The Pentagon has reallocated most of its pandemic funds to defense contractors for jet engine parts, body armor, dress uniforms, and other military needs.

The CARES Act passed by Congress in March provided the Department of Defense $1 billion to prevent and prepare for the coronavirus pandemic. However, reports said hundreds of millions of the funding was instead redirected for military supplies in the weeks that followed.

The Washington Post said that this was a change from the intent of Congress. 

Meanwhile, health officials are still requesting funding for pandemic response. This includes $6 billion for states to make vaccines available when developed and address a shortage in N95 masks for hospitals.

The Pentagon has also requested that $11 billion be given in a potential new stimulus bill discussed by Congress.

Congress instructed that the $1 billion in the CARES Act should go to Defense Production Act (DPA) efforts, which allow President Donald Trump to direct U.S. companies to manufacture necessary products, such as personal protective equipment.

Months after the funding was allocated, department lawyers concluded the funds could be used for defense production, including projects that had little to do with responding to the pandemic, as per the Post.

Smaller firms got more than a third of the funding for less than $5 million, while many large companies received hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to a report, at least 10 of the about 30 defense contractors also received money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Spokesperson for the Department of Defense Jessica Maxwell said the DPA funding and the PPP are not "in conflict or duplicative."

Maxwell noted that the CARES Act did not restrict the funding to medical resources, and certain defense spending was "appropriate as long as they addressed COVID related impacts in the industrial base."

"The law set forth no limitation requiring use only in the medical supply industrial base," she said in a report. Maxwell further noted that the pandemic urged needed action to sustain and strengthen essential domestic industrial base capabilities.

The undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, Ellen Lord, also defended the actions.

Lord said they are thankful the Congress provided authorities and resources that enabled the executive branch to invest in domestic production of critical medical resources, as well as protect key defense capabilities from the consequences of the pandemic.

Lord noted that "we need to always remember that economic security and national security are very tightly interrelated, and our industrial base is really the nexus of the two."

Lawmakers are still struggling to reach an agreement on how to provide more relief aid to millions of Americans who need it.

Senate Republicans tried to get a smaller stimulus bill earlier this month. However, the second stimulus bill did not include the second round of $1,200 stimulus checks. The Senate's version of the second stimulus bill failed to get 60 votes to push ahead. 

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