June 8 -- FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to Address Short-Term Supply Chain Discontinuities
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/08/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-supply-chain-disruptions-task-force-to-address-short-term-supply-chain-discontinuities/
Excerpts:
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing key findings from the reviews directed under Executive Order (E.O.) 14017 “America’s Supply Chains,” as well as immediate actions the Administration will take to strengthen American supply chains to promote economic security, national security, and good-paying, union jobs here at home. . . .
Today, . . . the Administration released findings from the comprehensive 100-day supply chain assessments for four critical products: semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging; large capacity batteries, like those for electric vehicles; critical minerals and materials; and pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The Administration is taking immediate action to address vulnerabilities and strengthen resilience with the launch of a new effort aimed at addressing near-term supply chain disruptions. And, pursuant to E.O. 14017, it is crafting strategies for six industrial bases that underpin America’s economic and national security, which will be completed within a year. The supply chain reviews reinforce the need for the transformative investments proposed in the President’s American Jobs Plan.
Report: BUILDING RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAINS, REVITALIZING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING, AND FOSTERING BROAD-BASED GROWTH
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/100-day-supply-chain-review-report.pdf
Excerpts:
Why Resilient Supply Chains Matter
More secure and resilient supply chains are essential for our national security, our economic security, and our technological leadership.
National security experts, including the Department of Defense, have consistently argued that the nation’s underlying commercial industrial foundations are central to our security. Reports from both Republican and Democratic administrations have raised concerns about the defense industry’s reliance on limited domestic suppliers; a global supply chain vulnerable to disruption; and competitor country suppliers. Innovations
essential to military preparedness—like highly specialized lithium-ion batteries—require an ecosystem of innovation, skills, and production facilities that the United States currently lacks. The disappearance of domestic production of essential antibiotics impairs our ability to counter threats ranging from pandemics to bio-terrorism, as emphasized by the FDA’s analysis of supply chains for active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Our economic security—steady employment and smooth operations of critical industries—also requires secure and resilient supply chains. For more than a decade, the Department of Defense has consistently found that essential civilian industries would bear the preponderance of harm from a disruption of strategic and critical materials supply. The Department of Energy notes that, today, China refines 60 percent of the world’s lithium and 80 percent of the world’s cobalt, two core inputs to high-capacity batteries—which presents a critical vulnerability to the future of the U.S. domestic auto industry.
Finally, our domestic innovation capacity is contingent on a robust and diversified industrial base. When manufacturing heads offshore, innovation follows. The Department of Commerce notes that large-scale public investment in semiconductor fabrication has allowed Korean and Taiwanese firms to outpace U.S.-based firms. As the Department of Commerce warns, “ultimately, volume drives both innovation and operational learning; in the absence of the commercial volume, the United States will not be able to keep up […] with the technology, in terms of quality, cost, or workforce.”
A New Approach
A resilient supply chain is one that recovers quickly from an unexpected event. Our private sector and public policy approach to domestic production, which for years, prioritized efficiency and low costs over security, sustainability and resilience, has resulted in the supply chain risks identified in this report. That approach has also undermined the prosperity and health of American workers and the ability to manage natural resources domestically and globally. As the Administration sets out on a course to revitalize our manufacturing base and secure global supply chains, rebuilding for resilience at the national level requires a renewed focus on broad-based growth and sustainability.
America’s approach to resilient supply chains must build on our nation’s greatest strengths—our unrivaled innovation ecosystem, our people, our vast ethnic, racial, and regional diversity, our small and medium-sized businesses, and our strong relationships with allies and partners who share our values.
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Sameera Fazili, and Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness Peter Harrell, June 8, 2021
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/06/08/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-deputy-director-of-the-national-economic-council-sameera-fazili-and-senior-director-for-international-economics-and-competitiveness-peter-harrell-june-8/
Excerpt:
DEPUTY DIRECTOR FAZILI: Thank you. Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. And thank you, Jen. It is good to be back here at the end of this whole-of-government review that we just undertook of America’s supply chains, following President Biden’s direction back in February.
We said from the beginning that our approach to supply chain policy needs to be an integral part of the President’s overarching economic strategy to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.
We also said that we were not going to simply be writing reports in this 100 days that were going to sit on a shelf; we are going to be taking action to address specific supply chain vulnerabilities. I think today’s reports make both those things crystal clear.
To achieve supply chain resiliency, we need to build back better by leveraging America’s greatest strengths:
First and foremost, American workers. Decades of focusing on labor as a cost to be managed and not an asset to be invested in have weakened our domestic supply chains, undermined wages and union density for workers, and also contributed to companies’ challenges finding skilled talent.
We must focus on creating pathways for all Americans to access well-paid jobs with a free and fair choice to join a union and bargain collectively.
Second, our diversity. We need to unlock the full potential of the American people, including making economic opportunities available across our country and for women and for people of color.
Third, our small businesses. To build a diverse and healthy ecosystem of suppliers, we must rebuild our small- and medium-sized business manufacturing base that has borne the brunt of the hollowing out of U.S. manufacturing.
Fourth, our alliances. We need to diversify our international suppliers and reduce geographic concentration risk. For too long, the U.S. has taken certain features of global markets — especially the fear that companies and capital are going to flee to wherever wages, taxes, and regulation are the lowest — as inevitable. The pandemic laid bare the challenges of this approach, and we need to change it. We are committed to working with partners and allies to decrease the vulnerabilities in our collective supply chains.
And finally, fifth, our imagination. Our approach to supply chain resilience needs to look forward to emerging threats, from cybersecurity to climate issues. And so we are future-proofing and building back better.
Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese Meeting with Cabinet Members on 100 Day Supply Chain Reports
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/08/readout-of-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-and-director-of-the-national-economic-council-brian-deese-meeting-with-cabinet-members-on-100-day-supply-chain-reports/
Excerpt:
Today, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese met with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, and Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Dr. Janet Woodcock to discuss the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government effort to build diverse, resilient supply chains essential to our national security, our economic security, and our competitiveness. Sullivan and Deese thanked the Cabinet members and their teams for their work to deliver immediate next steps and robust recommendations to strengthen our supply chains in both the short-term and the long term.
Sullivan, Deese, and the cabinet members stressed the importance of using all available tools across the United States government and continuing partnerships with all stakeholders—including business, labor, and environmental groups—to identify further actions we can continue to take to strengthen our supply chains.
In the meeting, they also discussed the importance of being nimble to address emerging supply chain issues resulting from a rapid return of economic activity, in part due to President Biden’s historic vaccination program and economic relief efforts. They thanked Secretaries Raimondo, Buttigieg, and Vilsack for taking lead on the new Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, which will work closely with the White House including the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, the National Security Council, and Council of Economic Advisers, to tackle near-term bottle-necks in the semiconductor, homebuilding and construction, transportation, and agriculture and food industries.
