20 ms·

America COMPETES Act of 2022 passed House and Senate

86 points by huy-nguyen 5y ago

vsskanth 5y ago
There seems to be very little reporting on this from immigration reporters on Twitter considering the impact of some of the provisions for legal immigration. I guess they expect the immigration stuff to be thrown out in reconciliation since the senate version didn't seem to have them.
hwbehrens 5y ago
In case you are wondering what this does (like I was), Wikipedia states "This bill is designed to solve [American dependence on China] by reducing reliance on Chinese manufacturing of semiconductors and increasing America's scientific and technological achievements." Basically, it allocates a bunch of money for supply chain and production improvements.
- twoquestions 5y ago
  Thank you for the tldr.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- newshorts 5y ago
  That would be amazing.
  - killjoywashere 5y ago
    Keep in mind that China will not stop being a problem, it just moves it around. The CCP will have more people in the US with family back in China, so they can manipulate those in the US to steal and spy for them. They will grow the presence of CSSAs and universities will become increasingly dependent on income from fulltime Chinese students, which will paradoxically disincentivize US universities from educating US students. One needs only look at the UC system to see this is true (they're not shy about it, plenty of details here https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-...). I'm not saying the COMPETES Act is good or bad, just that it's going to reshape the China problem a bit. And for those itching to downvote me: the Chinese people are fine folks. the CCP is a helluva problem.
    - ceeplusplus 5y ago
      Ah yes, because every PhD immigrant that comes to the US must be a CCP agent. Why don't we just dispense with the thin veil you're trying to hide your racism behind?
      - kelnos 5y ago
        I think this is a bit of an extreme response. I don't think the parent was suggesting that every Chinese PhD student in the US (or even a majority of them) is a CCP agent, just that it does happen, and the more Chinese PhD students who end up in the US, it's likely that more of them will be beholden to the CCP in some way. I think your framing as "agents" is a bit sensationalized. You're evoking images of these highly-trained spies willing to do anything to steal for their country. My expectation is that most folks are just regular-Joe type people who just want a good education, but are pressured by their government to pass back certain kinds of information (with under-specified by scary consequences for their family if they don't comply). I have a lot of sympathy for the people who get caught up in this situation. They're people who are trapped in a way that requires them to pay a higher (moral) price to obtain a good education. I'm not sure I'd have the strength to behave any differently if I were in their shoes. (Also consider that the US's industrialization was fueled by plenty of academic and industrial espionage. That doesn't make what goes on today ok, but let's not pretend our historical hands are clean.)
      - someguydave 5y ago
        America is many times less racist than China is. I think it is proper to debate the degree to which allowing Chinese citizens to immigrate helps or hurts America.
    - eli_gottlieb 5y ago
      >universities will become increasingly dependent on income from fulltime Chinese students I mean, sure, because Americans keep voting to defund public higher ed.
- lumost 5y ago
  Does government allocation of funds make a difference when competing with China? It would seem that the Chinese government would simply match/re-up the industrial policy to be more competitive. If we're concerned about over reliance on Chinese manufacture, why not create a tariff?
  - cherioo 5y ago
    Tariff may help US company to buy US product, but it won’t encourage anyone else to buy potentially uncompetitive US product. At some point, we need to increase product competitiveness, which ultimately benefits everyone. That or sanction china so they can’t build competitive product, like Huawei.
    - paxys 5y ago
      And in this case there is no US product to buy. US semiconductor manufacturing simply cannot compete on the global stage, hence the need for this investment.
    - beaconstudios 5y ago
      the US can't compete with China's artificial suppression of the Yuan price to help export prices, or the high levels of exploitation and lack of rights & regulations to benefit Chinese workers.
      - sudosysgen 5y ago
        Of course, it can. The solution would be to depress the USD. It's just that the US decided it is more profitable to extract value by holding the reserve currency.
        beaconstudios 5y ago
        the US government isn't in control of the dollar rate - the central bank is private.
- jeffbee 5y ago
  Imagine using government money to fund Intel, AMD, Micron, Apple, etc with combined capitalization over 4 trillion dollars. Instead they should be levying massive windfall taxes on these companies' overseas cash hoards, and using those revenues to fund onshore semiconductor startups.
  - bradlys 5y ago
    Aren’t fabs and all that like multi-billion dollar projects? How does one realistically become a startup in that space when the capital to start is so intensive? (At least these days - idk about back in the past)
    - polski-g 5y ago
      Tax Intel to fund semiconductor startups.
    - jeffbee 5y ago
      You are under-estimating how much cash these American companies are holding.
