USICA Passage Clouded by McConnell Threat
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who voted for the Senate's China package last year, publicly threw a wrench into the already difficult negotiations to hash out a compromise between the House and Senate approaches to investing in America and competing with China.
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McConnell tweeted late afternoon June 30: "Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill."
He had already been telling Republicans quietly that he thought they should withhold support for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act if a miniature Build Back Better were revived. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., killed the bill months ago, saying he couldn't support a broad spending package that could fuel inflation. Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have discussed what Manchin could support in the hopes of getting something done to curb high drug costs for seniors, repeal some Trump-era tax cuts and devote resources to a green transition to fight climate change.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is involved in perhaps the most difficult negotiations in the conference committee, to find a way forward on trade policy, responded to McConnell's tweet in a July 1 statement.
“Senate Republicans have been dragging their feet for months on the help American workers and manufacturers need,” Wyden said. “Now Mitch McConnell has made clear that he is willing to side with the Chinese government just for his party’s political gain. It’s time for the American people to make clear they won’t stand for a party that won’t stand up for America.”
The White House also responded to McConnell's tweet. "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," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "We are not going to back down in the face of this outrageous threat."