WH promotes supply chain fixes ahead of EO signging
National Economic Council Deputy Director Sameera Fazili and National Security Council Senior Director of International Economics and Competitiveness Peter Harrell joined a White House press briefing to discuss the executive order Biden will sign Wednesday afternoon that will commence an investigation and deliver recommendations to fix supply chain vulnerabilities revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Make no mistake, we are not simply planning to order up reports. We are going to be taking actions to close gaps as we identify them..." Harrell said.
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The executive order will mandate a 100-day review of critical product supply chains in the U.S. focused on those for computer chips, large capacity batteries, active pharmaceutical ingredients and critical minerals and strategic materials, including rare earth minerals.
Fazili argued the investigation could be good for the U.S. economy.
"There are opportunities for small business development to help diversify supplier networks and alleviate the risk of too-big-to-fail companies in the supply chains for critical goods," Fazili said. "There are opportunities to improve worker readiness and training so they have the skills needed to ramp up research, production, or distribution of a critical good."