House Proposal for USICA Companion Gets Mixed Reviews

The America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521), House Democrats’ proposed companion to the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), got a mixed reception from lawmakers and tech sector entities Tuesday and Wednesday. The measure, like S-1260, includes $52 billion in subsidies to encourage U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing. The two measures diverge in other respects, including the size and scope of a potential National Science Foundation tech directorate. The House Rules Committee plans to consider amendments to HR-4521 next week before a floor vote, with proposals due Friday. President Joe Biden said the measure is “squarely focused on easing the sort of supply chain bottlenecks like semiconductors that have led to higher prices for the middle class.” HR-4521 “will supercharge our investment in” chips, “advance manufacturing at home, strengthen our supply chain, transform our research capacity and advance our competitiveness and leadership abroad,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calf. “These transformative investments in science and innovation will help us to revitalize our research infrastructure” and “enhance our semiconductor manufacturing capabilities,” said House Science Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas. House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said both HR-4521 and S-1260 would be “massive expansions of government subsidies and federal control,” which “are not how we beat China.” It’s “another attempt to outspend” the Chinese government “with duplicative, multi-billion-dollar command and control programs that will diminish our global competitiveness, fail to solve the supply chain crisis, and make inflation worse.” Chip funding “will help ensure more of the chips Americans need are researched, designed, and manufactured on U.S. soil, strengthening our supply chains and creating new, high-paying American jobs across the country,” said Semiconductor Industry Association President John Neuffer. The Computer & Communications Industry Association backs some elements of HR-4521 but the addition of “unrelated trademark liability provisions would impose impractical and punitive regulations upon ecommerce merchants and individual sellers using digital channels to succeed, at a time of economic disruption,” said President Matt Schruers. TechNet is “glad to see movement on” HR-4521 and is “encouraged by the commitment that leaders in the House and Senate have shown to advance this bill and invest in American innovation, increase opportunities for U.S. workers, and strengthen our global competitiveness,” said President Linda Moore.