Greenberg Traurig – The expanding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced federal, state, and local governments to explore a variety of emergency procurement tools to meet critical needs for medical and other resources. On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared an emergency under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5207 (Stafford Act). Subsequently, on March 18, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order (DPA E.O.) finding that medical resources needed to respond to COVID-19 qualified as “critical and strategic materials” under the Defense Production Act of 1950 (the DPA), as amended.1 As described below, these declarations unlock potentially important emergency procurement tools for federal, state and local governments to acquire the resources necessary to respond to COVID-19.
