NCTO welcomes president Biden’s COVID-19 action plan

National Council of
Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO, Kim Glas, recently welcomed
President Biden’s action plan and COVID-19 response, accompanied by a series of
executive orders, including an order signed today to strengthen US supply
chains by directing federal agencies to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to
address shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and related vaccine
supplies.

“We are closely
reviewing President Biden’s national strategic plan to confront the pandemic
and welcome the executive order signed today to strengthen our supply chains by
directing all federal agencies to use the Defense Production Act to address
shortages of personal protective equipment, vaccine supplies and essential
products. These are important steps that will help ramp up critical
manufacturing of these essential PPE products and other critically needed
supplies like tests and vaccines,” Glas said.

American
manufacturers have been at the forefront of the effort to build a domestic PPE
supply chain since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The US textile industry retooled production
and operations virtually overnight, producing millions of face masks, isolation
gowns, testing swabs and other critical medical textiles.

Our industry is
dedicated to making significant investments in automated equipment for PPE, but
the industry needs long-term, multiyear contracts to help realize that
investment. The deployment of DPA is one of the critical tools that will help
incentivize investment in equipment, propel the hiring of U.S. workers and
expand these critical production chains.

Since its inception,
the DPA has been utilised by the Department of Defense to make critical
investments in domestic textile manufacturing infrastructure and capacity,
creating private-public partnerships through the government’s capital
investments under the DPA and guaranteeing purchases through long-term
contracts.

We applaud President
Biden’s action today and anticipate further steps including a reported order
that will seek to strengthen government procurement of US products in the
coming days. We appreciate President Biden outlining the “National Strategy for
the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness” a series of actions and steps
the administration will undertake to deploy and manufacture the vaccine and
other essential products.

Our industry has
outlined critical steps that are necessary to strengthen the US supply chain
for essential products here. We look forward to working with this
administration and members of Congress to push legislation that will help bring
these critical supply chains onshore permanently.

NCTO is a Washington,
DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers,
including artificial and synthetic filament and fibre producers.