Endless Frontier Act--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, we have a real opportunity to revitalize American manufacturing and harness American leadership in scientific and technological advancement. Today I urge my colleagues to support critical, bipartisan legislation that will do just that.

The United States Innovation and Competition Act will help keep our country on the cutting edge of technology, strengthen American competitiveness on a global stage, and protect our national security.

International competitors like the Chinese Government are aggressively investing in manufacturing, science, and technology in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage over the United States, and we cannot let that happen. In order to maintain our edge, we must make serious investments in domestic research and development, technology, and manufacturing.

We know that a strong manufacturing sector is the backbone of any economy. I have long believed that you cannot be a great country if you don't make things. This bill contains a number of provisions to help revitalize and strengthen American manufacturing.

A provision in this bill that Senator Stabenow and I led will provide $2 billion in new funding for the domestic production of mature semiconductor technologies that are absolutely critical to the automotive industry and other manufacturers all across our country. This provision is essential because our reliance on overseas semiconductor manufacturing is a threat to our economy and to our national security.

We are currently experiencing a semiconductor shortage that is causing massive supply chain disruptions and has idled plants in Michigan and other States across our country, forcing auto manufacturers to shut down factories and lay off workers. This is a completely unacceptable situation, and we must immediately work to address this challenge.

Boosting manufacturing in Michigan and across the Nation requires a comprehensive Federal strategy to help companies grow our domestic manufacturing base. That is why I authored a provision in this legislation to reactivate the Manufacturing Advisory Council and worked to increase funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, a program that helps small- and medium-sized manufacturers grow their companies and create jobs. Together, these policies will help strengthen our manufacturing sector, advance our economic competitiveness, and create good-paying jobs.

The United States Innovation and Competition Act also helps ensure that when we are spending American taxpayer dollars, we are investing in American manufacturers and creating American jobs.

As chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I was proud of our committee's efforts to include several bipartisan provisions in this package that will strengthen ``Buy American'' requirements. These provisions, including one based on a bill Senator Stabenow and I introduced, will ensure that American taxpayer dollars are being used to buy American-made products and close loopholes that have allowed the use of Chinese- and Russian-made steel rather than using U.S. steel. Growing good-paying jobs in America must always be our focus, and passing this bill will do just that.

This package also includes a provision to secure our supply chain and address the serious national security risks posed by our overreliance on companies in China and other countries for medical supplies.

During the pandemic, we saw firsthand how our country's overreliance on foreign manufacturers for critical supplies, such as personal protective equipment, left us unprepared to combat the pandemic and cost American lives.

This bill takes important steps to address that, thanks to a provision I worked on with Senator Portman to encourage investments that will expand domestic production of personal protective equipment here in the United States.

These provisions and so many more will help us unleash American innovation, lock in our competitive advantage, and grow our economy, but that alone is not enough. We must also protect our advantage. That is why our committee worked to include critical provisions in this legislation to strengthen cyber security and protect against increasingly sophisticated efforts by adversarial governments and criminal organizations to steal our research and intellectual property.

Cyber attacks pose a significant threat to our national security, and cyber attacks have significant real-world consequences. We saw this with the recent Colonial Pipeline attack. This bill includes provisions I authored to strengthen the Federal Government's capabilities to prevent and respond to a significant cyber incident, creates a fund that can help entities recover from serious breaches, and strengthens our Federal cyber workforce, therefore ensuring our workers have the skills and knowledge to build a competitive advantage and secure our networks from these attacks.

From spurring advancements in artificial intelligence to securing taxpayer-funded research and intellectual property from adversaries who try to steal it, this legislation takes significant steps to help ensure American companies and workers will continue to lead the way in developing the technologies and economy of the future.

The process we followed to write this legislation shows that when we work together in a bipartisan manner, we can tackle the biggest challenges facing our Nation. I am grateful to my colleagues for all of their hard work, and I look forward to continuing to partner with our House counterparts to get these important provisions signed into law.

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