Baldwin, Vance Bipartisan Bill to Ensure Taxpayer-Funded Inventions Are Made in America Passes Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced her bipartisan legislation with Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), the Invent Here, Make Here Act of 2023, passed unanimously on the Senate floor. The bipartisan legislation ensures taxpayer-funded inventions are not manufactured in adversarial countries like China, but rather, in the United States. The bill builds on bipartisan legislation championed by Senator Baldwin and signed into law that requires taxpayer-funded research that leads to inventions that boost national security are made in the United States.

“I’ve fought for years to ensure that when we invest taxpayer dollars, we’re investing in American businesses and workers. For too long, taxpayer funded inventions have been shipped overseas for production in places like China, benefitting their economy and compromising our national security,” said Senator Baldwin. “Our bipartisan bill makes sure American businesses and workers are first in line to produce these taxpayer-funded inventions, keeping our country safe, creating jobs, and supporting our local economies.”

While current law requires federally funded inventions to be manufactured in the United States, the requirement is often waived, allowing cutting-edge, taxpayer-funded technologies to be licensed to foreign companies and manufactured in countries like China. In a noteworthy example of the flawed process, an investigative report in August 2022 found that a breakthrough battery technology invented in a federal lab had been licensed to a Chinese company and was being manufactured in China.

The Invent Here, Make Here Act would prohibit waivers for applications that intend to manufacture in a “country of concern” – currently China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. The legislation would also increase scrutiny of waiver requests, requiring written authorization by the President of the United States.

The bipartisan legislation will also help American companies access and manufacture inventions developed with taxpayer-funded research. The bill requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology to improve coordination with other federal agencies to encourage the commercialization of federal research by domestic manufacturers and ensure that projects funded through the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate at the National Science Foundation prioritize domestic manufacturing.

“The Alliance for American Manufacturing applauds Senators Baldwin (D-WI) and Vance (R-OH) for their work to pass the Invent Here, Make Here Act, which adds accountability, transparency, and teeth to a broken waiver process that has been used to outsource our taxpayer funded innovations to China," said Scott N. Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. "This bill is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to continuing to work with Senator Baldwin to ensure that our breakthrough technologies are made in America.”

In the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Senators Baldwin and Rob Portman (R-OH) included a provision to strengthen the waiver process for inventions resulting from federal research at the Department of Homeland Security. These new rules added an additional layer of review for all waivers and prohibited waivers for companies that will manufacture in hostile countries.

The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives. 

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