House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said today he is working to include measures that would help the U.S. defense industrial base in an upcoming COVID-19 stimulus bill being crafted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
"A lot of work needs to be done with our large contractors to make sure that the small and medium ones can survive," he told reporters. "Our supply chain, our industrial base is going to be massively stressed in the months ahead."
The previous $2 trillion bill Congress passed to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic included $10.4 billion for the Defense Department.
Smith said today he wants to see more in the upcoming bill Pelosi has announced.
"We are going to have to work in a very creative and aggressive fashion to try to protect our industrial base in a broader way, without question," he said.
Smith said Congress should look at helping DOD "make advanced payments" to defense contractors, "especially the small-and-medium-sized manufacturers that may have a hard time staying in business through this."
For example, he said, a company in his home state of Washington, Outdoor Research, supplies cold weather gear to special operators. But the company has been tapped to begin production of PPE to help stem the spread of COVID-19.
"They sew things," he said. "We're trying to use them to make PPE. They don't mind making the PPE, but if they lose their contracts on other things, they're not going to be making enough money to stay in business to make the PPE."
Smith suggested it might make sense to "move forward with contracts that were already planned a little bit quicker, so that a company like that can stay in business and help us with the production that we need to deal with the COVID-19 crisis."
Smith also said he is frustrated that DOD's full industrial capability has not been directed at COVID-19 and wants to push an initiative that would give the department a leading role in the production of testing kits, personal protective equipment and other supplies needed to battle the virus and, hopefully, re-open the U.S. economy.
"They are in a position to do a lot more than they're doing," he said. "DOD has not been forward-leaning on that issue. They just haven't."
Smith said he does not blame DOD, as the current process the Trump administration is using requires the department to first get "demand signals" from the Health and Human Services Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But those signals, Smith said, aren't coming.
"As near as I can tell, that is because that is the way the president wants it," he said. "I don't think that DOD is being used in the way that they should be to meet this crisis."
Smith said he wants to see DOD mass producing cotton swabs for COVID-19 testing, PPE and other equipment state governors say they need badly.
"DOD is not going over to HHS and saying, 'Hey, here's what we could do,'" Smith said. "I feel very strongly that we have missed some opportunities here because none of the parts of this have been forward-leaning enough."
Smith also said it is likely the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill will include measures related to COVID-19, though he noted the overall schedule has "slipped."
The committee, he said, is working on the bill remotely because of strict social distancing guidance and wants to have a it ready for consideration by May 1, though it may not by signed into law by Oct. 1 as originally hoped.
The November election, Smith said, may also complicate an already compressed timeline.
"The likelihood that it slips passed Oct. 1 is obviously increasing by the day," he said.