Bipartisanship Lives—Thanks to China

Today on TAP: Schumer moves to add a major technology bill to the must-pass defense authorization.

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Bipartisanship may be dead when it comes to building back better, but it may be alive and well when it comes to resisting China and rebuilding U.S. supply chains and domestic industry. Last June, the Senate passed the bipartisan United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) by a filibuster-proof vote of 68-32.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cobbled together the bill working with the Democratic chairs of key Senate committees and their Republican counterparts. Among other provisions, the $200 billon legislation includes $52.7 billion to restore U.S. domestic leadership in semiconductors, addresses the supply chain crisis in other respects, and creates a Directorate of Technology and Innovation at the National Science Foundation funded at $81 billion.

USICA also cracks down on a variety of predatory trade and intellectual-property practices on the part of China, and adds sanctions for human rights abuses. This is the first major legislation to take seriously the threat of China’s authoritarian state capitalism with a proportional response.

The bill has been bottled up in the House. But last night, in a “Dear Colleague” letter that was released to the press, discussing legislative plans for the coming months, Schumer announced a shrewd tactical ploy. He will seek to tack USICA onto the must-pass annual National Defense Authorization Act. “I have had a number of conversations with Senators on both sides of the aisle and there seems to be fairly broad support for doing so,” he wrote.

Good for Schumer. Reviving U.S. manufacturing and supply chains is surely a national-security issue. If we can’t get all of Build Back Better, we can at least get some of the crucial industrial-policy provisions. The Republicans are obstructionist on almost everything—but leave it to China’s President Xi Jinping to bring the parties together.

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