{"id":1245004,"date":"2022-01-26T21:21:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T02:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1245004"},"modified":"2022-01-26T21:21:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T02:21:58","slug":"democrats-china-bill-hands-out-millions-for-diversity-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-china-bill-hands-out-millions-for-diversity-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats\u2019 China Bill Hands Out Millions For \u2018Diversity\u2019 Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-china-bill-hands-out-millions-for-diversity-programs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1245004&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><ul>\n<li><strong>Legislation designed to make the U.S. more competitive with China includes millions in appropriations for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The America COMPETES Act, introduced by House Democrats late Tuesday, sets aside $2 million a year for a Department of Energy (DOE) program intended to \u201cincrease the number and the diversity, equity, and inclusion of highly skilled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals working in Department of Energy mission-relevant disciplines.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The bill includes a provision codifying the position of chief diversity officer within the National Science Foundation, and appropriates $5 million over the next four years for the office.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Many of the diversity initiatives were also drawn from bills that previously passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, including&nbsp;the DOE Science for the Future Act and the&nbsp;National Science Foundation for the Future Act.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Legislation designed to make the U.S. more competitive with China includes millions in appropriations for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>The America COMPETES Act, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/01\/26\/house-democrat-china-competitiveness-semiconductor\/\">introduced<\/a>&nbsp;by House Democrats late Tuesday, is a companion to a bipartisan bill that <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/08\/chuck-schumer-china-manufacturing-semiconductors\/\">passed<\/a>&nbsp;the Senate in June 2021, though the House version lacks Republican support. The bill is designed to increase domestic technological advancement and innovation in order to make the U.S. more competitive with China, and includes $45 billion to ease supply chain disruptions and $52 billion for domestic semiconductor fabrication.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/rules.house.gov\/sites\/democrats.rules.house.gov\/files\/BILLS-117HR4521RH-RCP117-31.pdf\">legislation<\/a> also contains several provisions establishing and funding diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/01\/25\/commerce-department-gina-raimondo-usica-semiconductors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Says Chip Crisis Is \u2018Extremely Urgent,\u2019 Begs Congress To Pass Investment Bill)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The bill sets aside $2 million a year for a Department of Energy (DOE) program intended to \u201cincrease the number and the diversity, equity, and inclusion of highly skilled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals working in Department of Energy mission-relevant disciplines.\u201d The secretary of Energy must also submit a plan to Congress for \u201cbroadening participation of underrepresented groups.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the legislation includes a provision establishing a grant-making program through the National Science Foundation (NSF) dubbed the \u201cNSF INCLUDES Initiative\u201d &nbsp;that funds higher education efforts to broaden \u201cparticipation in STEM studies and careers of groups historically underrepresented in such studies and careers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill appropriates $8 million each year from 2022 to 2026 to fund another NSF grant-making initiative providing funding for universities and colleges to increase diversity among their faculty and recruit \u201cunderrepresented minority groups in academic STEM careers.\u201d A similar provision sets aside $15 million a year to increase diversity among undergraduates in STEM fields.<\/p>\n<p>The NSF is also instructed to create a program funding aimed at increasing \u201cdiversity in tech research\u201d that awards grants to universities for efforts \u201cincluding research related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology sector,\u201d according to the legislation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7292140\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7292140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speak to members of the press after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the U.S. Capitol August 7, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The NSF\u2019s Fostering STEM Research Diversity and Capacity Program, which is appropriated $600 million over the next four years, awards grants to eligible institutions to study how to engage and retain STEM students from \u201cdiverse backgrounds,\u201d according to the bill.<\/p>\n<p>It includes a provision codifying the position of chief diversity officer within the NSF, and appropriates $5 million over the next four years for the office. The post is tasked with matters related to diversity and inclusion, and is responsible for increasing representation from \u201cminority-serving institutions,\u201d tribal colleges and historically black colleges and universities.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation also requires at least 5% of funding for state apprenticeship agencies to go towards \u201csupporting and expanding diversity\u201d in occupations suitable for apprenticeship. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/11\/25\/commerce-department-china-gina-raimondo-entity-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: US Blacklists Tech Companies Helping Chinese Military)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The diversity provisions have attracted strong bipartisan support, with certain Republicans viewing them as a means to increase competitiveness with China by expanding America\u2019s pool of STEM talent, according to a House Science Republican aide.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the diversity initiatives were also drawn from bills that previously passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-science.house.gov\/legislation\/bills\/hr-3593-doe-science-future-act\">including<\/a>&nbsp;the DOE Science for the Future Act <a href=\"https:\/\/science.house.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/H2225_SUS_xml.pdf\">and the<\/a>&nbsp;National Science Foundation for the Future Act.<\/p>\n<p>However, despite the Senate\u2019s version of the bill passing with over a dozen Republicans on board, the House version appears to be more contentious. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Frank Lucas, ranking member of the House Science Committee, released a <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-science.house.gov\/news\/press-releases\/lucas-criticizes-pelosis-competitiveness-package\">statement<\/a>&nbsp;late Tuesday excoriating House Democrats for including \u201cpoison pills\u201d in the legislation fracturing bipartisan support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of focusing on strong consensus policies, she\u2019s filled her package with poison pills with no bipartisan support. There was no need to make this partisan, but it seems that the Speaker can\u2019t resist taking good policy and making it controversial,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cAt first glance, this bill actually weakens our ability to deal with the malign influence from China. We cannot afford to play politics while the Chinese Communist Party threatens our economic and national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers <a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-energycommerce.house.gov\/news\/leader-rodgers-statement-on-speaker-pelosis-latest-usica-bill\/\">voiced<\/a>&nbsp;similar concerns, calling the bill \u201canother attempt to outspend the CCP with duplicative, multi-billion-dollar command and control programs that will diminish our global competitiveness, fail to solve the supply chain crisis, and make inflation worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation designed to make the U.S. more competitive with China includes millions in appropriations for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The America COMPETES Act, introduced by House Democrats late Tuesday, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1245004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1245004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1245004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1245004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}