Pentagon Gave Most Of Its $1 Billion Coronavirus Aid Package To Defense Contractors: Report

In March, when Congress allocated $1 billion dollars from its first coronavirus relief package to go to the U.S. Department of Defense, the expectation was that the funds would be spent on essential medical supplies needed for the department to help combat the deadly disease. At the time ― and even now ― the United States was facing a shortage of critical items like N95 masks. A new Washington Post report, however, reveals the Trump administration gave a majority of the Pentagon’s billion-dollar coronavirus aid package to defense contractors to make things like Army uniforms, body armor and jet engine parts.

The report comes on the same day the U.S. surpassed 200,000 coronavirus deaths, the most of any nation, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Congress allocated the $1 billion in coronavirus aid for the Department of Defense in March to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” But The Washington Post report revealed hundreds of millions of dollars from that fund was given to companies the DOD pays for shipbuilding, including the multibillion-dollar companies Rolls-Royce and ArcelorMittal.

The report also notes $80 million was awarded to a Kansas company that makes plane parts — air travel has slowed during the pandemic, and the company had already suffered from the nationwide grounding of Boeing 737 Max planes, a widely defective model.

On Tuesday afternoon, Democratic Representatives Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Mark Pocan (Wis.) said the Pentagon’s use of coronavirus aid for defense contractors is “unconscionable and should be investigated fully and prosecuted if warranted.”

In all, the report found at least one-third of the companies the Trump administration...

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