This week, the Senate took up consideration of the procedural tool to continue consideration of the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). This legislation began with good enough intentions, but like too many bills in Congress, has spun out of control into a $250 billion money pit of pet projects.
There is no doubt that China is our top competition when it comes to innovation and technology, and it is important that we take steps to ensure American innovators have the resources and regulations they need to keep pace and outperform competitors in China and around the globe. Unfortunately, this bill dumps a lot of money into government programs that are unlikely to move the needle on our competitiveness.
Here is just a sampling of the wasteful spending included in this bill:
❌ $8 billion for a Green Climate Fund at the United Nations
❌ $2 billion annually in foreign aid to fight climate change
❌ $15 million annually for solar panel subsidies
❌ $78 billion for unaccountable spending at the National Science Foundation
If Congress is serious about unleashing American innovation, the first step is not more government programs. Instead, we need to get government out of the way and let innovators innovate. This bill just picks winners and losers and uses taxpayer dollars to prop up politically favored industries. In a time where we are experiencing historic inflation due to reckless government spending, this is the wrong move.