Griffith co-sponsors legislation to promote American technological leadership

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) is an original cosponsor to the American Competitiveness of a More Productive Emerging Tech Economy (COMPETE) Act, introduced today by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA).

The bill promotes American technological leadership in several sectors, including unmanned delivery vehicles and quantum technology.

“I am very excited to be an original cosponsor of the American COMPETE Act. Technological innovation holds the key to a more prosperous, more productive, and safer future, and the United States needs to lead the way,” Griffith said.

The American COMPETE Act requires the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to submit a report on the impact of artificial intelligence on American businesses conducting interstate commerce.

Incorporated in the bill is the Advancing Quantum Computing Act, which Griffith introduced in May.

“One of the American COMPETE Act’s goals is to advance the use of unmanned delivery vehicles, and in this field our region of Virginia already leads the way,” Griffith said. “Drones delivered medicine to the Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise County in Virginia in 2015, the first approved package delivery by drone in the United States, and in 2019 the first commercial drone delivery service began in Christiansburg, both locations in the Ninth District. This bill will build on these achievements by studying the ways unmanned delivery systems can be further integrated into the economy.

“I am also glad this bill includes my legislation to study the benefits of quantum computing, a field that could unlock extraordinary advances in technology,” Griffith said.