Luria cosponsors Strengthening America’s Supply Chain and National Security Act

Congresswoman Elaine Luria has signed on as a cosponsor of legislation to reduce America’s dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals and identify medical supply chain vulnerabilities.

The Strengthening America’s Supply Chain and National Security Act (H.R. 6393) would direct the Department of Defense (DOD) to assess its dependence on foreign entities for drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and pharmaceutical components to identify national security vulnerabilities within the DOD’s medical supply chain.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of assessing vulnerabilities within our medical supply chain from a national security perspective,” said Congresswoman Luria. “I am proud to join this bipartisan effort to reduce our dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals and utilize this data to rebuild our domestic production capacity.”

“Coronavirus has unfortunately been a wake-up call to the danger of American reliance on a hostile foreign power like China for medical supplies,” Congressman Waltz said. “We must identify our supply chain vulnerabilities and build out domestic capacity to eliminate dependence on China and other nations, for the safety and health of all Americans.”

“This pandemic has further underscored the need to look at health care through a national security lens,” Senator Kaine said. “It’s critically important that we gain more knowledge of and control over our medical supply chains to reduce our reliance on other nations and ensure adequate supply in times of crisis. I’m proud of this bipartisan legislation that will allow our federal agencies to determine how the U.S. can strengthen our security and our supply chains.”

In addition to directing the DOD to analyze our foreign dependence on pharmaceuticals, this bill would give the FDA oversight on the volume of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in pharmaceuticals which is much needed data to determine our dependency and potential risk for drug shortages.

The Strengthening America’s Supply Chain and National Security Act is the House companion bill to the Senate’s S. 3538, which was introduced by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Christopher Murphy (D-CT).