crisis dictate otherwise. Reliance on all of the DPA’s authorities to implement a comprehensive national strategy for pandemic response is both a necessary and an unprecedented use of the statute. Getting this right will require immediate cooperation between President Donald Trump and Congress on the question of funding, extensive interagency coordination, and extraordinary innovation at the intersection of government and private industry…
To read the entire article from The Atlantic, click https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/how-actually-use-dpa-fight-covid-19/609469/
