Pentagon fires its point person for Defense Production Act

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

Jennifer Santos, the Pentagon’s industrial policy chief who oversees efforts to ramp up production of masks and other equipment to help fight Covid-19, was fired from her job this week and will move to a position in the Navy, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Santos took over the job of deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy in June 2019 after her predecessor, Eric Chewning, was tapped to serve as chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan. Since March, Santos has focused on using the Defense Production Act to partner with industry to bolster the nation’s supply of critical medical equipment such as ventilators, personal protective gear and testing materials needed to counter the coronavirus pandemic.

...snip

Santos announced tearfully during a Thursday morning staff call that she had been fired and would leave her post at 5 p.m. on Friday, according to one person close to the Pentagon. Santos, when reached by phone, did not have a comment.

Santos faced challenges leveraging the Defense Production Act, according to a former Pentagon official, referring to the law that allows the government to place priority orders with contractors. Congressional Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for its unwillingness during the first few months of the pandemic to fully use the DPA in its fight against the coronavirus.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/14/coronavirus-defense-production-act-ouster-258578

[Corgigal]

1. Pentagon found a woman

to blame.

Slow....clap.....slow.....clap.

[iluvtennis]

2. correction...trump found a woman to blame. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Yup. He couldn't conceive of Jar-Jar and Dense being to blame. . . . nt

[barbtries]

4. i honestly don't know

if it's political payback, or she's incompetent and deserved to be canned. Could be either. Trump does not value competence in his people, but maybe she didn't fuck it up enough. Or maybe she stood between Jared and the $$$$$$$$$$$. who knows?

[Igel]

5. Perhaps.

One thing that's starting to grate is the word "fired."

If you have a job and it's taken away from you, you're fired--that also involves discontinuing both your services and your pay. You had a job; you were fire; you have no job.

Many of these "firings" are what I think of as reassignments. You had this job, you're fired, your services and your pay continue and the next day you show up at another office. Usually with no change in pay.

Using that standard, I have a friend who was a biology teacher two years ago. She was fired. There was no gap in her income, though, because when her contract ended at the end of the fiscal year and her new contract began the next day, she kept her tenure, her room assignment, her stipend, but she no longer taught biology, suddenly she was an chemistry teacher.

Now, in context it's not a big deal. You hear "fired" and you fix your understanding. But out of context, you hear that somebody was "fired" and that means that the person's out of work and engaging in pavement pounding. Stripping out the context makes the sentence untrue.

[barbtries]

6. that's true

they transferred her, apparently against her will.