The lower chamber of the United States, the House of Representatives will soon propose a bill seeking to increase the country’s competitiveness with China while boosting federal spending on semiconductors.
The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi who made this known on Friday in a note to Democratic colleagues said: “The House will soon introduce its competitiveness bill.”
With the Biden’s administration seeking to boost domestic chip production, the announcement is coming just hours after semiconductor company, Intel Corp announced the investment of over $20 billion in two new chip-making plants in Ohio in a massive manufacturing project that could benefit from federal funding in the years ahead.
The U.S government will push to persuade Congress to approve funding to help boost chip production in the United States, as shortages of the key components used in autos and computers have exacerbated supply chain bottlenecks.
“I want to see Congress pass this bill right away and get it to my desk,” Biden said. “Let’s do it for the sake of our economic competitiveness and our national security.”
The U.S. Senate had last year passed the Innovation and Competition Act, which included a $52 billion investment to increase U.S. semiconductor production and authorizes $190 billion to strengthen U.S. technology and research to compete with China.
“The House legislation will supercharge our investment in chips, strengthen our supply chain and transform our research capacity, plus many other key provisions,” Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic colleagues.
President Biden had earlier last week said surging inflation had “everything to do with the supply chain”, while noting that the United States had the capacity to become self-reliant on the computer chips it needed to manufacture automobiles.
Part of Biden’s government move to alleviate chip shortage included meeting with industry executives and allies to discuss the topic, and initiating a study from the Commerce Department to identify chokepoints and other problems.
Biden acknowledged Intel’s investment on Friday at a White House event together with the chip company’s CEO Pat Gelsinger. At the event, the United States leader made a case for congressional action.
Before the White House news conference, Gelsinger had in an interview with Reuters said that his company is “still going to start the Ohio site. It’s just not going to happen as fast and it’s not going to grow as big as quickly.”
The initial $20 billion investment by Intel is the largest in Ohio’s history, according to Gelsinger is built on a 1,000-acre site in New Albany will generate 3,000 jobs. The investment could grow to $100 billion with eight total fabrication plants and is the largest investment in Ohio’s history, he told Reuters.