The U.S. Senate will add to an annual defense authorization bill an expansive plan intended to help the nation better compete with China and bolster its domestic semiconductor industry, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said, jump-starting action on legislation that’s been stalled for months.
Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday that he will move to attach the nearly $250 billion legislation to spur research and development as well as domestic chip manufacturing as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act because the "supply chain crisis needs attending to and we cannot wait.”
The New York Democrat set in motion procedures to begin Senate debate on the defense bill this week. If it passes there, the House and Senate would negotiate differences in the two measures.