      - bradlys 5y ago
        I’m not but this is basically wealth redistribution taken quite far. You may as well be advocating for full on Marxism at that level. Which is fine. But just know your audience? (A hyper capitalistic startup crowd???)
  - duped 5y ago
    The US government has been funding semiconductor manufacturing since Fairchild, which spawned two of the companies you listed. Overseas cash reserves are a separate issue that can be fixed by removing the corporate tax. It should be 0%, we would all be better off if that were the case.
    - someguydave 5y ago
      Yes, corporate income tax is deadweight loss.
eatonphil 5y ago
Is there a good way to follow important legislation? With how easy communication is today I'm surprised it's not easier to build grassroot support for laws but I almost never hear of any except for ones liberals disagree with. And even these happen through very informal channels like random Twitter people or random podcasts. I'm totally fine with hearing about laws liberals disagree with but I'd like to also hear more reliably about positive laws like this.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  https://www.govtrack.us https://www.govtrack.us (no affiliation, avid user of the service)
  - mardifoufs 5y ago
    Wow, that's a great website. This is hilarious though: https://govtrackinsider.com/protecting-school-milk-choices-act-would-prevent-nyc-mayor-eric-adams-from-banning-chocolate-milk-f9ec13d97240 https://govtrackinsider.com/protecting-school-milk-choices-a...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
TameAntelope 5y ago
Slightly more detailed explanation (from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's website, use whatever amount of grains of salt you'd like): * The America COMPETES Act authorizes the establishment of the Rebuilding Economies and Creating Opportunities for More People to Excel (RECOMPETE) pilot grant program at the Economic Development Administration to form and implement economic development strategies in distressed labor markets and communities to boost long-term economic growth and create lasting, quality jobs. * The America COMPETES Act includes a substantial investment in funding for the National Science Foundation, directing investments to critical research-enabling infrastructure, including the Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure program. * The America COMPETES Act directs funding to create a strategic transformer reserve, facilitate domestic manufacturing, and test critical electric grid equipment to reduce vulnerability and increase resiliency in the event of severe damage to the electrical grid. * The America COMPETES Act includes funding to support research to advance the next generation of energy storage, solar, fusion energy, carbon capture, and bioenergy technologies, among many other areas, to promote clean energy technologies across America and help improve resiliency and modernization of our electrical grid. * The legislation establishes a new grant program to improve our global competitiveness by increasing equitable access to computer-science education and computational-thinking skills for students enrolled in K-12 public schools. * The America COMPETES Act also supports early-career scientists conducting research at the institutions of their choice, makes investments in clean energy technology research, and supports technology development at small businesses. * The bill additionally authorizes $250 million over five years for a new grant program operated by the Department of Education to increase students’ access to postsecondary STEM “pathways” by exposing them to STEM coursework, reducing college costs, and improving postsecondary credit transfers – all Make It In America proposals * The America COMPETES Act reauthorizes the National Apprenticeship Act and incentivizes new initiatives such as promoting diversity in apprenticeships and increasing women’s participation; encourages building new partnerships among labor unions, educational institutions, and industry to launch new apprenticeship tracks from classrooms and training centers into full-time jobs, all policies championed by Leader Hoyer as part of the Make It In America plan. * The America COMPETES Act authorizes a telecommunications-sector workforce-training grant program, Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act (IMPACT), for minority-serving institutions to develop job-training programs in partnership with industry, Registered Apprenticeships, or labor organizations. * The bill also accelerates efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in STEM by providing research on participation and trajectories of historically underrepresented groups, raising awareness within federal science agencies and higher-education institutions about barriers faced by these groups, and identifies and implements best practices to lower these barriers while creating grants for higher-education institutions to implement reforms to increase diversity. * The bill would establish a regional technology and innovation hub program at the Department of Commerce, to incentivize collaborative partnerships among local governments, colleges and universities, private industry, non-profits, and community organizations to promote and support regional technology and innovation hubs. * The America COMPETES Act would establish a Mentor-Protégé Program within the Department of Homeland Security that would create opportunities for small businesses to compete in the Federal marketplace. [0] https://www.majorityleader.gov/sites/democraticwhip.house.gov/files/MIIA%20in%20COMPETES%20FINAL.pdf https://www.majorityleader.gov/sites/democraticwhip.house.go...
