In May, the House passed the HEROES Act, an extensive $3 trillion package that provided emergency funds to state and local governments, sent every American a second $1,200 direct payment, extended sick leave and unemployment benefits, expanded the paycheck protection program to keep small businesses intact, provided extra pay for essential workers, funded the Postal Service, and funded an extensive plan for testing and contact tracing. Naturally, that bill sat on Sen. Mitch McConnell’s desk for two months while Republicans came up with their counterproposal—a bill that was one third the size, provided no funds for individuals, state or local governments, or the Postal Service, but which did include billions in new defense spending.
The idea of using a bill designed to address a raging pandemic to buy new squadrons of jet fighters might seem both strange and offensive. But it seems that Republicans needn’t have bothered. Because the Pentagon took $1 billion that was intended to buy protective gear for military personnel and instead funneled it to defense contractors for everything from buying dress uniforms, to funding new drones, to slipping cash straight into the pocket of defense contractors for absolutely nothing at all.
As The Washington Post reports, Congress included funds in the first COVID-19 funding bill—the CARES Act—that were intended to allow the military to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” The presumption was that the military would use this cash for pandemic planning, personal protective equipment, and bolstering the healthcare system for military personnel.
Silly Congress. Instead, the Pentagon directed the funds to assisting defense contractors that it thought might be hurting because they had lost work to the pandemic—even though none of the work these contractors had been doing for the Pentagon was eliminated, and even though several of them also received millions from the Paycheck Protection Program. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) Some of the choices seem bizarre, like sending $80 million to a Kansas aircraft parts company that was having difficulties from the completely unconnected grounding of the Boeing 737 Max. Others appear to be simply incomprehensible, like directing $183 million to Rolls-Royce because they’re involved in building engines for ships.
In short, the Pentagon took $1 billion meant to protect soldiers and turned it into a program to protect the bottom line of defense contractors. Which … somehow seems entirely like what the Pentagon does with money every other day of the week.
And, of course, this is just $1 billion. Since June, the White House has repeatedly refused to say where the $511 billion in CARES Act funding given out in grants and loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) actually went. That refusal broke with long tradition in which the SBA made public all information about loans it provided. With information that has since been released, it’s clear that some money went to predatory loan companies. A congressional look into that program has also revealed at least $1 billion in outright fraud. And of the companies that benefited from emergency loan program, more than half were larger than the program was designed to address.