senate: To compete with China, the US Senate tries to pass computer chip bill once more
The Senate's Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, announced that the first procedural vote would take place, calling US semiconductor manufacturing a matter of national security as well as a source of jobs.
Senate aides said the goal is to pass the bill by early next week. That would send the bill to the House of Representatives, whose approval would then send it to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.
Senate aides said the bill would include USD52 billion to rebuild the U.S. semiconductor industry as well as tax incentives for companies to build plants in the United States.
"The message is not subtle: If companies do not think it is profitable to make chips here in America, they are going to go somewhere else," Schumer said as he opened the Senate on Monday.
Administration officials held briefings for lawmakers last week to urge passage.
The Senate approved a bipartisan USD250 billion bill boosting spending on technology research and development in June 2021, one of the first major pieces of legislation passed after Democrats gained their slim control of the chamber.
However, the legislation was never taken up in the Democratic-controlled House, which earlier this year passed its own bill, with almost no Republican support. That measure included provisions to boost chipmakers, but also billions of dollars for other supply chains and the Global Climate Change Initiative, which Republicans oppose.
Urged by the administration to do something, lawmakers recently began working more urgently on the slimmed-down legislation focused on semiconductors.
( Details and picture courtesy from Source, the content is auto-generated from RSS feed.)
Join our official telegram channel for free latest updates and follow us on Google News here.
