Senator Kim Emphasizes Defense Production Act as Strategic Tool for American Global Competitiveness in the 21st Century and Supply Chain Resiliency
May 23, 2025
WASHINGTON D.C. – During a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ)highlighted the Defense Production Act (DPA) as an important tool to ensure America’s competitive edge over the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and to build resilience against supply chain disruptions. The hearing was entitled, “Securing America: Key Authorities Under the Defense Production Act.”
Senator Kim honed in on using the DPA to compete with the PRC’s use of non-market policies to command much of the critical minerals market. He stated: “[The PRC is] basically utilizing these non-market policies to be able to mobilize and it’s something that shows building new mines is not enough. We need to ensure they can continue operate even when the PRC floods the market.”
Senator Kim asked Dr. Rush Doshi, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about how we can use the DPA to counter these non-market policies and ensure investments at home do not go to waste. Dr. Doshi responded, “I think this is a critical point…Every time we get close to having our own production, our own refining, our own stockpile of these kinds of critical minerals, the PRC drops the price. That’s where DPA is going to be needed to prevent market manipulation.”
During the hearing, Senator Kim also emphasized financing the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Reserve as a tool to reduce supply disruptions of key pharmaceutical ingredients and reduce reliance on overseas supply. Senator Kim asked Mr. Jared Brown, Executive Director of Global Shield, “Are there ways that we can use the DPA to more effectively leverage this reserve to reduce supply chain disruptions and drug shortages in the short-term?”
Mr. Brown responded: “I think this is an important point of how we can modernize…As Congress looks ahead to a possible reauthorization and modernization of the act. I do think this is one of those subjects that can be relooked at with an eye towards how we handled the cold war with future 21st century threats in mind.”
Congress faces a deadline in September 2025 to reauthorize the DPA which was created to ensure the United States has availability to critical minerals and services, in pursuit of a strong industrial base and national defense. As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fragility of global supply chains, the DPA is an important tool to ensure access to critical minerals and ensure strong and stable supply chains to protect American consumers from supply chain disruptions.
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