U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) applauded recent Senate action advancing a measure designed to protect the more than $100 billion investment in research from global competitors.
The Safeguarding American Innovation Act was advanced as a part of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which invests more than $100 billion of taxpayer funds as a means of bolstering domestic leadership in scientific and technological innovation essential to national security and economic competitiveness.
“The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act invests billions of taxpayer dollars in national security and technological innovation at the National Science Foundation, so I’m pleased that the final legislative package includes the guardrails of my bipartisan Safeguarding American Innovation Act to ensure that the American taxpayer does not unwittingly fuel the rise of China,” said Portman, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We cannot continue to allow our adversaries to steal taxpayer-funded research and innovation to the detriment of hard-working Americans. This bill will help us stop foreign governments from stealing our research and innovation so that American taxpayer-funded research will be used to level the playing field to create jobs for hard-working Americans.”
Carper, chairman and ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), said protecting innovation is vital to ensuring American businesses can compete and win in the global economy.
“The Chinese government for decades has been exploiting the open nature of our research community by recruiting American scientists and blatantly stealing U.S. taxpayer-funded research for their own economic benefit,” he said. “This bipartisan, common-sense legislation will help safeguard American research and ensure that taxpayer-funded innovation is not stolen by competitors.”