akeck 5y ago
What does "Sense of Congress on" refer to? A number of line items begin with that phrase.
- JaimeThompson 5y ago
  This explains it better than I can [1] " When members of the House of Representatives, the Senate or entire U.S. Congress want to send a stern message, state an opinion or just make a point, they try to pass a "sense of" resolution. Through simple or concurrent resolutions, both houses of Congress may express formal opinions about subjects of national interest. As such these so-called “sense of” resolutions are officially known as “sense of the House,” “sense of the Senate” or “sense of the Congress” resolutions. " [1] https://www.thoughtco.com/sense-of-congress-resolutions-3322308 https://www.thoughtco.com/sense-of-congress-resolutions-3322...
- steanne 5y ago
  understanding, belief, expectation: SEC. 2003. SENSE OF CONGRESS. It is the sense of Congress that-- (1) the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and its National Laboratories, and other key Federal agencies have carried out vital work supporting basic and applied research to create knowledge that is a key driver of the economy of the United States and a critical component of national security; (2) openness to diverse perspectives and a focus on freedom from censorship and political bias will continue to make educational and research institutions in the United States beacons to thousands of students from across the world; (3) increasing research and technology transfer investments, building regional capacity and reducing geographic disparity, strengthening supply chains, and increasing capabilities in key technology focus areas will enhance the competitive advantage and leadership of the United States in the global economy; (4) the Federal Government must utilize the full talent and potential of the entire Nation by avoiding undue geographic concentration of research and education funding, encouraging broader participation of populations underrepresented in STEM, and collaborating with non-government partners to ensure the leadership of the United States in technological innovation; and (5) authorization and funding for investments in research, education, technology transfer, intellectual property, manufacturing, and other core strengths of the United States innovation ecosystem, including at the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, should be done on a bipartisan basis.
huy-nguyen 5y ago
Per [1], the House version contains important immigration provisions. 1) The bill would create a new category of non-immigrant visa called the W visa for owners (W-1) or essential employees (W-2) of start-up companies and their dependent family members (W-3). 2) The bill would exempt applicants holding a PhD in a STEM field from the annual per-country green card limits, enabling them to quickly apply for permanent residency without being subject to the availability of an immigrant visa. This would benefit Indians and Chinese nationals the most. 3) The bill would provide for Temporary Protected Status for certain qualified residents of Hong Kong, as well as Special Immigrant Status for highly-skilled Hong Kong residents, capped at 5,000 per year. However, this bill is not finalized yet according to [2]: > But it’s not through to Biden yet: Now the Senate and the House will have to reconcile their competing versions of the bill, and “a final measure is unlikely to be completed before the end of May” [1] https://www.rnlawgroup.com/immigration-provisions-in-the-america-competes-act-of-2022/ https://www.rnlawgroup.com/immigration-provisions-in-the-ame... [2] https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/03/29/the-left-gears-up-to-take-on-manchin-again-0002119 https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/03/29/the... Edit: clarified that these are only in the House version and will have to be reconciled with the Senate version.
- ipnon 5y ago
  The United States should be offering permanent residency to practically everyone with a Ph.D.
  - ronyfadel 5y ago
    That would lead to the immediate creation of Ph.D. farms in other countries
    - raincom 5y ago
      Also more journals will be created:)
    - a2tech 5y ago
      You say that like they don't already exist
ipnon 5y ago
To give an idea of how much content is in this bill, please see "Sec. 74029. Beverage containing coconut water." where duties on imports of beverages containing at least 10% coconut water are hereby free.
- 0des 5y ago
  That is the stupidest shit I've ever seen. Just flat rate everything and get rid of all the special exemptions and trash that just creates loopholes. If this results in a lot of things soon containing 11% coconut water, I might just snap.
  - colechristensen 5y ago
    Trade policy is explicitly to manipulate balances of imports and exports, that doesn't happen with flat rates. Some things you want to protect, some things are bargaining chips for concessions elsewhere. Of all the stupid shit in government, trade exceptions are far from the worst.
    - civilized 5y ago
      Many people might be skeptical of the premise that it's beneficial for the government to manipulate balances of imports and exports.
      - colechristensen 5y ago
