The Fort Worth Press - US lawmakers advance China competition bill

USD -
AED 3.673051
AFN 67.000198
ALL 92.450129
AMD 386.974854
ANG 1.802123
AOA 912.000177
ARS 1000.362898
AUD 1.543841
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.691881
BAM 1.857325
BBD 2.01886
BDT 119.48491
BGN 1.852673
BHD 0.37685
BIF 2897.5
BMD 1
BND 1.345641
BOB 6.908832
BRL 5.782302
BSD 0.999886
BTN 84.392794
BWP 13.725155
BYN 3.272208
BYR 19600
BZD 2.01548
CAD 1.402975
CDF 2866.000089
CHF 0.88797
CLF 0.035343
CLP 975.229905
CNY 7.230299
CNH 7.244025
COP 4483.25
CRC 510.721544
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.903343
CZK 23.953046
DJF 177.720183
DKK 7.06422
DOP 60.450092
DZD 133.619613
EGP 49.468904
ERN 15
ETB 122.050129
EUR 0.94716
FJD 2.275017
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.78725
GEL 2.724958
GGP 0.789317
GHS 16.049785
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000218
GNF 8630.99963
GTQ 7.721894
GYD 209.184836
HKD 7.781925
HNL 25.060355
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.382772
HUF 384.7675
IDR 15929.25
ILS 3.74008
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.46215
IQD 1310.5
IRR 42105.000021
ISK 137.989828
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.287592
JOD 0.709103
JPY 155.788976
KES 129.506089
KGS 86.376501
KHR 4051.000265
KMF 466.495264
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1403.499466
KWD 0.30742
KYD 0.833207
KZT 495.71708
LAK 21944.999806
LBP 89600.000301
LKR 292.121707
LRD 184.097004
LSL 18.249887
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.870249
MAD 9.958049
MDL 18.112322
MGA 4655.000126
MKD 58.237769
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.01546
MRU 39.874993
MUR 47.190157
MVR 15.449695
MWK 1735.99992
MXN 20.46769
MYR 4.480502
MZN 63.901556
NAD 18.250431
NGN 1679.859944
NIO 36.779633
NOK 11.10269
NPR 135.033904
NZD 1.702273
OMR 0.385021
PAB 0.999905
PEN 3.804497
PGK 3.93475
PHP 58.856502
PKR 278.04999
PLN 4.095903
PYG 7808.968491
QAR 3.64055
RON 4.712597
RSD 110.634002
RUB 99.304003
RWF 1365
SAR 3.755981
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.598198
SDG 601.498491
SEK 10.956202
SGD 1.343095
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.680291
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.504424
SRD 35.3565
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.749122
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.249753
THB 34.870301
TJS 10.658475
TMT 3.51
TND 3.151967
TOP 2.342098
TRY 34.327599
TTD 6.789045
TWD 32.579498
TZS 2660.000424
UAH 41.219825
UGX 3669.445974
UYU 42.477826
UZS 12824.999812
VES 44.994212
VND 25400
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.917458
XAG 0.032786
XAU 0.000389
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.753255
XOF 616.501263
XPF 113.349704
YER 249.849944
ZAR 18.199145
ZMK 9001.199107
ZMW 27.421652
ZWL 321.999592
  • RIO

    -0.1500

    60.47

    -0.25%

  • CMSC

    0.0490

    24.659

    +0.2%

  • BTI

    0.2100

    35.63

    +0.59%

  • SCS

    -0.1650

    13.205

    -1.25%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    24.71

    -0.08%

  • BCC

    -2.5200

    140.03

    -1.8%

  • BCE

    -0.2700

    26.94

    -1%

  • NGG

    0.5900

    62.71

    +0.94%

  • RBGPF

    -0.9400

    59.25

    -1.59%

  • JRI

    -0.0100

    13.23

    -0.08%

  • RYCEF

    -0.2300

    6.88

    -3.34%

  • BP

    0.4600

    29.03

    +1.58%

  • GSK

    -0.0150

    35.095

    -0.04%

  • AZN

    0.6000

    65.89

    +0.91%

  • VOD

    -0.0250

    8.725

    -0.29%

  • RELX

    0.0450

    46.165

    +0.1%

US lawmakers advance China competition bill
US lawmakers advance China competition bill

US lawmakers advance China competition bill

US lawmakers voted Friday to greenlight a multibillion-dollar bill aimed at jumpstarting high-tech research and manufacturing, countering China's growing influence and easing a global shortage of computer chips.

Text size:

The House Democrats' America Competes bill, their version of the Senate-passed $250-billion US Innovation and Competition Act, was approved in a 222-210 vote in the lower chamber.

The legislative push came after the US Commerce Department warned that companies have an average of less than five days' worth of semiconductor chips on hand, leaving them vulnerable to shutdowns.

President Joe Biden wants to invest $52 billion in domestic research and production and, after sitting on the bill since it passed the Senate on cross-party vote in June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently listed the $350-billion package as a top priority.

"We're positioning the US interest in values to win on the world stage, holding the People's Republic of China accountable for using slave labor, which is a human rights issue and hurts US workers," Pelosi told reporters.

"More American goods made here at home lowers costs and strengthens supply chains for Americans and ensures that America, not the People's Republic of China, writes the rules of the road for the 21st century."

The package would mark a win that Biden would love to be able to trumpet at his State of the Union address on March 1, although it will now need to be reconciled with the Senate version, which could take several weeks.

- 'Predatory trade' -

The White House sees the initiative as the main legislative tool to combat China's growing prowess.

Senior administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, had been pushing the House behind the scenes to move it quickly.

The 2,900-page House version has been controversial, however, as it includes proposals that are unpopular with Republicans and didn't appear in the Senate text. Only one of their members, Adam Kinzinger, voted with the Democrats.

House Republicans complain that much of the legislation was developed behind closed doors, without public hearings or consultations, and with no committee process.

They say it is weak on China, overly focused on unrelated issues like climate change, human rights and social inequality, and stuffed with Democrat-sponsored trade provisions they reject.

"This partisan bill does nothing to hold China accountable for its predatory trade practices, enforce President (Donald) Trump's historic agreement to stop China's cheating on trade, or counter China's trade aggression around the world," Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement.

He accused Biden of being "content to sit on the sidelines" while foreign countries block US farmers and businesspeople from competing on a level playing field.

- '3,000-page giveaway' -

"Democrats have jammed this nearly 3,000-page giveaway with billions of dollars of new trade assistance welfare and lavish health care subsidies that discourage the jobless from connecting to work," Brady added.

"They hold the world's poorest countries hostage to Green New Deal demands, and make it harder for American manufacturers to qualify for lower tariffs on products needed to compete and win, both here and abroad."

Democrats didn't need House Republican support to pass the bill, but the opposition's emphatic rejection complicates its passage to Biden's desk.

It is destined for a "conference committee" to marry the bills from both chambers, with Senate Republicans especially influential since at least 10 of them will be needed to advance it from the upper chamber.

Republican Todd Young, the senior senator for Indiana, told reporters on Thursday he and his colleagues would send House Republicans "a much better option to vote on in the next couple of months."

"If instead the House had taken an approach using regular order, as we did in the Senate, with fulsome opportunity for bipartisan input, they'd have a better work product and they would have earned a lot of Republican votes," he said.

X.Silva--TFWP