Defense Production Act of 1950
The Defense Production Act, initially adopted in 1950 but renewed and updated many times since then, provides executive authority to the US President to direct private companies to accept and prioritize contracts – including government contracts – for materials deemed necessary for national defense, regardless of a loss incurred on business.
Its original purpose was to ensure that during wartime, US industrial production was fully available to support the war effort. However, in recent decades the purpose has been expanded to include the possibility to use the act to address other national emergencies.
President Clinton, for example, invoked the Defence Production Act in 1994 to improve national resource preparedness during natural disasters under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This authority has been renewed by successive Presidents.
President Obama invoked the Act in 2011 to force telecommunications companies, under criminal penalties, to provide detailed information to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on the use of foreign-manufactured hardware and software in the companies’ networks, as part of efforts to combat cyber-espionage.
President Trump was initially critical of using the Defense Production Act for anything other than military production. He eventually relented to pressure, led in the Congress by Senator Markey, to invoke the act in order to support production of masks and other medical supplies necessary in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he continued to give priority to military production (See Despite Claims, Trump Rarely Uses Wartime Law in Battle Against Covid).
President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act on his second day in office (22 January 2021) to increase production of supplies related to the pandemic such as protective equipment, and then again on 2 March 2021 to ensure supply of equipment for manufacture of vaccines and on 6 June 2022 to accelerate domestic manufacturing of clean energy.
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