[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 91 (Tuesday, May 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S3431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  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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