president biden is expected to travel to Michigan on Tuesday for comments congress‘ Recent passage of its $280 billion Technology Spending Act aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing and boosting scientific research to give the government a crucial legislative victory.
Mister. biden plans to tout the positive impact the bill’s $52 billion payout to semiconductor manufacturers will have on economic and national security, the White House said Saturday in a statement announcing the trip.
The House of Representatives finally passed the bill Thursday by a vote of 243 to 187 after the Senate passed the measure 64 to 33 earlier in the week.
As a hub for auto manufacturing, Michigan has faced the brunt of chip shortages triggered by pandemic-related supply chain problems.
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said production delays due to the chip shortage meant that 2.2 million fewer vehicles would be produced in the U.S. in 2021, equivalent to 3,000 fewer workdays and impacting more than 575,000 domestic auto-related jobs.
“This means lower-income workers, higher in-store prices, fewer products for consumers to buy and an ever-increasing reliance on foreign supplies,” Ms Whitmer said in a statement. “In the long term, increasing domestic production of chips will secure and create jobs, strengthen our supply chain and grow the economy.”
congressPassing the bill marked a modest legislative victory for the White House and Democrats, who are starving for a legislative victory ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, and capped months of tense negotiations over the long-stalled $52 billion stimulus for chipmakers.
The White House has been in court press for weeks to pass the measure, urging lawmakers to lay down a bevy of tough measures against China to get broad-based semiconductor financing on its desk before the industry heavyweights take their money elsewhere.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who this month chaired secret briefings on Capitol Hill to force lawmakers to get stalled chip funding across the finish line, warns the U.S. is running out of time to lure chipmakers to its shores while other countries are beginning to introduce similar incentives.
Supporters of the bill, which would target more than $50 billion in chip manufacturing over the next five years and a 25% tax credit on new chip production through 2026, say it will reduce America’s dependence on China and solve a major supply chain problem , which has contributed to high inflation.
Without a steady stream of semiconductors used to manufacture a variety of goods like smartphones, washing machines and advanced weapons, proponents warn that the US will be severely handicapped in maintaining economic stability going forward.
“The CHIPS and Science Act is exactly what we need to do now to grow our economy,” said Mr. biden said in a laudatory statement congress‘ Passage of the bill. “By making more semiconductors in the United States, this law will increase domestic manufacturing and lower costs for families.”
Opponents, including some Republicans and independent Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders, have described the bill’s $52 billion in funding for the chip manufacturing industry as “corporate welfare.”
