A Push to Allow States to Use the Defense Production Act
Since the height of the pandemic, Governor Cuomo has pleaded with the federal government to expand its use of the Defense Production Act.
The current version of the law allows the president to direct private companies to prioritize orders from the federal government. In other words, if PPE masks are needed, the DPA can order a company to stop making widgets, and instead make masks.
Ben Smilowitz, founder and executive director of Disaster Accountability Project began to think about whether states could re-interpret the DPA within their own borders.
"States are struggling to tread water on PPE supplies and costs,” according to Smilowitz. "Congress must immediately throw states a life raft by allowing them to increase in-state production and buy PPE on priority."
Read more: https://nystateofpolitics.com/state-of-politics/new-york/politics/2020/08/28/a-push-to-allow-states-to-use-the-defense-production-act