Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 6571, the Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act.

The COVID-19 public health crisis exposed serious vulnerabilities in our critical manufacturing supply chains, vulnerabilities that harmed our efforts to combat COVID-19 and its economic fallout.

Ask any doctor, nurse, or essential worker who needed personal protective equipment during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ask any assembly line worker, manufacturer, or startup that did not have enough semiconductors essential to produce critical products and consumer electronics. Ask the everyday consumer who could not find basic household essentials like toilet paper and cleaning supplies as demand surged and supply chains ground to a halt.

Fortunately, the supply chain crisis is over, but serious vulnerabilities remain. The Biden administration's 100-day supply chain review found that manufacturing supply chains instrumental to our national security and economic welfare remain vulnerable to disruption, strain, compromise, and elimination. These vulnerabilities are industrywide and affect every American.

The Department of Defense warns that the decline in domestic manufacturing capability could result in a growing and permanent security deficit that presents challenges to our military and technological supremacy.

Last Congress, congressional Democrats took bold action to strengthen our manufacturing base, bolster supply chains, create good-paying jobs for American workers, unleash innovation, and lower costs for consumers. Representatives Blunt Rochester, Dingell, Kelly, and Wild spearheaded bipartisan supply chain legislation that passed the House in 2022. Over 160 stakeholders--ranging from manufacturers, innovators, workers, consumer groups, and local governments--endorsed their supply chain legislation.

While I was disappointed that supply chain package did not become law, I am pleased the House is poised to pass legislation that grew out of that work.

H.R. 6571, the Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act, improves supply chain resilience and strengthens our Nation's economic vitality and national security in three key ways.

First, the bill creates a program at the Department of Commerce to map and monitor supply chains, identify supply chain gaps and vulnerabilities, and identify opportunities to address supply chain risks.

Second, it equips the private sector with voluntary standards and guidelines needed to proactively identify and mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities before government intervention is even necessary.

Third, the bill assigns the Assistant Secretary of Industry and Analysis with the responsibility to lead a governmentwide effort to strengthen supply chains. This will reduce bureaucratic impediments and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal response to a supply chain crisis.

Mr. Speaker, we have to heed the lessons learned from the supply chain crisis during the pandemic and ensure that the Federal Government is equipped with the tools and authorities needed to address vulnerabilities before they become full-blown crises. That is what this legislation tries to do. It is a great start.

Mr. Speaker, I commend Representatives Blunt Rochester, Dingell, Kelly, Wild, and Bucshon for their leadership on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers and am prepared to close.

Let me just say, Mr. Speaker, that this act to promote resilience in the supply chain is obviously very important in what we learned, the lessons we learned from the COVID pandemic. I would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source