Patrick Leahy: “today, in a bipartisan vote, the Senate advanced important legislation to increase our Nation's competitiveness with…”

“today, in a bipartisan vote, the Senate advanced important legislation to increase our Nation's competitiveness with China. The United States Innovation and Competition Act, USICA, of 2021 is significant legislation and an example of what process and debate can yield in the U.S. Senate. This legislative package is the end result of the bipartisan work of from multiple Senate committees and reflects the urgency of addressing the challenges faced by domestic manufacturers and American researchers in our global competition with China. This includes an emergency appropriation of $54 billion in funding for grants to make semiconductor chips here in America and for the continuation of chip production in Essex, VT. The package also allocates $1.5 billion in funding for implementation and domestic research and development, R&D of 5G technology to ensure that the United States drives the modernization of its own communications infrastructure. The bill significantly raises authorization levels by almost $120 billion over 5 years for the National Science Foundation, NSF, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Energy, DOE. These historic investments in American ingenuity will help strengthen our country's R&D capabilities, regional economic development opportunities, manufacturing capacity, and supply chain resiliency.…”