[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 22 (Thursday, February 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S512-S515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         CHIPS for America Act

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, in the summer of 2020, the senior 
Senator from Virginia, Senator Warner, and I introduced the CHIPS for 
America Act to reshore semiconductor manufacturing here in the United 
States.
  I didn't know much about semiconductors when we got started, but I 
have learned a lot, and what I have learned is that this is an 
essential commodity that we have over time offshored to places like 
Asia that we need to reshore or bring back to America for our economy 
and for national security.
  Currently, 90 percent of the semiconductors in the world are 
manufactured in Asia. Sixty-three percent of the semiconductors in the 
world come from one place: Taiwan. If COVID has taught us one thing, it 
has taught us how vulnerable our supply chains can be. And the truth 
is, semiconductors have become so critical to our way of life, to our 
economy, and to our national security, to everything we do, that if 
that supply were blocked for some reason--either as a result of another 
pandemic or a natural disaster or, Heaven forbid, a military conflict--
it would be devastating to the United States and our economy and our 
national security.
  That is why, when our bill was introduced as an amendment to the 
Defense authorization bill, it passed 96 to 4. Clearly, we had strong, 
bipartisan support here in the Senate. It took less than 7 months from 
the time we introduced the bill until it became law, and then 6 months 
later, the Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, with 
$52 billion in funding for the CHIPS Program.
  Had this legislation been introduced years ago, before the pandemic, 
I don't think it would have received either such quick action or such 
broad bipartisan support. That is not because this type of investment 
wasn't needed. There is clear data that showed a concerning trend in 
U.S. chip manufacturing.
  We saw big investments made by other countries in their own 
capabilities and a business model primarily by Taiwan Semiconductor 
Manufacturing Company, which I visited along with colleagues in Taipei 
just a few months ago, where their business model is to manufacture 
chips made and designed--I should say designed by companies that need 
those semiconductors. But rather than build their own manufacturing 
capability, their own foundry, they outsourced that to Taiwan 
Semiconductor. So Taiwan and particularly Taiwan Semiconductor have 
become the focal point for the production of semiconductors around the 
world.
  Well, there was general agreement that something should be done 
before COVID-19, but it certainly wasn't at the top of everyone's 
priority list. But, as I said, when the pandemic hit, the vulnerability 
of our supply chains for everything from PPE--personal protective 
equipment--to semiconductors became apparent.
  Well, how has that affected everyday Texans, folks from Nevada or 
Colorado? Well, we found out that an absence or a lack of 
semiconductors meant empty car lots. You couldn't buy a new car. You 
couldn't get a computer, perhaps for your child to be able to study 
virtually during a quarantine period or during a period of virtual 
learning at schools across the country.

  We saw higher prices adding to the problem with inflation. Suddenly, 
those concerning data points turned into real-world problems. Consumers 
who never even dreamed or thought about a semiconductor before found 
themselves impacted by this global shortage. The new car they had been 
saving up for wasn't available. The Christmas gift they planned to 
order for their children was out of stock.
  While the lack of consumer products is a big problem, it pales in 
comparison to the security risk created by the chip shortage. Simply 
put, semiconductors are vital to our critical infrastructure. Our grid 
keeps on the lights and makes it possible to heat our buildings during 
the cold of winter. They run our cell towers that enable us to talk on 
our cell phones or download data and do

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searches on the web. They are critical to our energy grid, our water 
treatment plants, and our agricultural sector. Semiconductor chips make 
it all possible.
  As I said, our national defense also depends on semiconductors. When 
we send our troops on any mission by air, sea, land, or cyber space, 
they need the best equipment available, and usually what that means is 
the most advanced technology available. Advanced fighters, quantum 
computing, missile defense--all rely on semiconductors.
  I asked my staff to research back when Israel was using the Iron Dome 
missile defense system to knock rockets out of the sky that were 
destined to hit population centers in Israel. I said: Find out for me 
how many semiconductors are in each one of those missile defense 
interceptors. They came back with a figure of 750 chips in each one of 
those missile defense interceptors.
  So it is not hard to imagine we would be in big trouble if a lack of 
supply crippled any of these functions, and unfortunately, it is a real 
possibility. Over the years, domestic chip production has steadily 
dropped as other countries have upped their manufacturing capabilities. 
As I said, 90 percent of that manufacturing is now in Asia.
  We had the idea--and it is not a crazy idea--that if somebody could 
make things cheaper overseas, then that is the most efficient way for 
that product to be made, but we didn't calculate these supply chain 
problems which COVID-19 exposed.
  But we know, as I said, that if there were another pandemic or let's 
say a natural disaster or a military conflict, the People's Republic of 
China has made no secret about its plan to unify with Taiwan. President 
Xi has explicitly said invasion of Taiwan will happen, and he has asked 
that his military be ready by the year 2027. But we don't actually know 
what his timetable may be, and if China follows through on its threats 
to invade Taiwan and interrupts that supply chain of critical 
semiconductors, it would be dramatically bad for the United States and 
the world. Our national security and critical infrastructure could be 
hobbled by a single decision made by the President of the People's 
Republic of China.
  I was reminded of Jimmy Carter's 1980 speech at the State of the 
Union when he spoke about instability in the Persian Gulf and Soviet 
threats to the movement of Middle East oil through the Strait of 
Hormuz. President Carter said at the time--when we were so dependent on 
imported oil from the Middle East--he said any attempt to gain control 
of the Persian Gulf and to block the Strait of Hormuz would be 
``regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of 
America.''
  You could say the same about a blockade that prevented us from 
getting semiconductors from Asia. Just as the Soviets could have 
blocked the Strait of Hormuz and choked off the global supply, the 
People's Republic of China could seize Taiwan's supply of chips and its 
manufacturing facilities and hold the rest of the world at risk. The 
United States and our allies would be left fighting for the crumbs, 
what was left over.

