National security adviser Jake Sullivan blasted Congress on Wednesday for underfunding research and development as he took a victory lap for the Biden administration’s policies on competing with China on tech.
“Congress still hasn’t appropriated the ‘science’ part of CHIPS and Science, even while the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is increasing its science and technology budget by 10 percent year on year,” Sullivan said at the Brookings Institution.
The CHIPS and Science Act was supposed to infuse some $200 billion over a decade into the National Science Foundation and offices in the Commerce and Energy departments. Instead, lawmakers passed a spending package this year with cuts to their budgets.
Still, Sullivan took a mostly valedictory tone on the White House’s approach to tech under President Joe Biden. He touted the CHIPS and Science Act for unleashing massive U.S. government and private sector investment in semiconductors and AI development.
