The Senate passed one of the largest industrial bills titled the US Innovation and Competition Act or USICA, in the US history on Tuesday to counter overseas competition, especially the growing threat from China. The bill invests billions into emerging technologies like AI, semiconductor and quantum computing in the US.
The bill passed the chamber 68-32 and it commits roughly $250 billion in funding for scientific research, subsidies for chipmakers and robot makers, and an overhaul of the National Science Foundation, including $50 billion in making of semiconductors. The legislation also includes $2 billion in specific investments in older generation semiconductors used in auto-making.
The bill builds off a previous proposal from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Endless Frontier Act, which was lauded as the first big bipartisan bills to come from the Biden administration.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Schumer said, ‘Whoever wins the race to the technologies of the future will be the global economic leader. We must invest in science, R&D, manufacturing, and innovation.”
The bill also likely represents one of the last major bipartisan initiatives of 2021.
The world is facing a semiconductor crisis since the dawn of the pandemic. Advocates say that failure to expand the nation’s semiconductor production, or reroute rare earths supply chains could leave the country at a strategic disadvantage in the years ahead.
Speaking at the Senate floor on Tuesday evening, Schumer said, “Passing the bill is the moment when the Senate lays the foundation for another century of American leadership. Around the globe, authoritarian governments believe that squabbling democracies like ours can’t unite around national priorities.” He added that he believed this legislation will enable he US to out-innovate, out-produce, and out-compete the world in the industries of the future.”
Praising the bill, Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb, said in a press statement, “As a China hawk and a fiscal hawk, I would have liked for this bill to take a more focused and aggressive approach to the China threat – but this is a strong start. The Chinese Communist Party is working overtime on cyber, AI and machine learning so that they can become the world’s preeminent super power. We can’t let our foot off the gas.”
Applauding the bill’s passage, Biden said in a statement, “It is long past time we invest in American workers and American innovation. We are in a competition to win the 21st century, and the starting gun has gone off. As other countries continue to invest in their own research and development, we cannot risk falling behind.”
The bill still needs to move through the House before President Biden can sign it into law, however it is still unclear how long that will take or if the bill will change further.
