Moseley urges Visclosky, Young and Braun to call on Trump to fully implement Defense Production Act to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic

PORTAGE — Today, State Representative Chuck Moseley (D-Portage) sent a letter to U.S. Congressman Peter Visclosky, U.S. Senator Todd Young and U.S. Senator Mike Braun urging them to call on President Trump to fully implement the Defense Production Act (DPA). 

This act, created in 1950 during the Korean War, would allow the federal government to direct industries to start manufacturing essential materials and goods needed for national defense, including: n95 masks; other PPE equipment for health care professionals and first responders; ventilators; and hospital beds, as our state and country combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).  

The act is divided into three main sections:

•        Priorities and Allocations, which allow the President to require corporations to accept and prioritize contracts for services and materials deemed necessary to aid US national defense.

•        Expansion of Productive Capacity and Supply, which gives the President the authority to create incentives for industry to produce critical materials.

•        General Provisions, which broadly establishes government authority to strike agreements with private industry, to halt foreign corporate mergers that threaten national security and to create a volunteer bloc of industry executives who could be called to government service.

The shortage of the critical supplies needed to stem the tide of the coronavirus has led many public officials to call on President Trump to make full use of the DPA. Moseley is asking key members of the Indiana Congressional Delegation to do the same thing. 

To download a copy of the letter, click here. The text of the letter is pasted below:  

March 27, 2020

Dear Congressman Visclosky, Senator Young and Senator Braun,

Thank you for your support to help Hoosiers navigate these uncertain and troubling times as we face the effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). I’m writing because it has been 9 days since President Trump’s executive order activating the Defense Production Act and we have seen no implementation of that important legislation in Indiana. 

As a top state for manufacturing, I am urging you to contact President Trump and request that he immediately require businesses to fulfill orders on personal protection equipment, prohibit hoarding or price gouging for these products and the materials used to create this critical gear, establish regulations to make sure materials, services and facilities are distributed evenly to every state, and ensure that we have access to all materials needed to make enough personal protection equipment to aid our medical professionals.

Immediately implementing this act can only increase the volume of PPE and ease the burden on our states. There is not enough being done for the people of this country and that is apparent when states are expected to compete for what official PPE gear we have left. You wouldn't send a soldier into a battle zone or a firefighter into a burning building without protection, so why are we leaving those on the front-line of this disease without the proper equipment? We cannot afford to sit on this aid any longer or we run the risk of losing the dedicated medical professionals that are suffering as they attempt to combat this disease.

Sincerely, 

Chuck Moseley
State Representative
Indiana House District 10