Biden to issue executive order requiring review of critical supply chains -sources

The actions, which will focus both on government contractors and private industry, aim to ensure the United States can supply the goods it needs to combat the COVID-19 crisis, as well as other critical technology and raw materials, the sources said. Biden will sign an order mandating a 100-day review to ensure domestic manufacturers can deliver the country's needed supplies and that demands for goods that must be satisfied by other countries are done in a more secure and sustainable manner.

President Joe Biden is planning to take an executive action mandating a review of critical U.S. supply chains with an eye to securing U.S. industrial supplies from competitors including China, according to four people familiar with the matter. The actions, which will focus both on government contractors and private industry, aim to ensure the United States can supply the goods it needs to combat the COVID-19 crisis, as well as other critical technology and raw materials, the sources said.

Biden will sign an order mandating a 100-day review to ensure domestic manufacturers can deliver the country's needed supplies and that demands for goods that must be satisfied by other countries are done in a more secure and sustainable manner. That will be followed by further review and actions taken by several executive branch agencies over a one-year period, according to two people familiar with the plans, one of whom read a draft of an order Biden will sign.

One administration official said the actions, which Biden promised on the campaign trail, would take place "in the weeks ahead." The United States has suffered a critical shortage of masks, testing supplies and vaccine ingredients that hobbled its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A White House spokesman declined to comment.