Congressman Panetta Introduces Legislation to Require the President to Fully Mobilize the Defense Production Act for Testing for COVID-19

WASHINGTON, DC – On Thursday, April 23 Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the Immediate COVID-19 Testing Procurement Act, legislation to require the President to fully mobilize the Defense Production Act (DPA) to direct emergency production, procurement, and distribution of supplies needed to increase testing for COVID-19.


“We have been hunkered down because of COVID-19, but now it’s time to start hunting down this deadly disease.  Without a vaccine, the best weapon we can use in our fight against the coronavirus is more accessible and accurate testing.  For a number of reasons, however, we just don’t have enough tests and supplies to conduct the amount of testing needed to see and understand this disease.  The use of the Defense Production Act to mass produce tests for COVID-19 will provide us with the tools necessary to properly fight the coronavirus,” said Congressman Panetta.  "My legislation requires the mobilization of the DPA by the President to control the testing supply chain and procure the swabs, equipment, and reagents needed to alleviate the supply chain bottlenecks that are now occurring and end the unnecessary competition between states and health care providers. 



Over the past three years, the Administration has used the Defense Production Act thousands of times to place orders to ensure the procurement of vital equipment ranging from vehicle components to equipment to prepare for natural disasters.  Just recently, the President invoked the DPA to procure testing swabs.  However, there are still shortages in reagents and other component materials needed to ramp up tests on a large enough scale.  These shortages have severely limited the number of tests deployed each day, slowing our nation’s response to COVID-19.