Less than 20 defense companies have applied for $17B worth of loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense and a 2020 Wash100 awardee, said the Treasury Department is working with DoD as it considers how to expand the eligibility requirements for such loans, Defense News reported Thursday.
“So I’m hoping that early next week, between the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense, we can come back with a little bit more fidelity to the defense industrial base to better identify who might most benefit from this particular money,” Lord said Thursday at a Pentagon news conference.
The Treasury is requiring publicly traded defense contractors and other national security firms applying for the $17B loan program under the CARES Act to offer equity stakes and other “appropriate financial instruments.”
“It may not be as interesting as for private companies, so that’s one of the differentiators I see,” Lord said of the requirement.
