Senators introduced as an amendment to the United States Innovation and Competition Act currently under consideration by the Senate
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) released a statement on their joint amendment to the United States Innovation and Competition Act.
“We have seen the cost of relying on communist countries, like China, for critical supplies. Our amendment, the National Critical Capabilities Defense Act, will require companies to disclose proposed offshoring of critical supply chains and capabilities to foreign adversaries, like China and Russia. Our proposal will ensure the PPE shortages we saw at the start of the pandemic don’t happen again and that we are not reliant on foreign adversaries for items that are critical to our national security.”
The National Critical Capabilities Defense Act
The Amendment would establish a whole-of-government process to screen outbound investments and the offshoring of critical capacities and supply chains to foreign adversaries, like China and Russia, to ensure the resiliency of critical supply chains. The amendment will ensure the U.S. has greater visibility on supply chain vulnerabilities and that we can respond to the needs of our Nation and those who may call on us in times of crisis.
The interagency committee, led by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) along with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Defense, will oversee the review process for capacities deemed “critical” to the U.S. The committee would focus on outbound investment or offshoring of critical capacities, supply chains, domestic production and manufacturing to foreign adversaries. That is, the committee would not review outbound investments and supply chains to allied countries. Specific provisions ensure multilateral engagement, supply chain resiliency and the free and fair flow of commerce to Nations and sectors that abide by a rules-based trading system. The proposal would also establish a process to conduct ongoing evaluation of critical supply chains.
The review process could produce recommendations to the President to take remedial action under existing authority, such as support to domestic industry, including increased research and development investment, utilization of manufacturing institutes, and provides authority, under limited circumstances, to mitigate or halt outbound investments.