        Many people are skeptical that the world is round, when you phrase a statement like that you have the luxury of being right but without having said anything at all because "many" and "skeptical" are extraordinarily vague and trivial to make true about anything. Having trade policy is as old as government, skeptics or not. "Free markets" in the absolute sense have never and will never exist, and talking in absolutes isn't helpful, a "assume a spherical cow" kind of approximation which is just as useful to the real world.
        5y ago
butterisgood 5y ago
So more free money for billionaires?
- edgyquant 5y ago
  If this is the conclusion you reach it says more about your worldview than anything. Real world policies have nuance to them.
  - butterisgood 5y ago
    Nuance meaning the American oligarchy says “fuck you middle class slaves”? Then yes you read me correctly.
    - genewitch 5y ago
      with run-down shacks approaching $1,000,000 in certain areas, I would be fine arguing that "middle class" is a misnomer. "working class slaves" is more apt, because we can dispense with the whole "working class" part, and shorten it to "wage slave." Some people take offense at the "slave" terminology, but i suggest that if homelessness, death, illness, etc await you if you leave a working class job, you don't have a choice. HN has a bubble of thought that i bump against quite often, this is one of those ideas that i disagree with the zeitgeist on.
formerkrogeremp 5y ago
And, globalization is dying, rather yet it might have reached its crescendo.
- phendrenad2 5y ago
  I think globalization got as far as it could, but the friction between US, Russia, and China prevented us from reaching it's full potential. Now, we'll probably slide back into protectionism.
paxys 5y ago
This is definitely needed, but the government needs to take some ownership stake in companies that these funds are being distributed to. The financial success of the effort needs to be shared with the general public, not just used to make some billionaires richer.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  Don't income taxes of employees and sales taxes of their products constitute the public sharing in the success of those billionaires? Bezos may not pay income tax, but all his engineers do...
  - umeshunni 5y ago
    > Bezos may not pay income tax citation needed
- kelnos 5y ago
  Agreed. These shouldn't just be grants, they should be investments. The US gov't should come away from this owning stock in those companies. I don't think the gov't should be in the business of owning companies in general (not a fan of nationalizing businesses except in some narrow circumstances), so I'd say they should divest themselves after some pre-determined period, or somehow separate their ownership from meddling for (partisan) political reasons (a tall order, I know). But the people (via the government) should be able to get some return on this investment, beyond just "our economy is less fragile because now we have more critical manufacturing capability". Which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but IMO isn't enough.
- sorethescore 5y ago
  Definitely not an ownership stake, but perhaps a royalty on equity. For every dollar in equity sold or transacted the government receives a royalty payment of some percentage.
tzs 5y ago
Party breakdown. House D was 221 Y, 1 N. R was 1 Y, 209 N, 2 not voting. Senate D and I was 50 Y, 0 N. R was 18 Y, 28 N, 4 not voting.
- jl2718 5y ago
  Wow, that’s like a whole separate R party in the senate.
kesor 5y ago
So they effectively declare an open war against China, Russia and Iran. While also recognizing Taiwan sovereignty. This is not going to raise any hell whatsoever for sure (sarcasm). WTF is going through their heads?
- bun_at_work 5y ago
  This isn't a declaration of war in any sense. It's a security measure (aside from the random earmarks like the coconut water duty being lifted). Semiconductor integrity and independence is vital to US national security in the digital age. It's the sensible move, and a move that China and anyone else paying attention has seen coming.
techsin101 5y ago
it should be made illegal to vote on bunch of separate laws as one package
- bigthymer 5y ago
  The president used to have the power to line-item veto but I think it was taken away during or soon after the Clinton era.
  - rsfinn 5y ago
    President Clinton was briefly given this power by the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 [1], but "its effect was brief as the act was soon [in 1998] ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court". [1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Item_Veto_Act_of_1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Item_Veto_Act_of_1996>
kesor 5y ago
Sec. 4432. Prohibition on the use of TikTok.
kushcrush 5y ago
is the W visa bill passed or it isn't?
kushcrush 5y ago
is the w visa passed or not?
Longlius 5y ago
My problems are twofold: 1) This exacerbates brain-drain from the developing world, creating problems down the line that the developed world will have to reckon with. 2) There are already many university graduates in the US who have trouble finding work. Indeed, employers can often use the fact that foreign workers are 'bound' to their employers to depress wages. Without addressing 1, the best way to address 2 would be to detach the employment requirements from the W class of visas.
miga 5y ago
Competitiveness will get a rocket boost from duty-free incontinence underpads (sec 74765). More duty-free exemptions smuggled in this act: * Sec. 74733. Dog and cat apparel. * Sec. 74747. Jewelry boxes. * Sec. 74746. Guitar cases. * Sec. 74750. Men's leather gloves valued at $18 or more per pair. * Sec. 74853. Golf bag body flats. * Sec. 74851. Golf bag bodies with rain hoods and straps.

