BIDEN’S LATEST SUPPLY CHAIN MOVES — House Democrats hope to pass two pillars of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda this week. The bipartisan infrastructure framework and partisan social spending package, if passed, would mean billions for a slew of tech and telecom priorities, including $5 billion for Commerce Department efforts to bolster supply chains. (One caveat: Democrats plan to replace the latest version of the social spending bill with a manager’s amendment, so specific numbers could still be in flux.)
Biden highlighted the supply chain provision in Rome on Sunday,in remarks following a meeting with global leaders on supply chain resiliency. That sum, which was originally set at $10 billion, is meant to go toward the monitoring and identification of supply chain vulnerabilities for critical manufacturing and efforts to address those concerns. (Democrats also added language to the package for an investment tax credit to help boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.)
— Growing crisis: The nation’s supply chain woes have become a political and economic crisis for Biden, who is trying with minimal success to bring it under control. The effects of these shortages have been far-reaching: Bookstores in Massachusetts can’t procure page turners, gym bros are being deprived of their post-workout burritos and in an earnings call last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the global semiconductor shortage cost his company $6 billion in revenue.
As part of his remarks, Biden also announced he had signed an executive order giving the Defense Department more leeway to release supplies and critical materials from the National Defense Stockpile. He pledged to send money to Mexico and Central America for technical assistance with their own supply chain snarls, and invited global trading partners to a future summit on supply chain resilience that the Commerce and State departments will host next year.
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