At a House Science Committee hearing last week, lawmakers and witnesses pushed back against proposals to try to block rival countries from influencing international standards, and instead advocated for strengthening the industry-led approach the U.S. has traditionally relied on.
The House Science Committee has held two hearings thus far examining semiconductor industry needs as Congress considers pumping billions of dollars into domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing.
The House passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022 today on a nearly party-line vote that foreshadows challenges the House and Senate may face in crafting a compromise bill capable of passing both chambers.
The House has revealed its response to the landmark innovation policy package the Senate passed last year, a major step toward negotiating a compromise version. However, there are a host of thorny policy disagreements yet to be resolved.
The Department of Energy has launched an Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to support a burgeoning portfolio of large-scale technology projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The office will be under pressure to overcome challenges that have plagued DOE-funded demonstration projects in the past.
The Senate has added $5 billion for Department of Energy research infrastructure projects to the House-passed version of the Build Back Better Act, but the overall bill is in peril after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) declared he could not back it.
At a recent House Science Committee hearing, fusion experts highlighted recent breakthroughs in the field and urged the U.S. to embark on a path to build a pilot fusion power plant in the coming decades.
The House-passed version of Congress' annual defense policy legislation includes a government-wide ban on federal research grantees participating in “malign” talent recruitment programs supported by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The Senate has advanced a more expansive version of the restriction through separate legislation.
As part of its broader push on innovation legislation, the Senate is proposing to dramatically expand EPSCoR, a program that channels research funds to states that have historically received a small share of science agency funding. Counterpart House legislation does not recommend expanding the program, setting it up as an important point of negotiation.
With telecommunications applications increasingly occupying radio spectrum bands close to those used for critical satellite-based weather monitoring and research, the House Science Committee is examining why federal agencies have had difficulty reconciling their spectrum-related interests.
