President Joe Biden on Wednesday afternoon is expected to sign an executive order that aims for a review of supply chains for semiconductors and other critical goods.
Before signing the order at an event slated for 4:15 p.m. Eastern, Biden is due to hold a meeting about the ongoing semiconductor SOXX, -0.67% SMH, -0.73% shortage around 2 p.m. with Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Chips have been hard to come by for auto makers and consumers, causing difficulties in a range of industries. The cause looks like a combination of increased demand as people scoop up electronics during the COVID-19 pandemic, limited manufacturing capacity to meet that demand, and the U.S.-China trade war, reports MarketWatch’s Wallace Witkowski.
The upcoming order will direct “an immediate 100-day review across federal agencies to address vulnerabilities in the supply chains of four key products,” the White House said in a news release. Those four products are semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals such as rare earths and large-capacity batteries such as those used in electric vehicles.
The order also will call for a “one-year review of a broader set of U.S. supply chains” covering six sectors, according to the White House. Those six sectors are defense, health care, information technology, energy, transportation and agriculture.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said he hoped to have a bill on the Senate floor “this spring” that would boost the country’s economic competitiveness with China, and the New York Democrat said he was looking at “emergency funding” as part of a plan to boost semiconductor production.
The White House had said two weeks ago that Biden would sign an executive order related to an ongoing semiconductor shortage in the “coming weeks.”
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