WASHINGTON, D.C.: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to increase production of semiconductor chips in the United States.
The 3,000-page bill includes large investments to increase semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.
The bill also provides some $52 billion in grants and subsidies to assist the semiconductor industry, and $45 billion to strengthen supply chains for high-tech products.
The bill passed by a vote of 222-210. However, it is expected to be to be significantly revised, as negotiators reconcile differences with a similar U.S. Senate bill.
Republicans have objected to the many additional expenditures added to the bill, including $8 billion to assist less developed countries implement climate change initiatives.
“The bill we’re talking about today is a jobs bill, a jobs bill for manufacturing in America, for making it in America,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the bill passed.
However, Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn. criticized the bill, saying, “This bill is actually just a long list of progressive dream policies,” said Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn.
In urging the passing of the bill, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, “We are so far behind. We’re in such a dangerous place as a matter of national security, just because of our reliance on Taiwan for our most sophisticated, leading-edge chips.”
The United States’ share of semiconductor manufacturing globally has fallen from 37 percent in 1990 to some 12 percent in 2022.
The computer chip legislation passed in the Senate in June by a vote of 68-32.
