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MPR News Staff

Intelligence Squared debate: Is the Defense Production Act being underutilized?

General Motors
The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Arlington Assembly Plant in Arlington, Texas.
Tom Pennington/Getty Images

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President Trump recently invoked the Defense Production Act to compel a Maine-based company to produce swabs for coronavirus testing. This law, which dates back to the Korean War, gives the federal government considerable authority to compel private companies to produce materials in the interest of national defense.

While the administration has employed this law in recent weeks, many are calling on the government to do much more. In fact, Joe Biden said that the president's underuse of the act is a "national disgrace."

What is the Defense Production Act? And how might the government help medical professionals get access to the supplies they need to combat coronavirus?

John Donvan hosted two of the nation's leading experts on the DPA in the IQ2 first-ever "at-home debate.” Historian of American production Margaret O'Mara and national security expert Thomas Spoehr took on the motion, "The Defense Production Act is being underutilized."

Here are a few things they mentioned:

  • Despite being a lesser-known law, the Defense Production Act has been invoked not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of times since it was established 70 years ago.

  • For the motion: Margaret O’Mara, author of “The Code,” argued that the private sector isn’t meeting the demands of the crisis on its own. Even the most successful companies in the world, like Amazon, have major shortages and delays.

  • Against the motion: Thomas Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, said that despite any initial shortcomings, the United States remains the best model in combating coronavirus. The unique system of free enterprise, where customers and producers self-connect, is what led to success during and after World War II, and can be replicated.