Brenda Marie Rivers
Ellen Lord, the Department of Defense's acquisition chief and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said DoD has allocated roughly $640M to help companies expand production capacity of materials necessary for pandemic response, DoD News reported Tuesday.
She told attendees at the ComDef 2020 virtual event that DoD also spent $215M in funds from the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act to support the domestic health care supply chain.
“One of our first actions was to ensure that the defense industrial base was essential and designated as critical infrastructure.â€
"We quickly took measures to increase communication and gain greater insight into potential delivery and production challenges."
Lord noted that public-private partnerships helped the department to leverage commercial technologies and sustain manufacturing and testing work on microelectronics.
Her office established the Joint Acquisition Task Force in March to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services address pressing acquisition issues.
