U.S. House Lawmakers Ready To Move On Bill To Address Supply Chain Crisis

Last week, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced H.R. 4521, the America COMPETES Act, which, if passed and signed into law, would provide $250 billion to bolster scientific research and technological innovation in the United States.

Part of the funding is $45 billion to support supply-chain resilience and improve the nation’s economy “by preventing shortages of critical goods.” This provision would subsidize the domestic production of critical goods and industrial machinery to ensure the U.S. could maintain smooth supply-chain operations if global trading routes were disrupted.”

The bill also includes $50.2 billion to incentivize domestic investment in facilities for fabrication, assembly, testing, or advanced packaging of semiconductors and to support semiconductor research and development. The COMPETES Act also includes funding to help critical industries address their workforce shortages.

Read a summary of the bill here.

U.S. House leaders have said they aim to pass the legislation by March 1. The Senate already has approved a similar bill. The two bodies will have to reconcile differences in the two pieces of legislation if the House successfully approves the COMPETES Act.