WASHINGTON—The Senate on Wednesday approved a $280 billion bill aimed at boosting the semiconductor industry crucial to modern technology, in a bipartisan embrace of expanding U.S. industrial policy to counter the competitive threat posed by China.
The vote reflected growing concern in both parties that the U.S. lacks a long-term response to Beijing’s technological and economic rise, a view galvanized when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted chip supplies from Asia, with fallout across major industries.
