The past year and a half has been rife with supply chain problems, from the shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, to the delays caused by the Suez Canal closure, and most recently, the temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline. Improving our supply chain and reinvesting in our manufacturing and industrial sectors is a necessity and the Federal Government is looking to take such steps.
The Biden Administration is prioritizing and infrastructure and jobs package that looks to address many of the supply chain issues that the nation faces. However, as that legislation stalls, the White House announced a host of recommendations for more investments, new supply chains and less reliance on other countries for crucial goods. These recommendations for supply chains include:
Support domestic production of critical medicines:
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will establish a public-private consortium for advanced manufacturing and onshoring of domestic essential medicines production. The consortium’s first task will be to select 50-100 critical drugs, drawn from the Food and Drug Administration’s essential medicines list, to be the focus of an enhanced onshoring effort.
- HHS will make an initial commitment of approximately $60 million from the Defense Production Act appropriation in the American Rescue Plan to develop novel platform technologies to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for API. Greater API production domestically will help reduce reliance on global supply chains for medications that are in shortage, particularly during times of increased public health need.
Secure an end-to-end domestic supply chain for advanced batteries:
- The Department of Energy (DOE) will release a National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries. This Blueprint will codify the findings of the battery supply chain review in a 10-year, whole-of-government plan to urgently develop a domestic lithium battery supply chain that combats the climate crisis by creating good-paying clean energy jobs across America. Later this month, the Department of Energy will host a Battery Roundtable, including representatives from each segment of the battery supply chain, to discuss the Blueprint.
- DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) will immediately leverage the approximately $17 billion in loan authority in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM) to support the domestic battery supply chain. LPO will leverage full statutory authority to finance key strategic areas of development and fill deficits in the domestic supply chain capacity. This will include the ATVM program making loans to manufacturers of advanced technology vehicle battery cells and packs for re-equipping, expanding or establishing such manufacturing facilities in the United States.
- DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) will launch a new effort to support deployment of energy storage projects by federal agencies. It will begin with a federal government-wide energy storage review that will evaluate the current opportunity for deploying battery storage at federal sites. FEMP will also launch a call for projects from federal sites interested in deploying energy storage projects, and provide the necessary technical assistance to get those projects built. These actions build on steps taken earlier this year to leverage $13 million in FEMP’s Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies grants to unlock an estimated $260 million or more in project investments, including battery storage projects.
Partner with industry, allies, and partners to address semiconductor shortages:
- Through strategic engagement with industry, the Department of Commerce (DOC) has supported nearly $75 billion in direct investments from the private sector in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. DOC will bolster its partnership with industry to facilitate information flow between semiconductor producers and suppliers and end-users. Leveraging the Department’s convening power, including through its advisory committees, DOC will bring stakeholders together to promote improved transparency and data sharing.
- Building on the success of recent engagements with Japan and the Republic of Korea, including the announcement of more than $17 billion in U.S. semiconductor investments by leading companies in ROK, the Administration will strengthen engagement with allies and partners to promote fair semiconductor chip allocations, increase production, and promote increased investment.
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