Congress Is Investigating Contracts Tied To Mask And PPE Shortages

Congressional investigators are launching an inquiry into a handful of companies that landed government contracts related to COVID-19, calling the deals “suspicious” because the companies lacked experience and, in some cases, had political connections to the Trump administration.

In a letter obtained by NPR, the chairman of the bipartisan Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., asked a roster of administration officials to account for how and why they selected particular companies to provide Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE. Many of the contracts were made without competition at the height of the coronavirus crisis. Seven letters also went out to individual companies asking for information related to those contracts.

“The Administration awarded contracts to inexperienced suppliers,” Clyburn wrote in a letter addressed to the heads of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. “More than 445 companies had no prior experience in the federal marketplace before receiving awards related to the pandemic response. Many of the companies awarded contracts… registered to do business with the government for the first time this year, some just days before successfully winning a contract.”