Tag Archives: Endless Frontier Act

U.S. lawmakers back $100 billion science push to compete with China

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation calling for $100 billion in government spending over five years on basic and advanced technology research and science in the face of rising competitive pressure from China.

The measure, sponsored by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Republican Senator Todd Young and others, would also authorize another $10 billion to designate at least 10 regional technology hubs and create a supply chain crisis response program.

The bill, called the “Endless Frontier Act,” represents a significant effort by the government to shore up private sector and university research efforts in advanced technologies with federal funding.

“There is a bipartisan consensus that the United States must invest in the technologies of the future to out-compete China,” Schumer said, adding “whichever nation develops new technologies first – be they democratic or authoritarian – will set the terms for their use.”

Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, another sponsor, said U.S. superiority in science and technology “is at risk. The Chinese Communist Party has used decades of intellectual property theft and industrial espionage to close this technological gap in a way that threatens not only our economic security, but also our way of life.”

The Senate Commerce Committee is expected to mark up the bill next week as Schumer looks to fast-track approval.

Schumer said separately he will push for “emergency spending” to implement the semiconductor manufacturing provisions in last year’s defense bill.

In February, President Joe Biden said he would seek $37 billion in funding for legislation to boost chip manufacturing in the United States as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production.

Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure and jobs bill calls for $50 billion for semiconductor manufacturing and research.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation called the bill a “seminal piece of legislation taking definitive steps to restore American competitiveness in 10 key advanced-technology industries of the future, such as biotech, clean energy, and semiconductors.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Sonya Hepinstall)

U.S. Senate moves ahead with sweeping effort to counter China

By Patricia Zengerle and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a meeting on April 14 to consider major bipartisan legislation to boost the country’s ability to push back against China’s expanding global influence, Senate sources said on Thursday.

The draft measure, seen by Reuters and titled the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, mandates a range of diplomatic and strategic initiatives to counteract Beijing, reflecting hardline sentiment on dealings with China from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

The bill is intended to address economic competition with China, but also humanitarian and democratic values, such as the treatment of the minority Muslim Uighurs, suppression of dissent in Hong Kong and aggression in the South China Sea.

It stressed the need to “prioritize the military investments necessary to achieve United States political objectives in the Indo-Pacific.” It called for spending to do so, saying Congress must ensure the federal budget is “properly aligned” with the strategic imperative to compete with China.

It calls for an enhanced partnership with Taiwan, calling the democratic self-governed island “a vital part of the United States Indo-Pacific strategy” and saying there should be no restrictions on the ability of U.S. officials to interact with Taiwanese counterparts. China considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province.

The bill also says Washington must encourage allies to do more to check Beijing’s “aggressive and assertive behavior.” And it calls on every federal department and agency to designate a senior official to coordinate policies with respect to strategic competition with China.

“The United States must ensure that all Federal departments and agencies are organized to reflect the fact that strategic competition with the PRC is the United States top foreign policy priority,” the draft said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

Another clause would limit assistance to countries hosting Chinese military installations, saying Beijing uses its so-called Belt and Road Initiative to advance its security interests and facilitate greater military access.

Introduced by Senators Bob Menendez, the committee’s Democratic chairman, and Jim Risch, its ranking Republican, the draft bill is 283 pages long. It was released to committee members overnight to allow a markup, a meeting during which the panel will discuss amendments and vote, in a week.

The measure is the Foreign Relations panel’s contribution to a fast-track effort in the Senate announced in February by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to write legislation to counter China.

The effort is supported by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

The Senate Commerce Committee announced on Wednesday that it would hold a hearing on April 14 on its bipartisan measure to bolster U.S. technology. That bill, titled the Endless Frontier Act, was first proposed in 2020 and calls for $110 billion over five years to advance U.S. technology efforts.

Separately on Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department said it was adding seven Chinese supercomputing entities to an economic blacklist for assisting China’s military.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jonathan Oatis)