The White House said that President Biden will sign an executive order (EO) on Friday to prioritize America’s policy of “invent it here, make it here,” directing Federal agencies to support the American production of innovative technologies.
The executive order will promote research and development (R&D) investments that can directly support the production of technologies in the United States – benefiting American workers, communities, and global supply chain resilience, the White House said.
“Today, I’m going to sign an executive order called ‘Invent it Here and Make it Here,’” President Biden announced this afternoon during a speech in Auburn, Maine. “This is how it works: Federal agencies research and fund development to encourage innovation. This executive order dictates that those agencies have to prioritize domestic manufacturing when it comes time to bring those inventions to market.”
“They can’t go abroad, they have to look here. Who can do it here? That’s the law. We’re just beginning to enforce it,” the president added.
According to a White House fact sheet, one core objective of the EO is to improve transparency and streamline reporting requirements in the Federal R&D process. Specifically, it directs most Federal agencies to transition their reporting requirements to a single reporting portal – the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) iEdison – by the end of 2025.
Additionally, the EO directs the Department of Commerce to develop contract terms that agencies can use for easy implementation. The White House is encouraging agencies to use these terms to securely collect data on inventions and their manufacturing locations.
Two years after the EO is issued, agencies that make substantial R&D investments will need to report annually to the director of the Made in America Office on the utilization of inventions developed through their R&D awards, as well as their manufacturing locations.
Another core objective of the order is to “boost the incentive to manufacture new inventions in the United States when those inventions are developed using Federal funds,” according to the fact sheet.
The EO encourages agencies to consider domestic manufacturing when awarding R&D solicitations. Additionally, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), through the National Science and Technology Council, will look to add domestic manufacturing to the Federal government’s technology R&D roadmaps.
“The executive order encourages agencies to consider using the broad range of agency authorities used to purchase or invest in leading-edge technologies to support their production in the United States, extending the incentive to manufacture domestically beyond use of those authorities that historically included such a requirement,” the fact sheet adds.
