Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Public Policy newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (October 28, 2020, 6:07 PM EDT) -- Two Democratic senators urged the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing on the Pentagon's "outsized" role in a program to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, including more than $6 billion in related contracts they said may violate acquisition regulations.
The Armed Services Committee has yet to schedule a hearing dedicated to the U.S. Department of Defense's efforts to respond to the pandemic, and recent reports indicate that the DOD's role in the Operation Warp Speed vaccine program is much more prominent than it had previously announced, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said in an Oct. 23 letter to the Armed Services Committee's leaders, released Tuesday.
"Given the outsized role DOD appears to be playing in vaccine development and distribution, we request the SASC immediately hold a hearing on this matter," said the senators, both members of the committee.
It is especially important that DOD explain how it is using federal funding for the program, particularly its reported use of contractor Advanced Technology International Inc. as an intermediary to award more than $6 billion in vaccine-related contracts, Warren and Hirono said.
Awarding deals that way skirts regulatory requirements related to federal contracting and lacks transparency, as well as raising ethical concerns, they said.
Operation Warp Speed, launched in May, is a $10 billion public-private partnership intended to support rapid development, production and delivery of 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
It is a joint effort with the DOD and several U.S. Department of Health and Human Services component agencies, but an internal organizational chart leaked in September shows that military personnel outnumber civilians within its leadership structure, the senators said.
That has prompted public health experts to raise concerns that public health officials are being marginalized, and that DOD officials may not be familiar with health resources available in given communities, according to the senators.
"DOD's outsized involvement in this public health crisis is a stark departure from similar operations used to combat past public health crises such as H1N1 and the outbreak of Ebola," they said.
While there is potentially a valuable role for the Pentagon to play in Operation Warp Speed, especially given its massive logistical capacity, it is still important for Congress to understand and oversee the DOD's activities within the program, the senators argued.
A spokesperson for the Senate Armed Services Committee told Law360 on Wednesday that the committee regularly receives information on the progress of Operation Warp Speed and frequently briefs members and staff.
"The committee has been in the process of scheduling additional opportunities to hear directly from General [Gustave] Perna on Operation Warp Speed, particularly as we move closer to the phase where the Department of Defense will be involved to support logistics and vaccine distribution," the spokesperson said.
Perna is the program's chief operating officer.
A representative for the DOD didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
--Editing by Haylee Pearl.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
