President Biden announced Nov. 27 more than 30 new actions designed to “strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security,” including the following.
- creating the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, which will include the U.S. trade representative as well as the secretaries of Commerce, Homeland Security, the Treasury, Agriculture, and Labor
- the Department of Commerce’s Supply Chain Center (established earlier this year) will (1) assess import data that can help address foreign dependency vulnerabilities and points of failure for critical drugs, (2) coordinate deep-dive analyses on critical supply chains to increase resilience, and (3) develop innovative supply chain risk assessment tools
- launching a new Supply Chain Resilience Center within the Department of Homeland Security, which among other things will (1) address supply chain risks resulting from threats and vulnerabilities inside U.S. ports (e.g., “overreliance on untrustworthy equipment subject to nation-state control”), (2) facilitate tabletop exercises to test the resilience of critical cross-border supply chains, and (3) strengthen the semiconductor supply chain
- creating a new Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy within the Department of Transportation that will be responsible for maintaining and improving the condition and performance of the U.S. multimodal freight network
- tasking the U.S. Geological Survey with mapping and developing geospatial databases for select global critical mineral and material supply chains (with a current focus on semiconductor components) to help assess the potential for trade disruptions
- directing the Department of Labor to undertake (1) two four-year projects to identify supply chain traceability methods and technologies to address child and forced labor risks in diverse supply chains, such as cobalt and cotton, and (2) new supply chain research on mining and agriculture products across Asia, Africa, and Latin America
- continuing the DOT’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works program, which provides a shared view of the national logistics system and helps shipping lines, cargo owners, ports, and others make more informed decisions regarding their supply chain planning, and expanding it to increase data transparency for containerized shipments of agricultural shipments
- completing the first quadrennial supply chain review by Dec. 31, 2024, and as part of that review updating criteria on industries, sectors, and products defined as critical to national and economic security
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