Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry in Virus Response
WASHINGTON — President Trump and his advisers have resisted calls from congressional Democrats and a growing number of governors to use a federal law that would mobilize industry and provide badly needed resources against the coronavirus spread, days after the president said he would consider using that authority.
Mr. Trump has given conflicting signals about the Defense Production Act since he first said on Wednesday that he was prepared to invoke the law, which was passed by Congress at the outset of the Korean War and grants presidents extraordinary powers to force American industries to ensure the availability of critical equipment.
The next day, he suggested that obtaining medical equipment should be up to individual governors because “we’re not a shipping clerk.” But on Friday, he reversed himself, asserting that he had used the law to spur the production of “millions of masks,” without offering evidence or specifics about who was manufacturing them or when they would reach health workers.
And Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said that he was left with the impression after talking with Mr. Trump that he had decided to move to put the act into effect. He said “a commitment on the phone was a good start,” but that the president now needed to push the government “to move full steam ahead.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-supplies.html
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