A federal agency that was run by a college friend of Jared Kushner and assigned $100 million to spend on fixing the Covid supply chain crunch has so far failed to invest a single dime, according to a new government watchdog report.
In 2020, the Trump administration directed the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to loan out $100 million in Pentagon funds through the CARES Act to “finance the domestic production of strategic resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and to strengthen any relevant domestic medical supply chains.”
Companies were encouraged to apply for financial backing to help increase U.S. distribution of ventilators, vaccines, medical testing supplies, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other relevant products. According to a new Government Accountability Office report, 178 applications flooded into the agency’s downtown Washington office but no money flowed out.
The agency’s portal for loan applications has now been paused and its authority to make Covid-related loans ends on March 26.
Adam Boehler, briefly a college roommate of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, ran the International Development Finance Corporation starting in fall 2019. The DFC had been created with bipartisan support in 2018 to help steer private investment to government-funded projects in the developing world.