S.Amdt. 1977

SA 1977. Mr. MERKLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
to amendment SA 1502 proposed by Mr. Schumer to the bill S. 1260, to
establish a new Directorate for Technology and Innovation in the
National Science Foundation, to establish a regional technology hub
program, to require a strategy and report on economic security,
science, research, innovation, manufacturing, and job creation, to
establish a critical supply chain resiliency program, and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle A of title II of division C, add
the following:

SEC. 3219L. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DEFENDING AUSTRALIA FROM
ECONOMIC COERCION.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the alliance between the United States and Australia
provides strategic, economic, and cultural value to both
nations;
(2) the security and prosperity of each is vital to the
future security and prosperity of both nations;
(3) the close, longstanding cooperation between the United
States and Australia in strategic and military affairs is
built on strong bonds of trust between the two nations that
bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific;
(4) Australia is currently the target of a concerted
campaign of economic coercion by the People's Republic of
China aimed at punishing the government and people of one of
the United States' closest allies for the exercise of their
sovereign, democratic rights;
(5) the People's Republic of China has employed similar
forms of economic coercion against other countries on many
other occasions, not only within the Indo-Pacific but around
the world;
(6) such a campaign, if successful, has the potential to
undermine the sovereignty of Australia and the ability of the
Government of Australia to act in concert with the United
States toward the shared goal of a free and open Indo-
Pacific; and
(7) the routine use of economic coercion by the People's
Republic of China against Australia and other countries
undermines those countries' ability to speak or act in
defense of their own sovereignty, democratic values, and
human rights, and is therefore a threat to a free and open
global order.
(b) Statement of Policy.--It shall be the policy of the
United States--
(1) to stand with Australia in its moment of need,
providing relevant support to the Government and people of
Australia to mitigate the costs of economic coercion by the
People's Republic of China to the greatest extent possible;
(2) to work with the Government of Australia and other
allies and partners to coordinate collective, cooperative
responses to both threatened and actual instances of economic
coercion by the People's Republic of China; and
(3) to devise a strategy to guide the implementation of
such responses, and to put in place the appropriate
personnel, mechanisms, and collective structures to facility
their effectiveness.
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