Endless Frontier Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, yesterday, the Senate took a step toward considering wide-ranging legislation that would touch on multiple parts of the U.S. economy in the name of increasing innovation and competitiveness.

A secure, productive, and innovative America that can outcompete China is something that all 100 Senators want. Of course, in a place like the Senate, you are guaranteed to find a wide variety of different ideas about the best ways to encourage that. A number of our colleagues have assembled a proposal that touches on a long list of subjects-- everything from funding universities, to regional economic development, to Indo-Pacific geopolitics, to artificial intelligence, to cyber security, and beyond. Legislation this broad needs a thorough, robust, and bipartisan floor process, including a healthy series of amendment votes.

As one of my Republican colleagues--the ranking member on the Commerce Committee--explained, as he supported moving the legislation out of committee, the current draft is ``not ready for prime time'' yet and deserves a robust process here on the floor.

I understand this bill has come to the floor with a bipartisan understanding and the Democratic leader's assurances that there won't be an effort to close debate on amendments prematurely. So I look forward to the Senate's considering these important issues, and I hope all of this interest in our competition with China will lead our Democratic friends to rethink President Biden's intention to cut our defense spending after inflation. The single best thing we can do to stay competitive with China is to give our Armed Forces the resources they need to stay competitive with China.

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