Innovation Files Blog

China was the world’s largest investor in productive capital in 2024, investing $11.9 trillion when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), equivalent to 31 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In comparison, the United States invested just $5.1 trillion, or 17 percent of GDP.

As Congress considers a national data privacy standard, the SECURE Data Act represents a significant shift from earlier proposals. This comparison examines how it differs from the American Privacy Rights Act and the American Data Privacy and Protection Act and why those differences matter for consumers, businesses, and innovation.

Waiting for the next Congress is the wrong approach. Because neither party can pass a federal privacy law without bipartisan support, lawmakers should build on the SECURE Data Act's bipartisan, state-tested framework to enact a national privacy law that protects consumers and the economy.

The USMCA’s digital trade rules set the global standard. Now, policymakers should modernize them for the age of AI, close loopholes that enable data localization and discriminatory taxes, and build a more secure, competitive North American digital economy.

Applying Most Favored Nation pricing to both Medicare and Medicaid—requiring U.S. prices for drugs that have already been launched to equal the lowest prices among a group of peer countries—is estimated to reduce U.S. pharmaceutical revenues by 49 percent and global pharmaceutical revenues by 31 percent.

The FDA is considering allowing seven unapproved peptides—substantially sourced through a Chinese gray market—to be used by U.S. compounding pharmacies, despite its own scientists warning against it. Approving them would legitimize unvetted foreign suppliers and undermine evidence-based drug regulation.

Both small and large firms are essential to America’s innovation system because they specialize in different forms of innovation. Congress should double the regular R&D tax credit to 40 percent and reduce the red tape associated with claiming it.

Manufacturing labor productivity growth is a key driver of the United States’ long-term economic performance and global competitiveness, but it has slowed sharply since 2005. Congress should provide a 25 percent tax credit to firms adopting productivity-enhancing technologies to help reverse this slowdown.

German exports to China as a share of GDP have declined by more than 40 percent since 2021, while the German labor force has seen a decline of more than 400,000 jobs linked to exports to China.

The United States is the global power in space, but insufficient spaceport infrastructure threatens the growth of the American space industry. Congress, NASA, and Space Force must address the problem before it undermines U.S. leadership.