[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 92 (Wednesday, May 26, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3538-S3539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  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.
                                 ______