During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to make use of the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, to boost the supply of items critical to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The law, which was passed in 1950 and amended periodically since, provides the president a set of powers to influence domestic industry in the interest of national security, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

BIden's administration has been using the law extensively for much of his first year in office.

One key element of the law is the authority to order companies to prioritize federal contracts that serve national emergency goals over any other contracts or orders. Another part of the law grants the government authority to make loan guarantees, loans, purchases and commitments to purchase items.

A December 2021 report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, found that federal agencies used the act aggressively to help address medical supply needs through September 2021. 

The report said that agencies used the law's authorities 73 times to prioritize contracts for medical supplies, including the manufacturing of vaccines. The administration also used the law to fund 60 projects that expanded domestic production of supplies, such as expanding production capacity for N95 respirators by more than 50 million per month. And it forged partnerships with private companies that coordinated distribution of personal protective equipment.

While the GAO found some fault in how federal bureaucracies were managing efforts under the act, it added that representatives from companies that received awards "generally stated that the use of the DPA gave them timely access to raw materials and supplies and helped them expand production faster than they could have on their own." 

The GAO added that additional use of the law is expected through 2025, due to $10 billion appropriated to strengthen the domestic medical industrial base under the American Rescue Plan Act, a coronavirus and economic relief bill Biden signed early in his tenure.

We rate this a Promise Kept.