Biden Order Seeks Domestic Manufacturing of Federally Funded Inventions
President Biden looks at a piece of a quantum computer during a tour of an IBM facility in New York in 2022. Quantum information technology is among the areas he is prioritizing for domestic manufacturing though a new executive order.
(Adam Schultz / The White House)
President Biden issued an executive order on July 28 that aims to expand domestic manufacturing of technologies that are developed with federal R&D funds.
The order generally directs federal agencies to “consider domestic manufacturing in federal R&D funding agreement solicitations,” and it requires recipients of such funds to update the awarding agency on where any associated inventions are manufactured. In situations involving technologies deemed important to the U.S. economy and national security, agencies are directed to consider whether “exceptional circumstances” warrant expanding the standard domestic manufacturing requirements set by the Bayh-Dole Act.
A press release accompanying the order explains, “The Bayh-Dole domestic manufacturing requirement doesn’t apply to an organization with a non-exclusive license, federal funding awardees themselves, or an organization that takes an invention developed with U.S. federal funding to market to sell solely overseas. For critical and emerging technologies, agencies are encouraged to expand the domestic manufacturing requirement to not just exclusive licensees but other entities.”
The order echoes the Department of Energy’s move in 2021 to expand domestic manufacturing requirements for its grant recipients. Both Biden’s order and the DOE policy include procedures for waiving the domestic manufacturing requirement.
