S. 1260

Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, this week is Indy 500 Week in the State of Indiana. For these 7 days, Hoosiers will be swept up in the pageantry and the tradition of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Every minute this week is leading toward the moment when the white flag comes out, signifying the final lap, when the drivers make one last push toward the finish line.

I couldn't help but think about this annual tradition as we enter the home stretch on the Endless Frontier Act in the coming days. The legislation has evolved and improved and grown over the last few months. We now know it as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, but as we head into this week, I thought it important to reset and refocus on why we began this journey in the first place.

For me, it began back in 2019, in the gym of all places, where one morning, Senator Schumer and I began talking about the need to go on offense against the Chinese Communist Party. Since the Cold War, Beijing has aimed to overtake America, not with weapons but through innovation, through economic growth. Through Made in China 2025, Beijing set out with a deliberate plan to dominate the world through strategic investments and emerging technologies, all of which have the potential to fundamentally change this century's economic and security environment for good or for ill.

Until now, we have primarily focused on defensive countermeasures to thwart aggression by the Chinese Communist Party: blocking Huawei, imposing export controls, and improving foreign investment rules. Look, these priorities are really important, and they must remain part of the mix, but if America is to lead the world in the 21st century, it is neither realistic nor practical to build an economic iron curtain around China. You see, just as we did in the 20th century, we must not simply contain our leading global competitor but, instead, outinnovate and outgrow it. We must go on offense.

The Endless Frontier Act was and is our effort to do just that, to make the kinds of research and science investments we haven't made for decades. We are creating a new Technology Directorate at the National Science Foundation and creating regional tech hubs to ensure we are leveraging the talents and abilities of Americans across the country, with the corresponding economic benefits reaching those in the heart of our country, not just those on the coasts.

This legislation will be a boost to our economy, but make no mistake--it is not just about the economy. This is about deciding which standards, which values are going to animate these new technologies in the future: the values we see cracking down on protesters in the streets of Hong Kong? the values that enslave millions of Uighurs in Xinjiang? our American values, which recognize that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights?

America is watching, and the free world is watching. All who are watching should be encouraged. You see, this body has largely embraced this objective. We have continued to go through the regular Senate order--an increasingly rare accomplishment in this body--of allowing each Member to offer amendments to improve this legislation. In fact, it was marked up in the Senate Commerce Committee and approved by a vote of 24 to 4. Last week, it came to the Senate floor, and we considered more amendments. This week, we will consider even more amendments.

As is typically the case in regular order, nobody gets everything he wants, including the bill's authors. As one example, through the markup process, less investment than I had originally proposed will now be provided to the NSF Tech Directorate, but that is OK. It is OK because this change and others are ones I can live with so that we can come together and prove that our system works while advancing a once-in-a- generation investment in science and technology.

We must send a message to the authoritarians in Beijing. They say we are too divided to lead the world in the 21st century. It is time to come together and prove them wrong.

As we Hoosiers say at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the white flag is out. This is the final lap for this bill in the U.S. Senate. I look forward to seeing this open process through to the finish line so that, together, we can outcompete, outinnovate, and outgrow the Chinese Communist Party.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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