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Exclusive: Sen. Rick Scott took on the White House and other Republicans Thursday for proposing billions in taxpayer money to for-profit high-tech companies under President Biden’s plan to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Scott, the GOP Senate leader, told Fox News Digital that the proposed $252 billion bill would only increase inflation and benefit big business.
“In Sen. [Bernie] Scott, R-Fla., said if we’re going to invest dollars, we have to get a return.
“Other than exacerbating inflation, this legislation does nothing for the American taxpayer.”
‘National Security Threat’: Congress Could Give Chip Makers Billions to Compete With China
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 26, 2021 in Orlando, Fla.
(AP Photo/John Raoux)
The semiconductor bill, which was proposed to counter China’s dominance of cyber technology and computer chips, was originally valued at $52 billion. In recent days, the bill has swelled to an additional 200 billion dollars for research and development.
Scott said there are a few safeguards to ensure that the companies receiving the money actually need it to make the computer chips. A Florida Republican group has argued that after billions in taxpayer money, there are no specifications for what it needs to produce.
“A company like Intel — which made $20 billion last year and their CEO earned $180 million — [they’re] They’re going to get $3 (billion) to $4 billion to build something, but we haven’t said exactly what it is,” Scott said. Any credit.”
Republicans are divided over the China bill as a legislative barrel.
Man working on laptop.
(iStock)
Semiconductor Act Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer D.N.I. Schumer passed sweeping measures last year to combat Chinese dominance. The bill died after the House and Senate failed to reach an agreement and Republicans voiced their opposition.
Instead, Democrats took out the most popular parts and put them in a separate bill. That measure passed a procedural vote in the Senate this week with 16 Republicans voting.
Scott said the process used to pass the bill was flawed because Democratic leaders were able to skip the committee process and drop the legislation straight to the floor.
“Activities like this show why this country is saddled with $30 trillion in debt,” the senator said.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer answers questions from reporters during a press conference on the Democratic Party’s shift to focus on voting rights at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 18, 2022.
(AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhodes)
Supporters of the legislation have long argued that it would increase the U.S.’s competitive advantage over China in computer chips and other core technologies. In particular, the White House moved to present the law as a national security benefit.
The Biden administration pushed hard to get the bill passed. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently said the issue is a “serious national security threat” because military equipment relies on foreign-made computer chips.
Raimondo recently told the PBS News Hour, “This is a major national security concern. Now, as I said before, we buy all these chips from Taiwan. “We don’t do this in America. But it’s what we need in military equipment, in hospital pacemakers, in cars.”
Scott argued that the law did nothing to prevent chip makers from continuing to do business in China.
“They say this is an anti-China measure, but I can’t find it anywhere in the bill,” he said.
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