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this Senate By advancing a long-delayed bill to encourage the US production of microprocessor chips to better compete with China, it is poised to push the law forward and embark on a tough round of negotiations with China. House.
President Biden has pressured Congress to quickly pass comprehensive legislation, but there are key differences between them. House and Senate versions.
this Senate version of the US$250 billion Innovation and Competition Act. this House The equivalent is the $335 billion US COMPETITION Act.
After months of pauses, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer set up the vote to convert the bill into a bicameral conference committee to begin reconciling the two bills.
“This law has been under scrutiny and debate for over a year,” said Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat. Senate floor Tuesday. “But the need to pass this bill really boils down to two simple words: JOBS, WORKS AND COSTS.”
Both House and Senate versions include a $52 billion boost for semiconductor manufacturing to combat a chip shortage.
“There’s nothing abstract about the chip shortage,” said Mr. Schumer. “It affects Americans’ ability to buy cars, refrigerators, phones, and other household items. By passing bipartisan legislation investing in domestic chip manufacturing, we can help alleviate this vexing chip crisis.”
this Senate The version first passed in June with the support of 18 Republicans and 50 Democrats.
However, about 3,000 pages House The release also includes a jumble of spending, including $8 billion to help developing countries address climate change, financing to make the U.S. less reliant on Chinese solar technology, and $45 billion to support U.S. supply chains.
House Republicans have criticized the bill, which passed 210-by-222 last month, as a “foreign policy failure” that diverts taxpayer dollars into an “irresponsible UN slush fund” without China addressing threats to U.S. national security.
House Republicans also expressed disappointment with the process, saying they stepped aside as the Democrats wrote the bill.
Senator Todd Young, an Indiana Republican working on the Senate version, said he was determined to make the final bill more palatable to Republicans.
The bill is a priority for Democrats and its passage will be a huge win for Mr. Biden, who has been hampered by a string of legislative defeats.
Mr. Biden has also struggled to resolve a global supply chain that has been disrupted by shipping delays and backlog workloads. And the US has pulled out of semiconductor production by overseas manufacturers in recent years.
On Monday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urged lawmakers to quickly pass the bill through Congress.
“The situation with semiconductors is pretty dire,” Ms. Raimondo said during a meeting with senators from both sides.
Ms Raimondo called on former Trump administration officials to help influence lawmakers, including former national security adviser HR McMaster.
During the meeting, Mr. Young said that he welcomes the start of formal negotiations between the two countries. House and Senate but he wanted an open process “consistent with input from all my colleagues and what we call normal order here”.
“I know that the vote will not be unanimous and that both parties and members of both parties must make principled concessions, principled concessions to reach an agreement,” he said. “This is what happens when you approach a negotiating table. But America and the world will be better off with a bipartisan, widely supported end product.”
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