86 points by huy-nguyen 5y ago

There seems to be very little reporting on this from immigration reporters on Twitter considering the impact of some of the provisions for legal immigration. I guess they expect the immigration stuff to be thrown out in reconciliation since the senate version didn't seem to have them.

hwbehrens 5y ago

In case you are wondering what this does (like I was), Wikipedia states "This bill is designed to solve [American dependence on China] by reducing reliance on Chinese manufacturing of semiconductors and increasing America's scientific and technological achievements." Basically, it allocates a bunch of money for supply chain and production improvements.

twoquestions 5y ago
Thank you for the tldr.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
newshorts 5y ago
That would be amazing.
- killjoywashere 5y ago
  Keep in mind that China will not stop being a problem, it just moves it around. The CCP will have more people in the US with family back in China, so they can manipulate those in the US to steal and spy for them. They will grow the presence of CSSAs and universities will become increasingly dependent on income from fulltime Chinese students, which will paradoxically disincentivize US universities from educating US students. One needs only look at the UC system to see this is true (they're not shy about it, plenty of details here https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-...). I'm not saying the COMPETES Act is good or bad, just that it's going to reshape the China problem a bit. And for those itching to downvote me: the Chinese people are fine folks. the CCP is a helluva problem.
  - ceeplusplus 5y ago
    Ah yes, because every PhD immigrant that comes to the US must be a CCP agent. Why don't we just dispense with the thin veil you're trying to hide your racism behind?
    - kelnos 5y ago
      I think this is a bit of an extreme response. I don't think the parent was suggesting that every Chinese PhD student in the US (or even a majority of them) is a CCP agent, just that it does happen, and the more Chinese PhD students who end up in the US, it's likely that more of them will be beholden to the CCP in some way. I think your framing as "agents" is a bit sensationalized. You're evoking images of these highly-trained spies willing to do anything to steal for their country. My expectation is that most folks are just regular-Joe type people who just want a good education, but are pressured by their government to pass back certain kinds of information (with under-specified by scary consequences for their family if they don't comply). I have a lot of sympathy for the people who get caught up in this situation. They're people who are trapped in a way that requires them to pay a higher (moral) price to obtain a good education. I'm not sure I'd have the strength to behave any differently if I were in their shoes. (Also consider that the US's industrialization was fueled by plenty of academic and industrial espionage. That doesn't make what goes on today ok, but let's not pretend our historical hands are clean.)
    - someguydave 5y ago
      America is many times less racist than China is. I think it is proper to debate the degree to which allowing Chinese citizens to immigrate helps or hurts America.
  - eli_gottlieb 5y ago
    >universities will become increasingly dependent on income from fulltime Chinese students I mean, sure, because Americans keep voting to defund public higher ed.
lumost 5y ago
Does government allocation of funds make a difference when competing with China? It would seem that the Chinese government would simply match/re-up the industrial policy to be more competitive. If we're concerned about over reliance on Chinese manufacture, why not create a tariff?
- cherioo 5y ago
  Tariff may help US company to buy US product, but it won’t encourage anyone else to buy potentially uncompetitive US product. At some point, we need to increase product competitiveness, which ultimately benefits everyone. That or sanction china so they can’t build competitive product, like Huawei.
  - paxys 5y ago
    And in this case there is no US product to buy. US semiconductor manufacturing simply cannot compete on the global stage, hence the need for this investment.
  - beaconstudios 5y ago
    the US can't compete with China's artificial suppression of the Yuan price to help export prices, or the high levels of exploitation and lack of rights & regulations to benefit Chinese workers.
    - sudosysgen 5y ago
      Of course, it can. The solution would be to depress the USD. It's just that the US decided it is more profitable to extract value by holding the reserve currency.
      - beaconstudios 5y ago
        the US government isn't in control of the dollar rate - the central bank is private.
jeffbee 5y ago
Imagine using government money to fund Intel, AMD, Micron, Apple, etc with combined capitalization over 4 trillion dollars. Instead they should be levying massive windfall taxes on these companies' overseas cash hoards, and using those revenues to fund onshore semiconductor startups.
- bradlys 5y ago
  Aren’t fabs and all that like multi-billion dollar projects? How does one realistically become a startup in that space when the capital to start is so intensive? (At least these days - idk about back in the past)
  - polski-g 5y ago
    Tax Intel to fund semiconductor startups.
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    You are under-estimating how much cash these American companies are holding.
    - bradlys 5y ago
      I’m not but this is basically wealth redistribution taken quite far. You may as well be advocating for full on Marxism at that level. Which is fine. But just know your audience? (A hyper capitalistic startup crowd???)
- duped 5y ago
  The US government has been funding semiconductor manufacturing since Fairchild, which spawned two of the companies you listed. Overseas cash reserves are a separate issue that can be fixed by removing the corporate tax. It should be 0%, we would all be better off if that were the case.
  - someguydave 5y ago
    Yes, corporate income tax is deadweight loss.

