Lawmakers urge Trump to use military assets in COVID-19 battle

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bipartisan group of 55 members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to use key military assets and organization to help resolve severe medical supply shortages and assist impacted communities with testing and other medical services in the fight against COVID-19.

"We believe that the United States Armed Forces can provide some of the resources, expertise and organization-at-scale needed to provide the requested relief to states and municipalities across the country," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the president. "We applaud your administration's efforts to coordinate national efforts to combat the crisis, but we need the United States federal government to do more than advise from the background; we need the United States federal government to be the tip of the spear in the fight against COVID-19."

The letter calls on the president to take three actions in response to the global pandemic and national public health emergency:

• Conduct a coronavirus airlift with U.S. military airlift capabilities leading to help resolve supply chain shortfalls.
• Deploy the Defense Logistics Agency to coordinate supply distribution in the U.S. and across the globe.
• Mobilize military health care personnel to fill personnel gaps, especially for urgent services such as testing.

This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Lawmakers urge Trump to use military assets in COVID-19 battle."