Biden wants U.S. to produce more of own supplies

WASHINGTON >>

Joe Biden is promising to shift production of medical equipment and other key pandemicfighting products “back to U.S. soil,” creating jobs and bolstering a domestic supply chain he says has been exposed as inadequate and vulnerable by the coronavirus outbreak.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign released a plan Tuesday to reinforce stockpiles of a “range of critical products on which the U.S. is dangerously dependent on foreign suppliers” in places like China and Russia. That includes medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, but also energy and grid resilience technologies, semiconductors and key electronics, as well as telecommunications infrastructure and raw materials.

It marked the Biden campaign’s most comprehensive statements yet on how it would better equip the nation to fight the coronavirus and future pandemics and other threats — though the proposal did not include specifics on how much doing so would cost. If elected in November, Biden promises to initiate immediately a 100-day review of “critical national security risks across America’s international supply chain,” while asking Congress to create a permanent, mandatory review process.

The former vice president envisions creating a “critical supply chains workforce” that would be part of a larger job creation and economic recovery plan his team has spent weeks promising it will soon release.