(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- The Biden administration is pushing forward with efforts to try to boost the purchase of goods made in the U.S.
To that end, the White House established a new council of officials on Wednesday called the Made in America Council. The group is comprised of both career and political officials from dozens of agencies at the federal level.
The group was established last June when President Joe Biden signed an executive order that attempts to strengthen the Buy American policies of the administration.
The director of the Made in America Office, Celeste Drake, wrote a blog post this week about the group that read:
“The goal of the Council is simple: advance our Made in America goals by creating a regular forum and community for agencies to collaborate as they work to strengthen the use of Federal procurement and Federal financial assistance to increase reliance on domestic supply chains and reduce the need for waivers over time.”
The group will have representatives on it from all the agencies that are named as part of the Chief Financial Officers Act except for one. Among those agencies are Cabinet agencies as well as departments such as the General Services Administration and NASA.
The group’s goal is to coordinate how various agencies will use the $600 billion they have at their disposal for procurement spending. It will focus additionally on spending that is focused on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was signed into law last year.
When it meets every few months, the group will also provide recommendations meant to help agencies to source various materials from within the U.S., and to give other recommendations that could strengthen the U.S. supply chains.
The White House has been working to increase purchasing domestically through various government spending programs and contracts, and the Made in America Council is another effort to that end.
Biden signed an additional executive order that will increase the federal procurement of goods made in the United States, through tightening requirements of the Buy American plan. That is the same executive order that also established the Made in America Office.
Last April, Drake was named the office’s first director. She previously served as the AFL-CIO union’s trade and globalization policy specialist.
The Biden administration created the post on which Drake serves to try to reduce any unnecessary waivers that used to allow federal agencies to purchase goods that were made in other countries.
Last year, the Office of Management and Budget of the White House sent a memo to various department and agency heads explaining how the Biden administration wanted to reduce the waivers while also increasing transparency.
The goal, according to the memo, was for the federal government to not be forced to outsource manufacturing as much as it has in the past.
It’s a noble goal for the Biden administration to want to purchase more goods from American companies. Let’s hope the plan actually works.
