Washington, 23rd September: Pentagon has redirected pandemic funds to its defence contractors.
According to reports by Baaghi TV, the America Pentagon has diverted its $1 billion in pandemic funding to defense contractors.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon redirected most of its $1 billion in pandemic funding to defense contractors who exchanged the money for jet engine parts, body armor, dress uniforms and other military needs.
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In March, Congress passed a CARES Act, according to which $1 billion was granted to the Department of Defence to both prevent and get ready to respond to the coronavirus.
However, the Post reported that hundreds of millions of the taxpayer money was instead utilized to obtain military supplies in the weeks that followed. Post also noted that this was a change from the intent of Congress.
Meanwhile, US health officials are still requesting for funds for treating the pandemic, including $6 billion for states to make vaccines available when they are developed and to address a shortage in N95 masks for hospitals.
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The Pentagon has also requested that $11 billion be provided in a potential new stimulus bill being debated by Congress.
Congress instructed the $1 billion in the CARES Act to go to Defense Production Act (DPA) efforts, which permits President Trump to direct the US companies to manufacture necessary products, such as personal protective equipment (PPE).
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According to the Post, several months after the funds were allocated, the department’s lawyers concluded that the money could be used for defense production, in projects that have little to do with responding to the pandemic.
Smaller companies received more than a third of the funding of less than $5 million, but hundreds of millions of dollars went to several large companies.
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