The Supply Priorities and Allocations Board (SPAB) was a United States administrative entity within the Office for Emergency Management which was created and dissolved during the World War II.
[1] The purpose of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board was to coordinate the distribution of materials and commodities related to national defense[2] and to assist the Office of Production Management (OPM) in carrying out their overlapping duties.
[3]: 73, 77 The board's membership consisted of the director general (William S. Knudsen) and associate director general (Sidney Hillman) of the OPM, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, administrator of the Office of Price Administration Leon Henderson, chairman of the Economic Defense Board Henry A. Wallace (who was also the Vice President of the United States) and the special assistant to the president supervising the Lend-Lease program, Edward Stettinius, Jr.[1][3]: 53, 67, 77–78, 87 The president retained the power to appoint an executive director and to select the chairman of the board from its members.
[3]: 78–79 Regardless, SPAB was successful in increasing military aid to the Soviet Union, consistent with President Roosevelt's stated policy on Russia, despite strong opposition from the Office of Production Management and others.
[6] However, this increased significance was short-lived; on January 16, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9024, establishing the War Production Board (WPB).