eatonphil 5y ago

Is there a good way to follow important legislation? With how easy communication is today I'm surprised it's not easier to build grassroot support for laws but I almost never hear of any except for ones liberals disagree with. And even these happen through very informal channels like random Twitter people or random podcasts. I'm totally fine with hearing about laws liberals disagree with but I'd like to also hear more reliably about positive laws like this.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
https://www.govtrack.us https://www.govtrack.us (no affiliation, avid user of the service)
- mardifoufs 5y ago
  Wow, that's a great website. This is hilarious though: https://govtrackinsider.com/protecting-school-milk-choices-act-would-prevent-nyc-mayor-eric-adams-from-banning-chocolate-milk-f9ec13d97240 https://govtrackinsider.com/protecting-school-milk-choices-a...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

TameAntelope 5y ago

Slightly more detailed explanation (from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's website, use whatever amount of grains of salt you'd like): * The America COMPETES Act authorizes the establishment of the Rebuilding Economies and Creating Opportunities for More People to Excel (RECOMPETE) pilot grant program at the Economic Development Administration to form and implement economic development strategies in distressed labor markets and communities to boost long-term economic growth and create lasting, quality jobs. * The America COMPETES Act includes a substantial investment in funding for the National Science Foundation, directing investments to critical research-enabling infrastructure, including the Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure program. * The America COMPETES Act directs funding to create a strategic transformer reserve, facilitate domestic manufacturing, and test critical electric grid equipment to reduce vulnerability and increase resiliency in the event of severe damage to the electrical grid. * The America COMPETES Act includes funding to support research to advance the next generation of energy storage, solar, fusion energy, carbon capture, and bioenergy technologies, among many other areas, to promote clean energy technologies across America and help improve resiliency and modernization of our electrical grid. * The legislation establishes a new grant program to improve our global competitiveness by increasing equitable access to computer-science education and computational-thinking skills for students enrolled in K-12 public schools. * The America COMPETES Act also supports early-career scientists conducting research at the institutions of their choice, makes investments in clean energy technology research, and supports technology development at small businesses. * The bill additionally authorizes $250 million over five years for a new grant program operated by the Department of Education to increase students’ access to postsecondary STEM “pathways” by exposing them to STEM coursework, reducing college costs, and improving postsecondary credit transfers – all Make It In America proposals * The America COMPETES Act reauthorizes the National Apprenticeship Act and incentivizes new initiatives such as promoting diversity in apprenticeships and increasing women’s participation; encourages building new partnerships among labor unions, educational institutions, and industry to launch new apprenticeship tracks from classrooms and training centers into full-time jobs, all policies championed by Leader Hoyer as part of the Make It In America plan. * The America COMPETES Act authorizes a telecommunications-sector workforce-training grant program, Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act (IMPACT), for minority-serving institutions to develop job-training programs in partnership with industry, Registered Apprenticeships, or labor organizations. * The bill also accelerates efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in STEM by providing research on participation and trajectories of historically underrepresented groups, raising awareness within federal science agencies and higher-education institutions about barriers faced by these groups, and identifies and implements best practices to lower these barriers while creating grants for higher-education institutions to implement reforms to increase diversity. * The bill would establish a regional technology and innovation hub program at the Department of Commerce, to incentivize collaborative partnerships among local governments, colleges and universities, private industry, non-profits, and community organizations to promote and support regional technology and innovation hubs. * The America COMPETES Act would establish a Mentor-Protégé Program within the Department of Homeland Security that would create opportunities for small businesses to compete in the Federal marketplace. [0] https://www.majorityleader.gov/sites/democraticwhip.house.gov/files/MIIA%20in%20COMPETES%20FINAL.pdf https://www.majorityleader.gov/sites/democraticwhip.house.go...

akeck 5y ago

What does "Sense of Congress on" refer to? A number of line items begin with that phrase.

