Semiconductor, science bill passes Senate, heads to House
WASHINGTON — A bill to bolster chip manufacturing and scientific research won Senate approval, setting Congress up to clear a trimmed economic competitiveness package after a yearlong-plus push.
The Senate voted 64-33 Wednesday to pass the “chips and science” bill. The House is expected to clear the legislation before leaving town Friday for the August recess, sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature.
Before passage, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer praised the bill as one of this Congress’ most consequential bipartisan achievements.
“After years of hard work, the Senate is passing the largest investment in science, technology and advanced manufacturing in decades,” Schumer said on the floor Wednesday. “This chips and science bill is going to create millions of good-paying jobs down the road. It will alleviate supply chains, it will help lower costs, and it will protect America’s national security interests.”
—CQ-Roll Call
Dr. Anthony Fauci says government response to monkeypox must address anti-gay stigmas
Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the government’s response against monkeypox must include combating anti-gay stigmas that could be associated with the disease.
Speaking with NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Tuesday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, highlighted the importance of treating the virus as one that can affect anybody, and not only a certain part of the population.
There are currently 19,188 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the current outbreak, which the World Health Organization has recently classified as a public health emergency. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,591 of them are in the United States.
Even though right now the vast majority of cases are being reported among gay and bisexual men, it’s important to focus on fighting the virus, and not stigmatizing those who are infected, Fauci said.
“You reach out to the community. You make it very easy for them to have access to testing, to treatment and to the vaccine as opposed to making it a situation where people are afraid to come forward for those types of things,” he added.
—New York Daily News
DeSantis takes another swipe at ‘woke’ corporations, saying Florida won’t invest
MIAMI — Continuing to target what he calls “woke” corporations, Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to prohibit state investments that use “environmental, social and governance” ratings, which can include taking into account impacts of climate change.
DeSantis plans to have the State Board of Administration, which oversees investments, direct pension-fund managers against “using political factors when investing the state’s money.” So-called ESG policies have drawn criticism from Republicans across the country.
“We want them (fund managers) to invest the state’s money for the best interests of the beneficiaries of those funds, which is, again, the people that are retired cops and teachers and other public employees,” DeSantis said Wednesday during an appearance at a Tampa restaurant.
DeSantis also intends to work during the 2023 legislative session with incoming House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, to put into law ESG prohibitions. ESG practices can involve considering a wide range of issues in investments, such as companies’ climate-change vulnerabilities; carbon emissions; product safety; supply-chain labor standards; privacy and data security, and executive compensation.
—Miami Herald
Debris from a Chinese space rocket is crashing toward Earth
Debris from a Chinese rocket is set to crash to Earth some time over the next few days, with the potential for wreckage to land across a wide swathe of the globe.
Part of a Long March 5B rocket China launched on July 24 will make an uncontrolled reentry around July 31, according to the Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit based in El Segundo, California, that receives U.S. funding.
The possible debris field includes much of the U.S., as well as Africa, Australia, Brazil, India and Southeast Asia, according to Aerospace’s predictions.
Concern over the reentry and the impact it could have is being dismissed by China, however, with state-backed media saying the warnings are just “sour grapes” from people resentful of the country’s development as a space power.
—Bloomberg News
