President Donald Trump said he would start using a war powers declaration to order the production of ventilators and other needed medical supplies to battle the coronavirus – and then caused confusion when he said he hadn’t used it.
‘I invoked the Defense Production Act, and last night we put it into gear,’ the president said during the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House. ‘We are invoking it to use the power of the federal government to help the states get things they need like masks and ventilators.’
The Defense Production Act is a Korea-War era law that allows the president to order businesses to produce certain products in times of a national emergency. Trump had been encouraged to invoke it in order to jump start production of much-needed medical supplies.
President Donald Trump said he would start using a war powers declaration to order the production of ventilators and other needed medical supplies
An employee works on final assembly of VOCSN Multi-Function Ventilators, which integrate five separate medical devices, at Ventec Life Systems, a ventilator manufacturer in Washington state
There are now more than 16,000 cases of coronavirus in the US and more than 211 have died
He signed it on Wednesday night but tweeted he would only use it in a ‘worst case scenario.’
And Vice President Mike Pence said companies were volunteering to help meet the needs of health care workers, who have reported shortages of masks and ventilators, indicating the act wasn’t needed.
‘We have businesses around the country that are literally volunteering to retrofit plans to help us meet the needs of our health care workers and system in confronting the coronavirus,’ he said.
And Trump, himself, said companies were calling his administration with offers so they ‘have not had a problem’ with production.
‘It is an amazing thing that happened, we are getting calls from automobile companies and other companies saying they have planned capacity, they want to make better leaders and other things. We are being besieged in a beautiful way by companies that want to do the work. They want to do the job. They want to help us and our country. So we have not had a problem with that at all,’ the president said.
The confusion over whether or not the law was enacted comes a day after the president met with governors, who told him they cannot get the tests and supplies they need to combat the coronavirus.
There have been over 16,000 cases in the United States and more than 200 deaths.
When asked if he was using the law or not, the president responded: ‘When we need something, we order something.’
Asked if he had directed any companies to start making masks or ventilators, President Trump noted: ‘I have. Yes, I have. They have been making a lot of ventilators and a lot of masks.’
He didn’t offer details on which companies were doing so but later offered up General Motors as an example. The Detroit-based car manufacturer said it could switch some of its assembly lines to produce the much-needed medical equipment.
Health care workers have complained about a shortage of supplies, including ventilators, as they work to combat the coronavirus
President Trump has shown a reluctance to use his executive powers to interfere in private companies’ production decisions
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called President Trump Friday morning and urged him to use it
President Trump has shown a reluctance to use his executive powers to interfere in private companies’ production decisions.
‘I only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario in the future. Hopefully there will be no need, but we are all in this TOGETHER!’ Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
He has encouraged governors to go on the open market place to get the supplies they need instead of counting on the federal government, arguing on Thursday the federal government was not a ‘shipping clerk.’
‘The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,’ Trump said. ‘You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.’
Democrats had encouraged the president to use the law to bring some relief to the medical industry, which has been overwhelmed responding to the pandemic.
In a Friday morning phone call, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged the president to use the law to ‘get ventilators and other important medical equipment to those who need it,’ according to a Schumer spokesman.
‘POTUS told Schumer he would, and then POTUS yelled to someone in his office to do it now,’ the spokesman said.
At his coronavirus briefing, Trump acknowledged having spoken to the New York senator earlier in the day
‘I had a very good telephone conversation, extremely good, with Sen. Schumer a little while ago,’ he said.
The president spoke with Schumer as negotiations continue over a third economic package to help in the wake of the coronavirus.
The administration is pushing for a trillion dollar package to help small businesses, airlines and other industries directly hit by the epidemic along with providing individual checks to Americans.