Office of Rep. Marilyn Strickland announcement.
On Feb. 4, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) released the following statement after the House passed the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022. The final bill included five provisions Strickland secured.
“To compete on the world stage and foster economic security for all, we must invest in American workers, manufacturing and businesses,” said Strickland. “I was proud to support the America COMPETES Act which will alleviate the supply chain crisis, strengthen American innovation, and ensure the South Sound is placed on a path for a full and equitable recovery. As part of this final bill, I successfully secured five provisions, including language to protect Puget Sound’s marine mammals, providing additional funding for HBCUs, supporting apprenticeships and safety measures that all assist with our nation’s future success on the world stage.”
Five Strickland provisions were included in the House passed version of the America COMPETES Act of 2022:
- Ensuring Domestic Manufacturers Can Safely Export:: This amendment would create new export controls on electronic waste to address issues with counterfeit Chinese electronic parts entering the U.S. market.
- Supporting Apprenticeships for Underserved Communities: This provision prioritizes disseminating best practices to recruit nontraditional apprenticeship populations, women, minorities, long-term unemployed, individuals with a disability, individuals recovering from substance abuse disorders, veterans, military spouses, individuals experiencing homelessness, individuals impacted by the criminal or juvenile justice system, and foster and former foster youth.
- Protecting Marine Mammals: This amendment includes Strickland’s bipartisan Marine Mammal Research and Response Act, which increases funding for two initiatives—the Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program and the Unusual Mortality Event fund—that the federal government uses to support efforts by local governments and non-profit organizations to rescue and rehabilitate sick and injured marine mammals and to determine what is causing the mammals to experience problems.
- Increasing Funding for HBCUs: This amendment increases funding for the Capacity Building Program for Developing Universities and ensures that like institutions only compete with like institutions. This amendment also expands eligibility to ensure that HBCUs and MSIs that do not have R1 status can receive funds.
- Banning the Transportation of Sodium Cyanide: This amendment would direct the Secretaries of Commerce, Transportation, and Homeland Security to issue a interim final rule that would ban the transportation of sodium cyanide briquettes for mining purposes in the United States, unless such sodium cyanide briquettes are packaged and transported in ISO steel containers and in accordance with Hazardous Materials regulations. When sodium cyanide is imported to U.S. ports it comes in a way that is dangerous.
The America COMPETES Act of 2022 also:
- Makes Critically-Needed Semiconductors in America:Meets this challenge by appropriating $52 billion for the CHIPS for America Act, critical investments to support continued American technological leadership in semiconductor fabrication, address supply chain disruptions and ensure more semiconductors are produced here at home.
- Fixes the Supply Chain and Strengths American Manufacturing:Authorizes $45 billion to fix our broken supply chains by building more critical components in America, strengthening American manufacturing and protecting our national security with American-made capacity to prevent shortages and disruptions – including public health and biological preparedness, information and communications technology, the energy and transportation sector’s industrial base, and agricultural commodities and food products.
- Turbocharges American Scientific Research, Technology & Innovation Excellence: Includes a suite of bipartisan science, research and technology bills to turbocharge American innovation, focusing on solutions instead of chasing buzzwords and maximizing the American talent pool by strengthening and diversifying our nation’s STEM workforce.
- Secures America’s Global Competitiveness & Leadership Through Economic Development; Diplomacy, Human Rights & Alliances:Includes numerous provisions to strengthen and promote America’s leadership around the globe, ensuring that American interests, partnerships and values succeed on the global stage, and that American leadership wins on the key issues our time, including the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, particularly as China and other countries seek to re-write the rules of the road in their favor. COMPETES takes real, strong action to hold the China accountable for its trade abuses and its human rights violations, including the genocide against the Uyghurs.
