Executive branch official warns U.S. industrial decline is a national security risk

Bernie Moreno, an executive branch official and guest speaker at an American Compass event, said declining U.S. industrial capacity and concentrated foreign supply chains have become a strategic vulnerability that must be corrected.

Moreno said the loss of domestic manufacturing and processing for critical materials and pharmaceuticals limits America’s ability to act abroad and undermines long-term economic resilience. "Industrial capacity mattered in terms of national security, and that's never changed," he said.

Why it matters: Moreno argued that decades of policy decisions that prioritized global efficiency over domestic industrial capacity left the United States dependent on foreign producers for key parts and materials. He…