House poised to pass China competition bill without a formal cost estimate: CRFB

The Democratic-led House of Representatives is poised to vote on a China competition legislation that includes more than $50 billion of funding for computer chipmakers, without knowing the true cost of the full bill.

"Because there is not yet a Congressional Budget Office score of the bill, it is unknown how much it costs, but it has at least $50 billion of emergency appropriations for semiconductor production incentives," the CRFB said in a statement ahead of the expected House vote on the America COMPETES Act Thursday evening.

Maya MacGuineas, president of CRFB, said that "maintaining America’s economic standing by improving our ability to compete with China on research and manufacturing is a worthy investment, but it should not come at the expense of future generations saddled with more debt."

MacGuineas said the Senate-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) of 2021 "missed the mark for its borrowing" and the House’s America COMPETES Act does the same.