Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been trying desperately to acquire ventilators for his states hospitals, even getting on the phone with manufacturers personally.

But in one recent conversation, Pritzker said, a CEO told him that Illinois might have to wait for the life-saving breathing machines not because the company wasnt producing them, but because the company might sell the newly assembled units to a foreign customer first.

As the governor tells the story, the CEO advised Pritzker to place a big order so Illinois would be higher on the list of priority.

Im competing with countries outside the United States to get things that we need, Pritzker said at a press conference on Monday .

Pritzker, a Democrat, might have left out some context to the conversation and, even if he didnt, hes just one governor. But theres plenty of reason to think his tale is emblematic of whats going on all over the country, as state officials and health system administrators struggle to provide hospitals with the equipment they need to treat COVID-19 patients.

Ventilators, portable X-ray devices, COVID-19 test reagents, masks and gowns all are in short supply in at least some parts of the U.S.

We need the product now, Andrew Cuomo , New Yorks Democratic governor, said on Sunday . We have cries from hospitals around the state. Ive spoken to governors around the country, and theyre in the same situation.

The federal government could intervene using its authority under the Defense Production Act , a 1950 law that gives the president legal power over industrial production like Franklin D. Roosevelt had in World War II and Harry Truman wanted during the Korean War. But the decision to use that authority would have to come from President Donald Trump, and so far he has mostly resisted, saying the private sector is doing enough on its own.

An increasingly loud chorus of officials and public health experts disagree. They say the federal government needs to take more control over the production and supply of medical equipment and some wonder why Trump didnt take this action weeks ago when it could have had a much bigger impact.

What This 1950 Law Actually Does

Through a series of reauthorizations and executive actions, the Defense Production Act has evolved so that presidents can now use it for all kinds of crises, including natural disasters. In 2001, for example, President George W. Bush used some of its powers to make sure material for power generation and transmission got to California during a wave of blackouts.

In popular lore, the Defense Production Act lets the federal government commandeer factories so that they start churning out equipment for war or some other kind of emergency. But thats not quite how it works.

Instead, the law gives the president a set of narrow but powerful tools for organizing and increasing the production of goods necessary to address a national crisis.