Senator Murray Statement on White House Actions to Strengthen Supply Chains

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on President Biden’s new actions to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security and help Americans get the goods they need. Thanks in part to previous efforts by Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration to improve supply chains, including an Executive Order and establishing a Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, supply chain pressures declined from near-record highs to a record low between October 2021 and October 2023, helping lower inflation, which has fallen by 65 percent from its peak. The number of container ships waiting to dock at U.S. ports declined from 100 two years ago to 8 this year. Importantly, passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law all made historic investments to strengthen supply chains and prevent future disruptions by expanding production capacity in key sectors and building infrastructure.

“Coming out of a global pandemic followed by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden and a Democratic majority wasted no time in taking decisive action to strengthen supply chains then and into the future—this was critical for our economy and our national security. Thanks to the actions of President Biden and the legislation Senate Democrats enacted, prices have been coming down for families everywhere and our economy is getting stronger every day.

“Building strong supply chains is no easy task and our work continues, but President Biden’s leadership has delivered real results: getting goods where they need to go and lowering costs. As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, I will continue fighting to fund efforts across government to maintain and strengthen our work to secure our supply chains and lower costs for families in Washington state.”

Today, President Biden announced 30 new actions to strengthen supply chains and make sure families get the products they need when they need them, among them:

• Creating the Council on Supply Chain Resilience, which will work across the government and private sector to make it easier to get goods from ports to shelves;
• Invoking the Defense Production Act to mitigate drug shortages and make more essential medicines in America;
• Making new investments in clean energy and our nation’s food systems; and
• Continuing to build out public-private data-sharing capabilities to improve supply chain monitoring such as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program.

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