Union Leader on Senator Hassan’s Efforts to Pass Into Law Bipartisan Legislation to Help U.S. Outcompete China

NEW HAMPSHIRE – In case you missed it, the Union Leader reported on U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan’s virtual roundtable discussion yesterday about the need to boost U.S. competitiveness in order to outcompete China and strengthen U.S. national security.

During the roundtable, Senator Hassan specifically highlighted her work to pass the United States Innovation and Competition Act, a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that will invest more than $200 billion in domestic research and development, education, workforce training, and manufacturing. New Hampshire business leaders praised the bill as a necessary approach to bolster American innovation and technological advancement. The bill is expected to be voted on in the Senate later this month.

To read the Union Leader article, click here or see below.

Hassan promotes bill for U.S. to better compete with China

By Kevin Landrigan

A panel of private business executives and higher education administrators endorsed legislation U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., is authoring to help American companies outcompete China while strengthening national security.

The United States Innovation and Competition Act has bipartisan support. More than $200 billion would be spent on domestic research, development and manufacturing.

“This will allow you to do the outreach to so many firms, all need this assistance so they can be secure and resilient for their next product development,” Hassan said to business executives on Tuesday during a virtual discussion on the issue.

Marc Sedam, vice provost for Innovation & New Ventures at the University of New Hampshire, said this bill would for the first time provide federal support for technology transfer programs that work on identifying what will be the next wave of technology to make American business more competitive.

The measure would help create other hubs of technology innovation to add to the five that currently exist in the U.S. — in Boston; Austin, Texas; the Research Triangle in North Carolina; Silicon Valley in California; and Chicago, he said.

“This legislation will help fund the investment that leads to the next technology innovation,” Sedam said.

Steve Papa, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Parallel Wireless in Nashua, said it’s difficult for the United States to compete with Huawei, China’s leading technology company that enjoys massive government subsidies.

U.S. authorities also charge that Huawei became a leader in the technology race by stealing proprietary secrets of American competitors.

“China is very intent on taking over our high-margin, semiconductor (computer chip) industry and they are tilting the playing field,” Papa said.

“Huawei has become the leader globally because they invested in innovation and not just because they stole things.” […]

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