Trump Sends Mixed Messages About Invoking Defense Production Act
National Public Radio (NPR)—Morning Edition: Peter Shulman, associate professor of history, spoke about the democratic origins of the National Defense Production Act and its authors’ intention that the law be used only during types of crises, the scale of which are met by the scope and speed of the current COVID-19 outbreak. The attendant and urgent need for vital medical supplies to treat current and future patients qualifies the outbreak as such a crises and warrants invocation of the law.