From missiles to medicines: Using the USA Defense Production Act to support public health and the climate

Posted: 2nd February 2023

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money has promoted initiatives in the US Congress, such as the Invest in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act and the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditure (SANE) Act, which if adopted would cut nuclear weapons budgets and convert (re-allocate) these funds to public health, renewable energy, climate protection, job creation and peace.

Unfortunately, most of these initiatives are unable to gain majority support in order to be adopted in the Congress. This is due to the powerful lobbying and influence of the nuclear weapons industry on members of congress regardless of which political party.

There is, however, an alternative and innovative way that a progressive US Administration can enact some measures of economic and industrial conversion from military production to public health, climate protection and other social need. This is through the Defense Production Act, adopted in 1950 and renewed a number of times since then. 
 

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.

The importance of the Defense Production Act to implement industrial conversion in order to address critical environmental and public health issues is becoming more recognized by progressive legislators and civil society organizations that are working on climate and public health issues.

This is true in particular regarding the Biden Administration’s climate agenda, many of the more ambitious elements of which faced congressional opposition even when the Democrats held both houses and are likely to face even stronger opposition now that the Republicans control the House. (See Biden’s Climate Goals Rest on a 71-Year-Old Defense Law).

On public health issues, the Revolving Door Project, an advocacy group focusing on policies that the President could implement without approval of Congress, recently called on President Biden to use the Defense Production Act to Rein In the Tripledemic of rising rates of COVID, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection and the flu.

For more information see the full article From missiles to medicines: Using the USA Defense Production Act to support public health and the climate.