WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the funding for his Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act that passed the Senate this evening as part of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here. The CHIPS for America Act passed last year as a part of the National Defense Authorization Act, but was left unfunded.
“For everything from national security to economic policy, there’s a clear and urgent need to reorient the way our country views and responds to the challenge from China.”
“The cornerstone of this legislation, of course, is funding to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing so the United States can compete with China and secure some of our most critical supply chains.”
“Senator Warner, the Senior Senator from Virginia, and I introduced the CHIPS For America Act last year to shore up domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reduce our reliance on other countries for one of our most critical products.”
“The vast majority of our colleagues agreed that this was an important and critical task. It was carefully crafted in a months-long, bipartisan, bicameral negotiation and, in fact, this legislation was adopted as an amendment to last year’s Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 96-4. Now, though, it falls to us to fund what we authorized.”
“It’s important that we send a clear, and distinct, and unequivocal message to our competitors and rivals.”
“Republicans and Democrats have worked together to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing and to confront one of our biggest looming threats from China.”