Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) this week filed an updated and enhanced version of a bipartisan innovation bill, even as President Biden released a pared-down, compromise revision of his expansive infrastructure plan.

Schumer filed the bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 as a substitute amendment to the Endless Frontier Act. The bipartisan substitute amendment brings together the already-bipartisan Endless Frontier Act from Schumer and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind), which passed the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee last week and includes more than 20 bipartisan amendments, as well as consolidates several other related bipartisan bills, according to the Senate Democrats’ office.

The Schumer substitute amendment also includes $52 billion in emergency funding to implement the bipartisan CHIPS Act included in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and a program to support legacy chip production that is essential to the auto industry, the military, and other critical industries. An additional $1.5 billion is provided for the implementation of the USA Telecommunications Act that was also passed as part of last year’s NDAA to foster U.S. innovation in the race for 5G.

“The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 will jumpstart American competitiveness and make one of the most significant government investments in American innovation and manufacturing in generations,” said Schumer. “I’m proud that this bipartisan legislation is the product of hard work from more than a half-dozen Senate committees and includes input from nearly every member of the Senate. This legislation will allow the United States to out-compete countries like China in critical technologies like semiconductors, create good-paying American jobs and help improve our country’s economic and national security.”

A section-by-section summary of the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 can be found here and the text of the legislation can be found here.

Meanwhile, President Biden and his team presented a slimmer version of Biden’s signature American Jobs Plan.

That counterproposal, designed to meet recalcitrant congressional Republicans, has been pared back to $1.7 trillion, from the original price tag of $2.2 trillion.

However, even this scaled-back Biden plan is still well north of the $568 billion plan which Republicans have publicly gotten behind.

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