News

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote a scholarly article for the conservative policy journal National Affairs titled, “Industrial Policy, Right and Wrong.”

In the article, Rubio takes stock of the benefits of industrial policy throughout America’s history, exposes the flaws in the Biden Administration’s CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and charts a course for more effective industrial policy in the near-term future.

• “Hamstrung by industries and activists whose interests conflict with those of the United States, the administration’s initiatives – CHIPS and the IRA – promise many of the downsides of industrial policy (massive spending, market inefficiencies, and top-down social engineering) with too few benefits for national security or the broader public.”

• “The commonsense path forward is to identify the Biden administration’s particular failures, which are not endemic to industrial policy broadly, and to correct them with conservative insights. These insights include a greater willingness to prioritize the national interest, a more pragmatic approach to regulation, and increased support for entire supply chains, from the mine to the factory.” – Senator Rubio

Specifically, the article includes proposals to:

• Focus industrial policy on rebuilding the defense industrial base rather than speeding the “green transition”
• Expand our list of critical industries to include mining, agriculture, medicine, and more
• Tie industrial policy subsidies to clear metrics (e.g., export quotas)
• Combine industrial policy with deregulation

Want more information? Read more:

• March 2024: Rubio Introduces Bills to Prevent China from Flooding U.S. Auto Markets
• February2024: Rubio Pushes to Override Biden Veto, Blocking Chinese-made EV Chargers
• February 2024: Rubio, Colleagues Push DoD to Prioritize Defense Industrial Base Needs
• January 2024: ICYMI: Rubio Laments Sale of U.S. Steel
• December 2023: Rubio Urges Biden Administration to Block China’s Brite Semiconductor from Accessing U.S. Technology