Pentagon Gave Most Of Its $1 Billion Coronavirus Aid Package To Defense Contractors: Report – By Ja’han Jones (Huff Post) / Sept 22 2020
A Washington Post report shows most of the money given to the Department of Defense to fight coronavirus went to defense contractors.
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.
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