House Passes COMPETES Legislation

The House passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022 recently on a nearly party-line vote of 222 to 210, with only Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) breaking ranks to support the innovation and competition-oriented package. The COMPETES Act must now be reconciled with the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), which the Senate passed last year on a bipartisan vote of 68 to 32. While no conference committee members have been formally announced, the legislation remains a priority for the Biden Administration and featured prominently in the President’s recent State of the Union address.

Among its key provisions, the COMPETES Act sets ambitious spending targets for the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, and National Institute of Standards and Technology. The COMPETES Act also seeks to bolster the U.S. semiconductor industry by providing $52 billion for domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing. The COMPETES Act would expand NIST’s yearly budget from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion over five years. The bill also expands the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) budget capacity, raising NSF’s yearly top-line budget from $8.5 billion to $17.9 billion over five years. Although DOE’s Office of Science would increase from $7 billion to $11.1 billion over five years, its total funding during that time is about $1.7 billion less than that included in USICA.

For additional information on the America COMPETES Act, visit: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4521