National Critical Capabilities bill central to ongoing conference talks, a key pillar to supporting American industrial might home and safeguarding supply chains
Today, U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Michael McCaul (R-TX-10), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05) and U.S. Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) released a joint statement on the new proposal for an outbound investment mechanism in the conference of H.R.4521, the Bipartisan Innovation Act.
“Over the last couple months, we have engaged in constructive discussions with stakeholders on developing a robust, targeted outbound investment mechanism to ensure the United States is not ceding its manufacturing power in industries critical to our economic and national security to foreign adversaries. The refined proposal released today has bipartisan, bicameral support and addresses industry concerns, including the scope of prospective activities, industries covered, and the prevention of duplicative authorities. This discussion draft aligns the United States with the outbound investment mechanisms of our allies. We look forward to meaningful engagement in writing from stakeholders as we work to secure this bill in the conference report. Creating an outbound investment review mechanism is a critical tool as Congress works to provide guardrails on taxpayer funds and safeguard our supply chains from countries of concern, including the People’s Republic of China.”
The COMPETES Act included the bipartisan National Critical Capabilities Defense Act, which is written to repair America’s frayed supply chains and stanch the bleeding of American industrial might to foreign adversaries. This Pascrell co-led provision would create a whole-of-government screening process for outbound investments and the offshoring of critical capacities and supply chains to ensure that the United States can quickly detect supply chain vulnerabilities.
Chairman Pascrell is one of the leading critics in Congress of the Chinese Community Party and for decades has sounded the alarm of the offshoring of American jobs overseas. Pascrell is also the sponsor of the bipartisan American PPE Supply Chain Integrity Act to help end America’s over-reliance on personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies from China and other foreign nations.
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