Clermont Times

Washington, D.C. - Today, Representatives Brad R. Wenstrup, D.P.M. (OH), Blake D. Moore (UT), August Pfluger (TX), and Mark Green, M.D. (TN) released a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit feedback on strengthening and enhancing domestic medical supply chains.

As Congress continues its duty to ensure the safety and security of the nation through strengthening medical supply chains, this RFI seeks feedback from independent experts, stakeholders, industry leaders, and coalition groups to inform how Congress may best achieve this goal.

Building off earlier efforts from the 118th Congress, this week the House passed the BIOSECURE Act, a bill to ensure American patient data and taxpayer dollars do not fall into the hands of foreign adversaries' biotechnology companies by prohibiting federal contracting with these companies.

"U.S. supply chains must be free from dependency on foreign adversaries – we cannot rely on the Chinese Communist Party for genomic testing or basic pharmaceutical ingredients nor depend on Russia for fine chemical production," stated one representative. "The BIOSECURE Act is an important first step, but Congress must take a multi-faceted approach to fortify national health security by working to bolster domestic medical manufacturing and ensuring our supply chains are free of interference and manipulation by foreign adversaries."

To that end, this RFI will allow Congress to hear from individuals and organizations who can provide feedback and ideas to incentivize, support, and strengthen domestic medical manufacturing and supply chains with trusted allies and partners. Responses may address various topics including economic obstacles in bringing medical supply chains onshore; lessons learned in diversifying supply chains; feedback on priority levels of medical products needing onshoring; dependencies on suppliers in foreign adversary countries; timeframes for onshoring or diversifying supply chains; barriers to domestic production such as regulations or workforce challenges; impacts of current U.S. regulations; upstream inputs into API production sourced from adversarial countries; programs assisting new technologies for advanced manufacturing; effective public-private partnerships; policies promoting near-shoring or friend-shoring; long-term strategies for sustainability of domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing; cost implications of bringing operations onshore; factors preventing onshoring; incentives facilitating transitions; and ongoing support needed.

All responses should be submitted to Wenstrup.RFI@mail.house.gov no later than October 4, 2024.