Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is threatening to derail a bill designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States if Democrats revive their stalled climate and social policy package.
The possible rejuvenation of the reconciliation package remains a work in progress and is far from certain. But McConnell seems worried enough that he decided to complicate Democratic lawmakers' efforts to get a semiconductor bill over the finish line before members break for their August recess.
The White House says McConnell is "holding hostage" a bipartisan package that would lower the cost of countless products that rely on semiconductors.
“Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill,” McConnell tweeted, referring to the shorthand name for the computer chips bill that passed the Senate last year.
Read the full statement from the White House below:
June 30, 2022
Statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Sen. McConnell Holding American Jobs and Competitiveness Versus China Hostage to Protect Big Pharma
The Republican Senate leader is holding hostage a bipartisan package to strengthen American competitiveness versus China, that would yield hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in places like Southern Ohio, Idaho, and other states around the country. It would lower the cost of countless products, and end our reliance on imports. Why? To protect the ability of big pharmaceutical companies to price gouge. Senate Republicans are literally choosing to help China out compete the U.S. in order to protect big drug companies. This takes loyalty to special interests over working Americans to a new and shocking height. We are not going to back down in the face of this outrageous threat.