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Senior administration officials said the United States had made
good progress since President Joe Biden signed an executive
order one year ago that kicked off efforts to bolster domestic
production of semiconductor chips, batteries for electric
vehicles, rare earth minerals, and pharmaceuticals.
But they said more work was needed to address lingering supply
chain challenges and strengthen the domestic industrial base - a
process they said would yield some short-term gains but was also
focused on longer-term structural changes.
Biden has been personally focused on rebuilding U.S. supply
chains after acute supply shortages at the start of the COVID-19
pandemic squeezed the availability of masks, gloves and other
personal protective equipment, and a dearth of semiconductors
jacked up the cost of cars and sent inflation to 40-year highs.
While the push is aimed at yanking back from China the
production of technology and other goods once dominated by the
United States, it is also meant to make U.S. supply chains more
resilient to climate change and other disruptions, natural or
manmade, one of the officials said.
Seven Cabinet agencies were due to publish six reports mapping
out plans to address weaknesses in some of the nation's most
crucial supply chains, including transportation, health care,
defense and food, the White House said.
One common thread is the need to help small and medium-sized
businesses compete and break up the domination by a few large
corporations of businesses including meatpacking and
distribution, the White House said.
Key steps planned include:
- an Export-Import Bank initiative to boost financing for
domestic production of semiconductors, biotech and biomedical
products, renewable energy, and energy storage.
- expanding access to capital for small manufacturers through
new and existing programs at the Department of the Treasury and
the Small Business Administration, including $10 billion in
American Rescue Plan funds.
- opening a $450 million Department of Transportation program to
pay for improvements at U.S. ports, and funding for other
transportation infrastructure projects under the bipartisan
infrastructure law.
- a new "Buy American" rule due out in coming weeks that will
offer enhanced price preferences and raise the domestic content
threshold for a new category of critical products
- use of the Defense Production Act to build and expand the
health resources industrial base and reduce the current
"critical dependence" on imports for key pharmaceutical products
and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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