Presidential Executive Orders Delegate Additional Authorities To Respond To COVID-19 Outbreak

Shepard Mullin – Last week the White House issued two additional Executive Orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic:

EO 13910, Preventing Hoarding of Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19 (dated March 23, 2020), delegates to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in consultation with the Administrator of FEMA) authority under Section 102 of the Defense Production Act to prevent hoarding and price gouging of health and medical resources, such as personal protective equipment and sanitizing and disinfecting products, that are needed to respond to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States.

EO 13911, Delegating Additional Authority Under the DPA with Respect to Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19 (dated March 27, 2020), was also issued pursuant to the DPA and delegated substantial additional authority to the Secretaries of HHS and Homeland Security beyond the delegations in EO 13909 and EO 13910. The purpose of the EO is to expand domestic production of health and medical resources, including PPE and ventilators, to ensure the United States’ healthcare systems have the ability to surge capacity and capability to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.