The Defense Production Act

Overview, Key Definitions, and DPA-related Executive Orders

The Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 is the primary source of Presidential authorities to expedite and expand the supply of materials and services from the U.S. industrial base needed to promote the national defense.

Since 1950, the DPA has been reauthorized more than 50 times, with Congress subsequently expanding the term national defense, as defined by the DPA, to include emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to title VI of the Stafford Act and critical infrastructure protection and restoration. The most recent reauthorization of the DPA extended the non-permanent provision of the act by six years, from September 30, 2019, to September 30, 2025 (Section 1791 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019).

Defense Production Act Authorities

Current DPA authorities include:

• Title I (Priorities and Allocations) allows the President to require businesses, corporations, and individuals to accept and prioritize contracts for materials and services necessary to promote the national defense and to allocate materials, services, and facilities necessary to promote the national defense.
• Title III (Expansion of Productive Capacity and Supply) allows the President to incentivize the domestic industrial base expansion for the production and supply of critical materials and goods with specific limitations and requirements.
• Title VII (General Provisions) includes key definitions for the DPA and authorities to:
• Establish voluntary agreements with private industry,
• Obtain information from businesses for industry studies,
• Review proposed or pending foreign corporate mergers, acquisitions, or takeovers that threaten national security, and
• Employ persons with recognized experience and establish a volunteer pool of industry executives who could be called to government service in the interest of the national defense.

Key Definitions

National defense: Programs for military and energy production or construction, military or critical infrastructure assistance to any foreign nation, homeland security, stockpiling, space, and any directly related activity. Such term includes emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to title VI of The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and critical infrastructure protection and restoration (DPA Sec. 702).

Emergency preparedness: All those activities and measures designed or undertaken to prepare for or minimize the effects of a hazard upon the civilian population, to deal with the immediate emergency conditions which would be created by the hazard, and to effectuate emergency repairs to, or the emergency restoration of, vital utilities and facilities destroyed or damaged by the hazard (full definition can be found in the Stafford Act Sec. 602).

Health resources: Drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services, and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate or prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or mental health conditions of the population (EO 13603).

Critical infrastructure: Any systems and assets, whether physical or cyber-based, so vital to the United States that the degradation or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on national security, including, but not limited to, national economic security and national public health or safety (DPA Sec. 702).

DPA-Related Executive Orders

• 13603 National Defense Resources Preparedness Delegates DPA Title I, Title III, and Title VII authorities to agency heads. It specifies that Title I authorities “may be used only to support programs that have been determined in writing as necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense" by specific agency heads. The Secretary of Homeland Security will make determinations related to national defense programs, including civil defense and continuity of Government, not under the purview of the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy.
• 13909 Prioritizing and Allocating Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19 Delegated authority to the HHS Secretary for making use of DPA Title I prioritization and allocation authorities to respond to the pandemic.
• 13910 Preventing Hoarding of Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19 Delegated authority to the HHS Secretary, in coordination with FEMA, to effect anti-hoarding actions using DPA Title I and data collection under Title VII authorities.
• 13911 Delegating Additional Authority Under the Defense Production Act with Respect to Health and Medical Resources To Respond to the Spread of COVID-19 Delegated authority to the HHS and DHS secretaries, allowing each to make use of DPA Title III for issuing financial incentives to expand productive capacity, and coordinate industry under the Title VII voluntary agreements provision.
• 13922 Delegating Authority Under the Defense Production Act to the Chief Executive Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation to Respond to the COVID-19 Outbreak Delegated the DPA loan-making authority to the Chief Executive Officer of the International Development Finance Corporation for the domestic production of strategic resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and to strengthen any relevant domestic supply chains.
• 13944 Combating Public Health Emergencies and Strengthening National Security by Ensuring Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures, and Critical Inputs Are Made in the United States Directed the FDA to identify a list of essential medicines, medical countermeasures, and critical inputs that are medically necessary to always have available in an amount adequate to serve patient needs and in the appropriate dosage forms.
• 13994 Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats Established data collection and collaboration for “high consequence public health threats," including COVID-19, which could be used to inform future DPA actions, or draw on DPA Title VII authority to solicit industry data to assess supply chain vulnerabilities.
• 14001 A Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain Directed the HHS, DHS, DoD, and State secretaries to: (1) review and assess availability of “critical materials, treatments, and supplies" to combat COVID-19, (2) examine how DPA and other emergency authorities could address shortfalls, and (3) use DPA authorities as necessary for PPE and vaccines.
• 14017 America's Supply Chains Directed agency heads and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA) and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy (APEP) to: (1) review supply chain risks and submit a report to the President within 100 days and (2) in addition to reports from other agencies, HHS will submit a report on supply chains for the public health and biological preparedness industrial base within 1 year.  Progress in implementation of issues related to public health is summarized in the Public Health Supply Chain and Industrial Base One-Year Report.

Contact Us

For more information about the Defense Production Act (DPA), please contact the HHS ASPR DPA Mailbox at aspr.dpa@hhs.gov