Developing the U.S. government's national strategy for securing the global supply chain has bogged down in the White House's National Security Council, where it has been under review since at least early April, a Department of Homeland Security official told industry members in Los Angeles recently.
Congress several years ago instructed DHS to develop a global supply chain security strategy, but the Obama administration expanded the effort's reach to encompass the entire government and how it should strive to enhance the security of cross-border freight transportation across all modes.
The goal is to have a holistic approach for preventing, mitigating and responding to supply chain disruptions from man-made causes such as terrorism or natural disasters. The completed document will guide the government's interaction with the private sector and foreign governments, and how it allocates resources in the budget.
Supporting plans for various aspects of the global supply chain security strategy are reported to be getting a final scrub by two panels of maritime and trans-border security experts at the NSC, said Ellen McClain, assistant general counsel for enforcement in the Office of Policy.
Once the entire package of policy documents has been reviewed and revised it will be sent back to agencies for their final two-week review, and then go through a couple of White House clearances before it is submitted to President Obama.
