Source: United States Senator for Michigan Debbie Stabenow
Senators Highlight Need for Final Competitiveness Legislation to Include $52 Billion for Semiconductor Chips Manufacturing; Stabenow, Peters Helped Pass Support in the Senate
Thursday, March 10, 2022
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Gary Peters (MI) called for full funding to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing. In a letter with colleagues in both the House and the Senate, Stabenow, and Peters pressed for the final competitiveness bill to include $52 billion to fund the Creating Helpful Incentives for the Production of Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act that Congress previously passed into law. The funding would include provisions that Stabenow and Peters authored to establish a $2 billion supplemental domestic semiconductor manufacturing incentive program at the Department of Commerce – which would support the production of mature semiconductor technologies. These are particularly critical for industries that have been severely impacted by a recent shortage – including the American auto industry. The provisions passed out of both the House of Representatives and the Senate and are now being negotiated between the two chambers as part of a broader competitiveness package.
“As original cosponsors and supporters of the Creating Helpful Incentives for the Production of Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act, we write today to urge you to preserve the full $52 billion included in USICA during the conference process to implement the CHIPS Act,” the Senators wrote. “Securing this funding as soon as possible will help address severe shortages in the semiconductor supply chain and reestablish American leadership in global semiconductor manufacturing.”
“From both an economic and national security perspective, it is imperative that the United States rapidly expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity,” the Senators continued. “We must move with urgency to secure this funding to create well-paying jobs and support workers and their families at new and existing facilities.”
Despite the critical importance of semiconductors to U.S. global competitiveness and national security, America’s share of semiconductor production has dropped from 37 percent in 1990 to just 12 percent today. The CHIPS for America Act will restore domestic semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. by increasing federal incentives to stimulate advanced chip manufacturing and enable cutting-edge research and development – securing our supply chains and strengthening the American microelectronics ecosystem. However, the effort has yet to receive the funding necessary to implement these incentives, despite being authorized by both the Senate and House of Representatives through their own versions of broadly bipartisan competitiveness bills.
In the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, Stabenow and Peters authored and secured the provision that created the $2 billion supplemental incentive fund to support domestic production of mature semiconductor technologies in the coming years and ensure that semiconductor projects that support critical manufacturing industries are given priority status, which would include the automotive sector. This was in addition to $50 billion already in the bill to incentivize the production of semiconductors of all kinds in the U.S.—for a total of $52 billion. The House-passed version of this legislation mirrored their provision to also include a $2 billion supplemental fund for mature chip production.
You can read the full text of the letter below and here.
Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader McCarthy:
We write today in strong support of the bicameral agreement for the House and Senate to go to conference on all titles of the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). As original cosponsors and supporters of the Creating Helpful Incentives for the Production of Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act, we write today to urge you to preserve the full $52 billion included in USICA during the conference process to implement the CHIPS Act. Securing this funding as soon as possible will help address severe shortages in the semiconductor supply chain and reestablish American leadership in global semiconductor manufacturing.
From both an economic and national security perspective, it is imperative that the United States rapidly expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity. While the United States’ global share of semiconductor manufacturing capacity was 37 percent in 1990, that number has fallen to an alarming 12 percent today. Without support, the United States risks falling further behind other countries, most notably China. The funding and structural reforms included in CHIPS will create a more resilient domestic semiconductor supply chain which will help prevent future shortages that cause GDP drag, job losses, more expensive consumer goods, and national security vulnerabilities. In addition, this vital funding will promote more secure technology supply chains globally, including by advancing collaboration efforts between the U.S. and close allies and partners on the adoption of secure and trusted products.
Fortunately, the $52 billion in emergency appropriations contained in USICA provides an effective funding structure that will allow the United States to emerge from this crisis stronger. This provision was already passed by the Senate on a bipartisan basis as part of USICA and has the support of a broad and diverse coalition. We must move with urgency to secure this funding to create well-paying jobs and support workers and their families at new and existing facilities. The USICA conference process will allow important unresolved issues to be reconciled in a bipartisan, bicameral way and we urge you to immediately begin negotiations to allow votes in the House and Senate as soon as possible.
We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to working with you to reestablish American leadership in semiconductor technology.
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