JaimeThompson 5y ago
This explains it better than I can [1] " When members of the House of Representatives, the Senate or entire U.S. Congress want to send a stern message, state an opinion or just make a point, they try to pass a "sense of" resolution. Through simple or concurrent resolutions, both houses of Congress may express formal opinions about subjects of national interest. As such these so-called “sense of” resolutions are officially known as “sense of the House,” “sense of the Senate” or “sense of the Congress” resolutions. " [1] https://www.thoughtco.com/sense-of-congress-resolutions-3322308 https://www.thoughtco.com/sense-of-congress-resolutions-3322...
steanne 5y ago
understanding, belief, expectation: SEC. 2003. SENSE OF CONGRESS. It is the sense of Congress that-- (1) the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and its National Laboratories, and other key Federal agencies have carried out vital work supporting basic and applied research to create knowledge that is a key driver of the economy of the United States and a critical component of national security; (2) openness to diverse perspectives and a focus on freedom from censorship and political bias will continue to make educational and research institutions in the United States beacons to thousands of students from across the world; (3) increasing research and technology transfer investments, building regional capacity and reducing geographic disparity, strengthening supply chains, and increasing capabilities in key technology focus areas will enhance the competitive advantage and leadership of the United States in the global economy; (4) the Federal Government must utilize the full talent and potential of the entire Nation by avoiding undue geographic concentration of research and education funding, encouraging broader participation of populations underrepresented in STEM, and collaborating with non-government partners to ensure the leadership of the United States in technological innovation; and (5) authorization and funding for investments in research, education, technology transfer, intellectual property, manufacturing, and other core strengths of the United States innovation ecosystem, including at the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, should be done on a bipartisan basis.

huy-nguyen 5y ago

Per [1], the House version contains important immigration provisions. 1) The bill would create a new category of non-immigrant visa called the W visa for owners (W-1) or essential employees (W-2) of start-up companies and their dependent family members (W-3). 2) The bill would exempt applicants holding a PhD in a STEM field from the annual per-country green card limits, enabling them to quickly apply for permanent residency without being subject to the availability of an immigrant visa. This would benefit Indians and Chinese nationals the most. 3) The bill would provide for Temporary Protected Status for certain qualified residents of Hong Kong, as well as Special Immigrant Status for highly-skilled Hong Kong residents, capped at 5,000 per year. However, this bill is not finalized yet according to [2]: > But it’s not through to Biden yet: Now the Senate and the House will have to reconcile their competing versions of the bill, and “a final measure is unlikely to be completed before the end of May” [1] https://www.rnlawgroup.com/immigration-provisions-in-the-america-competes-act-of-2022/ https://www.rnlawgroup.com/immigration-provisions-in-the-ame... [2] https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/03/29/the-left-gears-up-to-take-on-manchin-again-0002119 https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/03/29/the... Edit: clarified that these are only in the House version and will have to be reconciled with the Senate version.

ipnon 5y ago
The United States should be offering permanent residency to practically everyone with a Ph.D.
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  That would lead to the immediate creation of Ph.D. farms in other countries
  - raincom 5y ago
    Also more journals will be created:)
  - a2tech 5y ago
    You say that like they don't already exist

ipnon 5y ago

To give an idea of how much content is in this bill, please see "Sec. 74029. Beverage containing coconut water." where duties on imports of beverages containing at least 10% coconut water are hereby free.

0des 5y ago
That is the stupidest shit I've ever seen. Just flat rate everything and get rid of all the special exemptions and trash that just creates loopholes. If this results in a lot of things soon containing 11% coconut water, I might just snap.
- colechristensen 5y ago
  Trade policy is explicitly to manipulate balances of imports and exports, that doesn't happen with flat rates. Some things you want to protect, some things are bargaining chips for concessions elsewhere. Of all the stupid shit in government, trade exceptions are far from the worst.
  - civilized 5y ago
    Many people might be skeptical of the premise that it's beneficial for the government to manipulate balances of imports and exports.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      Many people are skeptical that the world is round, when you phrase a statement like that you have the luxury of being right but without having said anything at all because "many" and "skeptical" are extraordinarily vague and trivial to make true about anything. Having trade policy is as old as government, skeptics or not. "Free markets" in the absolute sense have never and will never exist, and talking in absolutes isn't helpful, a "assume a spherical cow" kind of approximation which is just as useful to the real world.
      - 5y ago

butterisgood 5y ago

So more free money for billionaires?

