Congress is revisiting a familiar question – what critical infrastructure goods does the U.S. still depend on imports for, and which could realistically be made domestically?
H.R. 1721, the Critical Infrastructure Manufacturing Feasibility Act, directs the Department of Commerce to study products used in the nation’s 16 designated critical infrastructure sectors that are in high demand but imported because of U.S. manufacturing, materials, or supply chain constraints. The covered sectors include systems such as energy, transportation, communications, water, and manufacturing.
The point of the bill is not to force onshoring but to assess the realistic possibilities. The bill asks DOC to identify where import dependency exists, assess whether domestic production is economically and practically feasible, and weigh likely costs and benefits, including effects on jobs, labor conditions, and product costs. In other words, Congress is asking for a reality check, not a ribbon-cutting schedule.
DOC will also examine whether certain products could be manufactured in rural areas, industrial parks, or rural industrial parks—a nod to both supply chain resilience and regional economic development. DOC must send a report to Congress and the public, including recommendations for increasing U.S. production of feasible candidates, within 18 months.
The bill has now passed both the House and Senate and is headed to the president’s desk. What bears watching is where the mandated study may point policymakers next. If DOC identifies critical infrastructure products as both import-dependent and realistically manufacturable in the U.S., those products could become candidates for trade restrictions, incentives, procurement preferences, or other policy attention.
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