US: Congress Nears Beijing Final Response to Technology Competition

The U.S. Congress on Wednesday came closer to completing a long-pending bill, allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to boost U.S. ability to compete with Chinese technology, with the Senate voting on the proposals. issues, including energy policy, but also sanctions against Iran.

Although the proposals are not binding, they are indicative of the senators’ aspirations for the content of the final bill, but also of what could reduce the number of votes required for the final bill to be signed by the President Joe Biden and become U.S. law.

In one of the expected 28 votes, the Senate voted 86-12 with little cross-party support for a “proposal for directives” put forward by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz seeking a reference to terrorism-related sanctions on Iran, saying such sanctions are necessary to limit cooperation between China and Iran.

If the proposal becomes law, its prediction could make it more difficult to negotiate sensitive international deals on Tehran’s nuclear program, and Western officials have largely lost hope that the deal could rescued.

Former US President Donald Trump has left the framework of the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program in 2018.

Another proposal, put forward by Republican Sen. John Barasson, was about leasing federal territories for oil and gas drilling, and was voted 53-44.

By late Wednesday night, the Senate had completed more than a dozen ballots, with senators voting 78-17 on a motion by Sen. Bernie Saunders that seeks to eliminate a $ 10 billion ($ 9.41 billion) bill. on the development of a new spacecraft to the Moon for NASA. The move is seen as part of the senator’s wider effort to reduce the flow of federal funding to billionaire Jeff Bezos’s “Blue Origin” program.

The senators voted 62-33 on another proposal, which would ban the Biden government from removing the designation as a terrorist organization of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran, putting an obstacle to the revival of the international nuclear deal.

Congress has been working to address technology competition from China for more than a year.

The members of the House of Representatives and the Senate will begin their consultations on the final form of the bill, after the Senate votes on the total of 28 proposals with provisions that have been submitted.

Parliamentary aides expect it to take months to reach an agreement on a final compromise bill.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

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