WASHINGTON – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) issued the following statement following Senate Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act:
“The CHIPS bill I supported today is essential to make our economy stronger and more resilient, safeguard our national security, and to provide new opportunities for American workers in the cutting-edge technologies of tomorrow. When the sorts of shortages and supply chain challenges that we’re seeing in semiconductors brings industries and businesses to a halt it’s the American consumers who suffer the consequences and our adversaries like China who have the last laugh. The CHIPS Act tackles a number of concerns that business groups and government agencies have shared for years, addresses domestic manufacturing bottlenecks, makes real investments in American workers and competitiveness, and will better position the U.S. in the global economy while helping reduce long-term inflation risks, ultimately providing much needed relief for American consumers. I’m especially proud this bill included my bipartisan, bicameral Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Supply Chain Database Act which will help prevent future supply chain disruptions.
“As we better position ourselves for competition with China, and take actions to help address inflation risks at home, Congress needs to compliment the CHIPS legislation by also taking action to pass my bipartisan Strategic Competition Act, which provides the long-term elements needed for a real China strategy. I had hoped that the Strategic Competition Act would have been included in a CHIPS package, but, unfortunately, Republican obstructionism made that impossible. The China challenge remains urgent, however, and I intend to continue to seek support for passage of my bill this year, and to reintroduce it in the new Congress if need be. My Republican friends say that competition with China represents a clear and present danger — and it does — so I hope they will stop standing in the way of bipartisan legislation that mobilizes all the tools in the U.S. strategic, economic, and diplomatic toolkit for an Indo-Pacific strategy that will allow our nation to fully confront the challenges China poses to our national and economic security.”
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