A group of bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers is hoping to push a supply chain bill through Congress during the final days of the year.
Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Reps. Norma J. Torres, D-Calif., and Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., are hoping to attach their draft bill, which would establish a national database aimed at streamlining the U.S. supply chain, to the pending National Defense Authorization Act but also reintroduced it Wednesday as a stand-alone bill in case it isn’t included in the final package.
The database is intended to minimize supply chain disruptions by giving manufacturers crucial information aimed at helping them choose how to retool to meet the need for products such as defense supplies or medical devices as necessary.
The lawmakers argue that during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, states understood what was produced in their states but weren’t aware of how dependent those in-state manufacturers were on out-of-state resources.
The legislation aims to use the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a public-private program housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to assist small and medium manufacturers, to create a National MEP Supply Chain Database. That national database would consist of information from manufacturing extension partnership programs in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico.
