The Pentagon used nearly $1 billion of pandemic funds on jet engine parts, body armor, dress uniforms, and other various military needs from defense contractors, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
In March, Congress passed the CARES Act and instructed the $1 billion to go toward the Defense Production Act, which allowed Donald Trump to direct companies to manufacture necessary products, such as personal protective equipment.
But, Department lawyers reportedly came to the conclusion that the money could be used for defense production, even if the projects had little or nothing to do with the pandemic. According to The Post, hundreds of millions of dollars of the pandemic funds went to several large companies.
Companies such as Rolls-Royce and ArcelorMittal were paid $183 million through the DPA in an effort to help stabilize the shipbuilding industry. Another $2 million went to an Army dress uniform manufacturer. And $80 million ended up with a Kansas aircraft parts business, as well as millions of dollars spent on satellite, drone, and space surveillance technology instead of medical supplies.
Some of the contractors that received funds from the DPA also received money from the Paycheck Protection Program.
Meanwhile, there is a shortage of PPE in the U.S. Many hospitals are experiencing a shortage of N95 masks, and last week Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before a Senate panel that $6 billion is needed to make a vaccine available to states once one is developed.
“We are thankful the Congress provided authorities and resources that enabled the [executive branch] to invest in domestic production of critical medical resources and protect key defense capabilities from the consequences of COVID,” Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told the Post in a statement. “We need to always remember that economic security and national security are very tightly interrelated, and our industrial base is really the nexus of the two.”
The House Appropriations Committee said in a report that the Defense Department’s spending of funds allocated in the CARES Act were not spent not as they were originally intended.
