Mike Peterson
A bipartisan bill to boost U.S. chip manufacturing and competitiveness with China has cleared a key Senate hurdle and is set to go up for a final vote before July ends.
The legislative package, dubbed "CHIPS-plus," cleared the so-called cloture vote to break the legislative filibuster. CNBC reported Thursday that the vote passed 64-32.
"CHIPS-plus" will provide around $52 billion in funding for U.S. companies making semiconductors and computer chips. It also includes a provision offering a tax credit for investments in domestic chip production.
Additionally, the bill will also provide funding to bolster innovation and the development of other U.S. technologies.
The bill is expected to clear the Senate. After that, it will go before the U.S. House of Representatives. Supporters of the legislation, which is bipartisan, hope that it will be passed in Congress and sent to President Joe Biden's desk before the August recess.
Proponents of the bill believe that it's a vital strategy for bolstering U.S. economic and national security interests. President Biden has called the ongoing global chip shortage, which supporters say the bill can mitigate, a national security issue.
The bill, however, is a stripped-down version of a broader piece of legislation that has been sitting in Congress for months.
"America invented the semiconductor. It's time to bring it home," Biden said at a White House meeting Monday afternoon.
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18 Comments
This is great news if it goes according to plan and if the money is actually used for its intended purpose. We will most assuredly see prices go up here in the United States for computers, Phones and Cars or anything that uses and utilizes these Chips. Currently they are manufactured cheaper outside the United States with cheaper labor costs. As long as the quality and craftsmanship is high then I don’t mind paying more as long as we can stay competitive or surpass other countries. And… if it will create more jobs here in the United States then that is obviously a good thing.
It would be nice for us pleabs to see the text of the bill before we decide if it’s a good use of our taxes or not. I assume it’s jam packed with all kinds of pork, just like the American rescue plan and the so called infrastructure bill.
How about we take all that unspent Covid money and use that? The Covid money that wasn’t stolen outright anyway.
One wonders what the bill had before it was "stripped down"? Probably spending even more, no doubt. Meanwhile, the US defense budget is something like $780 billion a year. Re-homing chip production is decidedly more valuable to national security than another battleship or two.
Everyone knows that when government funds projects; it is 1/3 efficient. Hope our tax dollars are spend not just wisely but importantly efficiently.