Bill To Manufacture More Computer Chips In US Passes House & Senate
Credit: WFMD, Kevin McManus
Washington DC. (KM) – Legislation to spur more semi-conductor companies to build computer chips in the United States has passed the US Senate and the House of Representatives and has been sent to the President for his signature. The package totals $280-billion and will boost funding for domestic chip production, and provides money for some federal science agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Representative David Trone (D-Md) voted in favor of the legislation. “Chips are used in everything: our cars, our missile systems, our Javelin small missile that are used in Ukraine. So the defense industry, the car industry, everybody needs these chips. The fact that we don’t make them here is certainly contributing to inflation. Because we have a shortage of chips, we don’t control our destiny,” he says.
In 1990, Trone says companies in the US made 37% of the chips used in this country. But that percentage shrank to 12%. “We shipped the jobs overseas for sure. And other countries offered incentives to build the factories in their countries and they offered cheaper labor. And then America’s companies went. So we’ve got to compete on a global basis.” he says.
The legislation, called the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act and Science Act, provides $52.7-billion to chip manufacturing, research and production, and that includes $2-billion for legacy chip production for auto industry and the military. “This is about investing in American jobs, American manufacturing. It’ll create 100,000 new high paying jobs in these chip plants that are going to built,” Trone says.
He also says this funding will come in the form of “grants for sure, and direct financial assistance. $52.7-billion, but also a 25% tax credit in all US semiconductor manufacturing and investment.”
Representative Trone says this is one example of lawmakers thinking long term. “In the past, we thought too much short term. And, frankly, that’s one of the biggest problems with Congress: they only think short term here, and that’s dumb. That’s just dumb. We got to think long term about our kids, and their kids, and then we’ll make better decisions,” he said.
