Industry | The US Senate managed a rare majority vote on a huge technology package to beat China

of the United States the Senate is famous for its sharp divisions, but on Wednesday the upper house of Congress approved by a clear majority a $280 billion industrial and technology package that will help the United States to compete with China.

It is about the administration’s most significant industrial policy policy for decades, he writes The New York Times.

With the package that supports technological and military development and innovation, the United States aims to strengthen its position against China in the geopolitical struggle.

The package aims to create new jobs in the United States and reduce the country’s dependence on the foreign semiconductor industry.

China’s outdoing both trade and military power is clearly a unifying factor among Americans, as the package was approved by a surprisingly wide majority of 64-33.

17 Republicans voted for the package.

The bill will next go to the lower house of Congress for a vote, where it is expected to pass with Republican support.

If everything goes smoothly, the president could Joe Biden get to sign the law already this week. Biden has supported the initiative for more than a year, NYT says.

Package offers $52 billion in subsidies and tax breaks to companies that make microchips in the United States.

About 200 billion dollars will be channeled into research, especially research into artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computers.

The US Department of Commerce is getting $10 billion to establish 20 regional technology centers around the country. The centers should bring together universities and private sector actors in the Silicon Valley model and create vitality in areas that have suffered from the consequences of globalization.

Billions of dollars are also directed to the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation for semiconductor manufacturing research and workforce development programs.

A package held by two senators, i.e. Democrats Chuck Schumer’s and Republicans by Todd Young as a joint achievement.

According to The New York Times, the successful passage of the multi-billion dollar package was influenced by the semiconductor shortage caused by the pandemic and the resulting market disruptions, strong lobbying by the microchip industry, Senator Young’s persuasion among Republicans, and Schumer’s advancement to the Senate majority leader.

Microchip manufacturers ruthlessly lobbied for the package, NYT writes. The companies threatened to build new factories in Germany and Singapore unless the industry receives more money from the administration to support domestic production.

In return, it was written into the law that the companies may not use the funds of the support package to expand factories located abroad or to build new factories abroad.

Senator Bernie Sanders however, reminded that the chip companies themselves initially took their business and jobs abroad, and now they collect a lot of money as a reward from the administration to fix the problems they caused themselves.

Usually Republicans oppose anything that increases government spending, but this particular package made many Republicans change their minds.

According to The New York Times, Senator Young and his supporters spent a lot of time convincing themselves that the package has significant dimensions in terms of increasing national security and regional vitality.