Last week, U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) introduced legislation last week that would protect the U.S. supply chain from foreign adversaries like China and Russia.
The National Critical Capabilities Defense Act (NCCDA) would create a whole-of-government screening process for outbound investments and the offshoring of critical capacities and supply chains to ensure the United States can detect supply chain vulnerabilities.
“The unfolding global supply chain crisis is evidence that America can no longer afford to rely on foreign adversaries like China and Russia for our essential goods and supplies,” Fitzpatrick said. “The NCCDA is an immediate, bipartisan response to the supply chain bottleneck that is plaguing our country and will increase transparency surrounding the offshoring of critical industries and manufacturing. We must act now to ensure the US has a resilient and secure supply chain that will bolster American innovation, job creation, and national security.”
The legislation would also create a National Critical Capabilities Committee that would review and block certain U.S. production offshoring, development, or manufacturing of critical national capabilities being made within adversarial nations, including the production of medical supplies and medicines, items essential to the electrical grid, and other areas vital to national security.
The legislation would also empower the president, in consultation with the NCCC, to take action to mitigate national security risks associated with a transaction, build a rulemaking process for transactions, revise the Federal Acquisition Regulation to adjust request for proposals to include disclosures about the sourcing and supply chains a contractor would use and establish the coordination between federal agencies.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and semiconductor shortages exposed that critical United States supply chains were not up to the task of robustly responding to America’s needs. We have to learn from our mistakes and cannot allow outbound investments from the United States to take critical supply chains overseas and into the hands of our adversaries such as China or Russia,” DeLauro said. “Companies at a minimum should be required to report on their proposed offshoring of supply chains so the United States can better protect critical manufacturing capacity here at home and safeguard American workers and our national, economic, and health security.”
Similar legislation was introduced in the Senate by U.S. Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX).