Senate approves sweeping bill to boost U.S. competitiveness with China and address critical semiconductor shortage.
The Senate on Tuesday approved a sweeping effort to fortify the nation’s ability to compete with China’s economic and political ambitions by investing billions of dollars in scientific research and American manufacturing across several industries, including artificial intelligence, robotics and wireless service.68 to 32, earmarks $52 billion to address the domestic manufacturing shortage of semiconductors, which has slowed the production of cars, laptops and video game consoles.
It also underscores how both political parties have come to view China’s threat as a vital national priority. “We have put ourselves in a very precarious position of potentially falling behind the rest of the world in the technologies and industries that will define the next century,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, hailing the bill as a chance to turn the tide.
By involving several different Senate committees, he hoped to give every senator a chance to get skin in the game. To that end, the bill ballooned to 2,400 pages and several extraneous measures made their way into the debate, including funding for NASA, a ban on the sale of some shark fins and labeling requirements for king crab important to Alaskans.
“The bill is not perfect,” said Sen. Roger Wicker . “There are elements that I can do without and there are parts that I wish were included, but on the whole, this is a necessary step to keep our nation competitive.”Sen. Bernie Sanders and others opposed a provision to fund $10 billion for NASA’s lunar landing program that appears likely to help Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company.
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