edgyquant 5y ago
If this is the conclusion you reach it says more about your worldview than anything. Real world policies have nuance to them.
- butterisgood 5y ago
  Nuance meaning the American oligarchy says “fuck you middle class slaves”? Then yes you read me correctly.
  - genewitch 5y ago
    with run-down shacks approaching $1,000,000 in certain areas, I would be fine arguing that "middle class" is a misnomer. "working class slaves" is more apt, because we can dispense with the whole "working class" part, and shorten it to "wage slave." Some people take offense at the "slave" terminology, but i suggest that if homelessness, death, illness, etc await you if you leave a working class job, you don't have a choice. HN has a bubble of thought that i bump against quite often, this is one of those ideas that i disagree with the zeitgeist on.

formerkrogeremp 5y ago

And, globalization is dying, rather yet it might have reached its crescendo.

phendrenad2 5y ago
I think globalization got as far as it could, but the friction between US, Russia, and China prevented us from reaching it's full potential. Now, we'll probably slide back into protectionism.

paxys 5y ago

This is definitely needed, but the government needs to take some ownership stake in companies that these funds are being distributed to. The financial success of the effort needs to be shared with the general public, not just used to make some billionaires richer.

jazzyjackson 5y ago
Don't income taxes of employees and sales taxes of their products constitute the public sharing in the success of those billionaires? Bezos may not pay income tax, but all his engineers do...
- umeshunni 5y ago
  > Bezos may not pay income tax citation needed
kelnos 5y ago
Agreed. These shouldn't just be grants, they should be investments. The US gov't should come away from this owning stock in those companies. I don't think the gov't should be in the business of owning companies in general (not a fan of nationalizing businesses except in some narrow circumstances), so I'd say they should divest themselves after some pre-determined period, or somehow separate their ownership from meddling for (partisan) political reasons (a tall order, I know). But the people (via the government) should be able to get some return on this investment, beyond just "our economy is less fragile because now we have more critical manufacturing capability". Which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but IMO isn't enough.
sorethescore 5y ago
Definitely not an ownership stake, but perhaps a royalty on equity. For every dollar in equity sold or transacted the government receives a royalty payment of some percentage.

tzs 5y ago

Party breakdown. House D was 221 Y, 1 N. R was 1 Y, 209 N, 2 not voting. Senate D and I was 50 Y, 0 N. R was 18 Y, 28 N, 4 not voting.

jl2718 5y ago
Wow, that’s like a whole separate R party in the senate.

kesor 5y ago

So they effectively declare an open war against China, Russia and Iran. While also recognizing Taiwan sovereignty. This is not going to raise any hell whatsoever for sure (sarcasm). WTF is going through their heads?

bun_at_work 5y ago
This isn't a declaration of war in any sense. It's a security measure (aside from the random earmarks like the coconut water duty being lifted). Semiconductor integrity and independence is vital to US national security in the digital age. It's the sensible move, and a move that China and anyone else paying attention has seen coming.

techsin101 5y ago

it should be made illegal to vote on bunch of separate laws as one package

bigthymer 5y ago
The president used to have the power to line-item veto but I think it was taken away during or soon after the Clinton era.
- rsfinn 5y ago
  President Clinton was briefly given this power by the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 [1], but "its effect was brief as the act was soon [in 1998] ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court". [1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Item_Veto_Act_of_1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Item_Veto_Act_of_1996>

kesor 5y ago

Sec. 4432. Prohibition on the use of TikTok.

kushcrush 5y ago

is the W visa bill passed or it isn't?

kushcrush 5y ago

is the w visa passed or not?

Longlius 5y ago

My problems are twofold: 1) This exacerbates brain-drain from the developing world, creating problems down the line that the developed world will have to reckon with. 2) There are already many university graduates in the US who have trouble finding work. Indeed, employers can often use the fact that foreign workers are 'bound' to their employers to depress wages. Without addressing 1, the best way to address 2 would be to detach the employment requirements from the W class of visas.

miga 5y ago

Competitiveness will get a rocket boost from duty-free incontinence underpads (sec 74765). More duty-free exemptions smuggled in this act: * Sec. 74733. Dog and cat apparel. * Sec. 74747. Jewelry boxes. * Sec. 74746. Guitar cases. * Sec. 74750. Men's leather gloves valued at $18 or more per pair. * Sec. 74853. Golf bag body flats. * Sec. 74851. Golf bag bodies with rain hoods and straps.