You can literally make all the components of all these drugs in China.

You can ship them in a barrel to some plant in New Jersey,

mix it, compound it, package and label it, and say, made in the USA,

and then sell it to the Department of Defense.

Now that's the number one thing I would ask a Congress and the President

to fix that loophole through legislation.

They can fix that in the

NDAA like a week from now if they were really serious about it.

As part of our special series on the U.S. presidential transition period, I'm sitting down

with Victor Suarez, a retired U.S. Army colonel who served for 27 years and saw

firsthand serious problems with America's medical supply chains. In this episode, he breaks down

key steps America can take to secure its vital medicines. This is American Thought Leaders,

and I'm Yanya Kellick. Victor Suarez, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Thank you for having me.

Let's talk about supply chains, specifically supply chains that are coming from overseas.

More specifically, supply chains that have a national security implication.

What is the state of play here?

I think, well, when you look at the state of play from a national security standpoint,

I would say over the last 20 to 30 years, we've shifted with globalization a lot of our

critical supply chains to make very important products

in the United States, whether it's automobiles, whether it's electronics, whether it's

our pharmaceuticals, have shifted primarily over to Asia over the last 30 years, primarily

...