Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is threatening to derail a bill designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States if Democrats revive their stalled climate and social policy package.
The possible rejuvenation of the reconciliation package remains a work in progress and is far from certain. But McConnell seems worried enough that he decided to complicate Democratic lawmakers' efforts to get a semiconductor bill over the finish line before members break for their August recess. The White House says McConnell is"holding hostage" a bipartisan package that would lower the cost of countless products that rely on semiconductors.
“Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill,” McConnell tweeted, referring to the shorthand name for the computer chips bill that passed the Senate last year.Statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Sen.
The Republican Senate leader is holding hostage a bipartisan package to strengthen American competitiveness versus China, that would yield hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in places like Southern Ohio, Idaho, and other states around the country. It would lower the cost of countless products, and end our reliance on imports. Why? To protect the ability of big pharmaceutical companies to price gouge. Senate Republicans are literally choosing to help China out compete the U.S.
We really need to bring chip manufacturing to the US. We are entirely too dependent on chips from other countries that are making them according to our designs and innovation.
McConnell needs to go.