Members of the Senate Commerce Committee have demonstrated an early bipartisan interest in continuing to promote U.S. supply chain resilience, highlighting an avenue for bipartisanship in the Trump Administration’s foreign policy agenda.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) has partnered with Democratic colleagues as an original cosponsor on the reintroduction of two pieces of legislation aimed at coordinating the U.S. government’s focus on supply chain resilience: the Strengthening Support for American Manufacturing Act (S. 99); and, the Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act(S. 257).

The Strengthening Support for American Manufacturing Act would require the Secretary of Commerce and the National Academy of Public Administration to produce a report on the effectiveness and management of the Department of Commerce’s various manufacturing support programs. Notably, the report is tasked with identifying relevant offices and bureaus within the Department of Commerce with responsibilities related to critical supply chain resilience, and manufacturing and industrial innovation, and make recommendations on improving their efficiency by identifying gaps and duplicative duties between offices.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), who introduced the Strengthening Support for American Manufacturing Act, explains the legislation is intended to streamline various manufacturing programs offered by the federal government. Specifically, in a press release associated with the bill, Sen. Peters highlights a 2017 report released by the Government Accountability Office that identified 58 manufacturing related programs across 11 different federal agencies that serve US manufacturing, several of which are managed by the Department of Commerce.

The Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act (the “PRSCA”) would establish a Supply Chain Resilience Working Group (the “Working Group”) comprised of federal agencies – including the Departments of Commerce, State, Defense, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, among others. Moreover, under the PRSCA, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Analysis would be required to designate “critical industries,” “critical supply chains,” and “critical goods,” and the Working Group would be charged with mapping, monitoring, and modeling U.S. capacity to mitigate vulnerabilities in these areas.

Notably, during the Commerce Committee’s January 29, 2025, hearing to consider the nomination of Howard Lutnick to become Secretary of Commerce, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware), the author of the PRSCA, asked Mr. Lutnick whether the Department of Commerce would maintain the agency’s supply chain mapping initiatives under his direction. Mr. Lutnick replied in the affirmative.

In discussing the merits of the PRSCA, Sen. Blackburn stated: “To achieve a strong, resilient, supply chain, we must have a coordinated, national strategy that decreases dependence on our adversaries, like Communist China, and leverages American ingenuity.” This claim is particularly relevant in the PRSCA’s promise to design and implement an “early warning supply chain disruption system” that would employ artificial intelligence and quantum computing to identify and mitigate potential supply chain shocks. As a crisis response measure, the platform would locate alternative sourcing options for supply chains under imminent threat and press private sector to shift their supply chains toward “countries that are allies or key international partners” of the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emphasized that the Trump Administration’s foreign policy program will prioritize “relocating [U.S.] critical supply chains closer to the Western Hemisphere,” namely in Latin American countries, as a means to enhance “neighbors’ economic growth and safeguard Americans’ own economic security.”

Sen. Blackburn’s willingness to support these Democratic pieces of legislation reflects an increasing bipartisan sense that the impacts of recent geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fragility of U.S. supply chains. Additionally, the PRSCA has been endorsed by the private sector, including the Information Technology Industry Council, the National Association of Electrical Distributor, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and the Supply Chain Resiliency Consumer Brands Association.

It remains uncertain whether either the PRSCA or Strengthening Support for American Manufacturing Act can advance this Congress as standalone bills, as the Trump Administration’s tariff and foreign assistance actions deepen partisan trends. Still, the bills’ emphasis on government efficiency, prioritizing American manufacturing, and near-shoring may be able to leverage Trump Administration “America First” and “Department of Government Efficiency” themes to ride momentum into FY 2026 annual appropriations legislation under a national security title. Accordingly, importers interested in the U.S. market would likely benefit from reviewing their supply chains with a long view that seeks to leverage opportunities to reinvest in American manufacturing and looks to near shore material supply chains, particularly in the Western Hemisphere – where the Trump Administration has underscored its interests in boxing out Chinese investment.