Policymakers Address Supply Chain Disruption
How the federal government is approaching evolving supply chain challenges through new legislation and increased scrutiny.
T
he past few months for American businesses have been a remarkable
demonstration of resiliency and progress, and an unfortunate reminder that while some challenges subside, others grow. The MetLife & U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index for the year’s second quarter produced a score of 66.8, which is the highest since the pandemic began. Conditions seem to be improving and now only 15 percent of small businesses believe that COVID-19 is a top challenge, according to the Index, making it just the third biggest obstacle that small businesses face.
While that may serve as an encouraging indicator that these are the waning days of the pandemic, it also means that two other factors are now even more of a concern. Forty-four percent of small businesses call infl ation their biggest challenge and 28 percent cite supply chain issues. A variety of recently passed and pending pieces of legislation purport to target those two issues. But
By Ethan Gibble Contributing Writer 16 FEDA News & Views
businesses are wondering how effective those solutions will be and whether they will create new obstacles to recovery.
Infl ation Reduction Act The Infl ation Reduction Act
(IRA) was signed into law on August 16. The bill seeks transformative changes to the
nation’s healthcare industry and clean energy pursuits but, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Offi ce, any impact on infl ation won’t be signifi cant or quick. The CBO assessed that the bill will have a “negligible” effect in 2022 and could decrease or even increase infl ation by 0.1 percent in 2023. One section of the IRA aims to strengthen the supply chain by establishing a grant program for projects located in the United States. One of the factors that will be used to determine which projects are awarded grants will be “the capacity to create new jobs and develop supply chain partnerships in the United States.” Those incentives won’t fi x the problem on their own,
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