Hill bill addresses medical supplies

U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., has introduced legislation that would amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 “to ensure the supply of certain medical articles essential to national defense.”

The Defense Production Act seeks “to establish a system of priorities and allocations for materials and facilities, authorize the requisitioning thereof, provide financial assistance for expansion of productive capacity and supply, provide for price and wage stabilization, provide for the settlement of labor disputes, strengthen controls over credit, and by these measures facilitate the production of goods and services necessary for the national security.”

The Korean War-era law, passed in 1950, has been amended and reauthorized over the years.

The bill would require President Donald Trump “to create a strategy on securing medical article supply chains, including for drugs that diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease,” according to a summary of the bill.

It would also give him explicit authority to use the law to “protect supply chains by allowing entities to increase the security of supply chains and their activities.”

“I’m arguing that this health supply chain is now a major national security issue,” Hill said in an interview March 31.

Hill introduced the legislation shortly before Congress began its extended recess. It has been assigned to the House Financial Services Committee, according to Congress.gov.

“I believe what the pandemic has made visible to all Americans is that we have that weakness in our medical supply chain,” Hill said.

Many of the supplies or supply components are made in foreign companies, particularly China, he said.