Trump and his top aides have played favorites in awarding coronavirus contracts and allocating scarce resources.
WASHINGTON — In early March, Mike Bowen, the executive vice president of the medical mask manufacturer Prestige Ameritech, found the perfect way to drum up some federal business: He went on Steve Bannon's podcast, which is highly popular at the White House.
"There's a big operation over there doing sourcing," Bannon said."Navarro and all the guys listen to the show every day." Ultimately, that favoritism has created a two-track system of haves and have-nots in what Trump calls the"war" against the coronavirus, a model revealed in dozens of interviews that NBC News conducted with federal, state and local officials, health industry professionals, emergency response veterans working on the crisis and current and former White House officials.
Much of the flexibility in who gets supplies comes from a secretive"adjudication" process in which senior political appointees have the power to circumvent formulas designed to apportion test kits, ventilators, masks, gloves, gowns and other personal protective equipment based on evolving needs. But a federal government veteran of national emergency response said the influence coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is unparalleled.
At one point in early April, Trump called Kushner, Kushner said at a White House briefing, and told him that friends were relaying concerns that public hospitals in New York didn't have enough protective gear. Kushner called the CEO of the city's public hospital group to confirm what was needed and then had the coronavirus task force's top supply-chain official ship a month's supply of masks.
First, the federal government has driven up prices on equipment and outbid state, county and city governments, as well as hospital systems, on the open market — a move that wasted the time of smaller bidders and increased costs for anything they could get. He quietly chartered flights bearing masks and gloves from China to Chicago to prevent Trump from interceding, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Increasingly, the task force and the innovation team are communicating directly with mayors and business leaders and undermining governors and other politicians who say they aren't getting what they need. For example, when Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said at a news conference this month that hospitals in the state needed more ventilators to help COVID-19 sufferers breathe, Trump aides quickly called the CEOs of the state's most prominent hospital systems.
"It's actually been an amazing story, the cross-supply-chain collaboration that's gone on between otherwise competitors," said Blair Childs, a senior vice president of Premier Inc., a health consulting firm that has been involved in the project. In the case of Prestige Ameritech, the $9.5 million contract was awarded without competition under a waiver for urgent and compelling needs that also requires agency officials to"request offers from as many potential sources as is practicable under the circumstances," according to federal contracting records and regulations.
"Ordering service members to help a company make a product — even an important product like masks — upsets the delicate balance the Founders established for use of the military," said Stirling, CEO of the Law and Military Policy Center, who is a JAG officer in the California National Guard and a law professor at the University of Southern California.
That may be true, but FEMA officials noted in the contract that the acquisition was"ordered by the White House."Winners and losersWhile White House officials say the disaster response has been apolitical, the actions they have taken and the words Trump and other Republican politicians have used strongly suggest that political relationships are a key factor in the distribution of equipment.
Gardner's office did not respond to NBC News' request for an interview on his efforts to secure lifesaving equipment for his constituents. The city of Phoenix struggled for weeks to get a supply of protective equipment after ordering $4.2 million of goods in late March. Mayor Kate Gallego's communications director, Annie DeGraw, told NBC News on Wednesday night that the city has been taken care of for two or three weeks. But just last week, Phoenix's fire chief, Kara Kalbrenner, told NBC affiliate KPNX that Phoenix's order had been"hijacked" by federal authorities.
Even in the hardest-hit areas, the federal government's deals with distributors haven't led to more protective equipment arriving at hospitals, according to an industry consultant. That's evident from pictures of health professionals working in garbage bags and homemade masks.
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