WASHINGTON — House Democrats used a mostly party-line vote Friday to pass broad legislation aimed at boosting science and technology investments for several federal agencies, in an attempt to position the country to better compete with China.
Loaded with provisions on climate and environmental matters, the bill likely will be pared back during a conference with the Senate after that chamber passed a much narrower bill on competition with tech-giant China. The 222-210 vote on the bill (HR 4521), championed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., came after three days of debate during which several Republicans denounced the package as too broad and argued that some of the included bills had not been subject to committee hearings.
A slew of amendments were added to the final legislative package over three days of floor debate and votes, addressing a wide variety of issues such as looking into forced labor camps in China, examining the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions, adding “alternative proteins” to the federal research and development list, altering a federal program in an attempt to help companies capable of manufacturing solar panels, creating new offices within a list of federal agencies and ordering up studies on various issues.
