President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that seeks to promote research and development investments in support of domestic manufacturing and U.S. jobs in critical industries.
The EO would modernize the use of iEdison, the government’s reporting system, to help the public, companies and researchers better understand the country’s innovation environment and require the Department of Commerce to come up with contract terms meant to help agencies gather data on inventions and their manufacturing sites, the White House said Friday.
The new policy would encourage agencies to factor domestic manufacturing in their R&D award solicitations and direct them to streamline the reporting requirements and transition such requirements to the iEdison portal by the end of 2025.
Under the new order, agencies are encouraged to consider adopting a range of authorities used to procure new technologies to support domestic production.
The White House policy would also streamline the U.S. manufacturing waiver process by encouraging agencies to acknowledge receipt of waiver applications within 10 business days and speed up waiver decisions.
It would also direct the Department of Commerce to create public guidance on how agencies should address waiver decisions as part of efforts to enhance the transparency of the waiver process.
