For their part, Senate Republicans have mostly stuck to the Trump-era’s tough-on-China approach even if it means a higher price tag or a more-involved federal government.
The largest part of the mammoth piece of the legislation is a proposal previously known as the “Endless Frontier Act.”
Now an amendment, that provision from Schumer and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., would give new life to the National Science Foundation, appropriate $81 billion for the NSF between fiscal 2022 and 2026, and establish a Directorate for Technology and Innovation.
“Today, our leadership is being challenged by a state capitalist regime in Beijing that threatens to win the next century by dominating the critical technologies that are bound to shape it,” Young wrote in a May op-ed published by the Ripon Forum, a Republican opinion journal.
“It is time for the United States to go on offense by passing the bipartisan Endless Frontier Act, which would solidify U.S. leadership in scientific and technological innovation through increased investments in the discovery, creation, and manufacturing of technology critical to national security and economic competitiveness,” he added.
Even conservative Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has voiced support for the bill. His bipartisan CHIPS for America Act has since been folded into the broader bill and would appropriate about $50 billion to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
“The reality is despite the back and forth on process and some political snipping, the Senate has put together a very comprehensive piece of legislation,” Dewardric McNeal, who was a Pentagon policy analyst during the Obama era, told CNBC.
“Some of the biggest questions that many China experts had about this legislation was whether or not it would focus on ‘running faster than China,’ by investing more in ways to stay ahead and beat China technologically, or would it focus more on blocking China’s advancement and tackling China if it does get too far ahead by using legal and regulatory measures,” he added. “It appear as though the Senate has tried to do a little bit of both.”
The bill would fund a grant program managed by the Commerce Department that would, to an unspecified extent, match financial incentives offered by states and local governments to chipmakers who improve upon or build new factories.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/08/senate-takes-on-china-with-bipartisan-manufacturing-bill.html