John Cornyn: “we have begun the long-awaited process of moving forward on legislation that will bolster our domestic semiconductor…”

“we have begun the long-awaited process of moving forward on legislation that will bolster our domestic semiconductor manufacturing and confront the growing threats posed by China. This legislation has had many different names over the last year or so. We started with the Endless Frontier Act in the Senate. Then, miraculously, it became the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, affectionately known as USICA. And then it became the Make it in America Act. But now it has a new name, the Bipartisan Innovation Act. Well, regardless of what you call it, it is absolutely critical that we get a strong version of this legislation to the President's desk as soon as we can. The Senate passed the original legislation last summer with significant bipartisan support. We urged our colleagues in the House to treat this legislation with the sense of urgency that it deserved, but they wasted months with no action. To be charitable, I guess they were preoccupied with other matters. But it wasn't until last month, just ahead of the President's State of the Union, that they finally leapt into action. The President, of course, wanted to talk about this legislation in his speech. So House Democrats had to cobble together a bill in short order. Unfortunately, it was a highly partisan one. Their bill passed almost entirely along party lines, and now, the two Chambers--the House and the Senate--have a critical task ahead of us to reconcile those two versions.…”