America COMPETES Act Passes With Auchincloss Amendments
The House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022 on Friday, which includes several amendments introduced by Rep. Jake Auchincloss.
The goal of the bill is to sustain and strengthen America’s leadership in science and technology by building resilient supply chains, driving worker productivity by investing in research and development, and reinforcing U.S. global leadership in science and technology.
"I introduced a series of amendments to America COMPETES, all of which have passed as part of the bill,” said Auchincloss in a statement. "These amendments counteract vaccine disinformation from the Chinese Communist Party. They boost production of vaccine components to strengthen America's vaccine diplomacy, which I have advocated for and led on over the last year. And they contribute to economic development and humanitarian relief in Afghanistan, where we have a special responsibility to the Afghan people."
Auchincloss Amendments
Countering PRC Vaccine Disinformation & Exploitation
"This amendment establishes that it is US policy to strengthen cooperation with allies and partners around the world, specifically 'to counter the PRC Government’s efforts to spread disinformation and disburse vaccines in exchange for exploitative concessions in low- to middle-income countries while maintaining US engagement with and support for multilateral vaccine procurement and equitable distribution.' This amendment will ensure that the US maintains its multilateral cooperation to vaccinate the world while countering the People’s Republic of China (PRC) efforts to spread disinformation about vaccines and to extract concessions in exchange for vaccines."
"This amendment directs the Development Finance Corporation to include the production of syringes in their programs to increase vaccine manufacturing capacity of critical medical supplies. This will help address the global syringe shortage that threatens the Biden administration’s goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the world against COVID-19 by September of this year. As background, the US has committed to donating over a billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to low- and middle-income countries, but this commitment does not currently include the syringes necessary to administer these vaccines."
"This amendment will advance innovation in synthetic biology by directing the federal government to support the development of shared protocols and interoperability. It will also scale up synthetic biology research by supporting biomanufacturing testbeds based on open standards and protocols."
Afghanistan Economic Development
"This amendment will support policies that advance economic development and humanitarian relief in Afghanistan, specifically to counter the PRC’s threat to American interests and values. Rep. Auchincloss’ provision would direct the Treasury Department to work with other federal agencies to study the feasibility of establishing trade zones for licit commerce in Afghanistan, while protecting US national security interests."
Source:
Annie Sandoli