S.Amdt. 2084

SA 2084. Mr. MERKLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
to amendment SA 1977 submitted by Mr. Merkley and intended to be
proposed to the 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:

Beginning on page 1, strike line 3 and all that follows
through page 3, line 22, and insert the following:

SEC. 3219L. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON STANDING WITH AUSTRALIA
AGAINST 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 and a
shared goal of establishing a free, open, secure, prosperous,
and resilient Indo-Pacific;
(4) Australia continues to be 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 employs similar forms of
economic coercion against other countries, not only within
the Indo-Pacific but around the world;
(6) such a campaign is an attempt 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 other countries can undermine 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, 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;

[[Page S3539]]

(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 put in place the appropriate personnel, mechanisms,
and collective structures to facilitate the effectiveness of
responses to economic coercion.
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