IPC Applauds U.S. House Approval of Defense Policy Act With Pro-Electronics Provisions

The following is a statement by John Mitchell, IPC President and CEO, on today’s vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to approve the final version of the Fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA):

“On behalf of the electronics manufacturing industry, we applaud the House for including provisions in the FY21 NDAA that will bolster the security and resiliency of the U.S. defense electronics supply chain.

“Section 841 will require the U.S. Defense Department (DoD) to implement new sourcing requirements and restrictions on bare printed circuit boards (PCBs) and PCB assemblies (PCBAs). Specifically, the bill would:

• Ban the sourcing of defense electronics from China, North Korea, Iran and Russia;
• Direct DoD to engage a federally funded R&D center to examine the expansion of sourcing restrictions to commercial PCBs and assemblies; and
• Extend "trusted supplier" requirements for microelectronics to PCBs and PCBAs.  

“While we would have preferred the more comprehensive, affirmative approach to trusted suppliers embodied in the House- and Senate-passed versions of the NDAA, Section 841 is a strong step in the right direction, recommitting the U.S. Government to security and resiliency across the entire electronics value chain.

“Experts inside and outside of government have long recognized potential national security risks in PCBs and PCBAs that need to be remedied. This bill reflects the recommendations of many experts – including the DoD’s Executive Agent for PCBs – to redouble U.S. Government support for this long-neglected but critically important segment of the electronics manufacturing industry.

“Now we call on the Senate to approve the bill and on President Donald Trump to sign it into law without delay.”