  Our country isn't the only one, fortunately, that spotted this 
blinking red light. Other countries are pouring tens of billions of 
dollars into new semiconductor foundries. The European Union is now 
investing up to $35 billion. South Korea is investing $65 billion. The 
People's Republic of China is reportedly investing $150 billion in 
semiconductor manufacturing.
  The United States cannot be left behind, and we can't drag our feet. 
Unlike PPE--personal protective equipment--or hand sanitizer shortages, 
this one cannot be solved quickly. Companies that make other 
technologies can't just adjust to the lack of semiconductors. In order 
to build a single chip, you need very expensive, highly advanced 
equipment, you need very skilled workers, and you need a lot of time. 
It can take literally months to build a single chip, and that is 
assuming you have the facilities and the expertise to do so.
  So it is not hyperbole to say that there are life-or-death 
consequences to a reliable semiconductor supply chain, which is why 
this has been such a high-priority item on a bipartisan basis here in 
the Senate.
  The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act included $52 billion to fund 
this program and ensure that, once again, we could maintain a strong 
supply of advanced semiconductors. That legislation, which included an 
emergency appropriation, passed by a vote of 68 to 32, which is pretty 
impressive these days with the polarization that we are all dealing 
with--a strong, bipartisan vote.
  Unfortunately, the momentum that bill had ended when it got to the 
House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House had other 
priorities, and months and months went by. Our House colleagues said 
they wanted to pass their own version of this legislation, and they 
have every right to do so, but time is not on our side, and they need 
to act quickly. Every day that goes by is a day that China inches ahead 
of the United States and that we fall further behind.
  We need to get this funding out the door and to begin that 
construction of these fabs, which take a considerable amount of time to 
build, underway as soon as we can.
  In a year's time, Senator Warner and I introduced the CHIPS Act, it 
became law, and the Senate funded the program we created. We are not 
ordinarily known for our speed, and the quick timeline is indicative of 
how urgent this problem really is.
  I don't have any excuse for the House's failure to address this issue 
for 7 months, but now it sounds like they are beginning to think about 
addressing it.
  Well, I can understand why the process would take so long if the 
House was actually engaged in a bipartisan negotiation, but, 
unfortunately, it looks like they are going to pass a partisan bill 
with no Republican support because they were not included in the 
discussions. The Democratic committee chairmen refused to consult with 
the Republican ranking members, and it looks like they are going to 
produce a partisan bill.
  Well, that bill I do not believe would pass the U.S. Senate. The 
House bill contains $8 billion for an unaccountable U.N. climate slush 
fund, which has provided more than $100 million for the People's 
Republic of China.
  What we are talking about--what we should be talking about--is 
countering threats from China, not helping China.
  The partisan bill from the House has also added provisions related to 
immigration, from creating new types of visas to removing green card 
caps. Immigration is an important issue. We ought to be talking about 
it. We ought to be doing something about it, but not on a partisan 
basis.
  These changes should not be tacked on to this legislation at the last 
hour. They need to be debated and marked up by the appropriate 
committees and given the sort of careful consideration that they 
deserve.
  The House bill also includes additional handouts to favorite 
political constituencies, from massive slush funds to burdensome new 
labor requirements. Organized labor would be the big winner in the 
House bill, but not rank-and-file Americans.
  It is not just what is in this bill that is a problem. I am talking 
about the House bill, now. It is what was left out. The bill's trade 
title is completely inadequate. It extends and expands trade adjustment 
assistance, but it completely excludes trade promotion authority. We 
know that trade promotion authority is critical to negotiating strong 
trade agreements without lengthy delays.
  So I regret and I am very disappointed that the House has wasted 
available time, particularly when this vulnerability to the 
semiconductor supply chain is so grave and so urgent.
  We have a responsibility to secure our most critical supply chains 
while creating thousands of high-paying American jobs and boosting our 
global competitiveness. So I hope that once the House does pass a bill 
that we quickly form a formal conference committee in order to make the 
final product look a whole lot like the Senate bill that we passed with 
strong bipartisan majorities.
  Let me just comment in closing that I am a big fan of the Wall Street 
Journal. I read it or, at least, parts of it every day. But I was 
concerned that a treatment of this legislation in the

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Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday--actually, it was this 
morning--either was unclear or provided misinformation about the 
importance of these semiconductors.
  The title of the editorial was ``The Be More Like China Act.'' And 
suffice it to say, they were not fans of either the House or the Senate 
bill.
  But they made this statement. They said: ``[T]he Pentagon is already 
providing incentives to make advanced chips in the United States, and 
[Taiwan Semiconductor] is building a $12 billion plant in Arizona.''
  To the second issue, the reason why Taiwan Semiconductor 
Manufacturing Company is building a fab in Arizona is in the 
expectation that the Senate will pass this $52 billion incentive 
program, and through the Department of Commerce, grants will be made 
which will level the playing field. When it comes to the cost of 
building these fabs in the United States, it costs roughly 30 percent 
more to build a manufacturing facility, a fab, in the United States 
than it does in Asia, which is the reason why they are mainly there.
  But I think what the Wall Street Journal was talking about was 
something very different than what we are trying to do here with 
reshoring manufacturing of semiconductors.
  The Wall Street Journal, I believe, is talking about the Department 
of Defense's zero-trust semiconductor purchasing model. In other words, 
we needed a trusted foundry to build semiconductors for our most 
important weapon systems and aircraft, like the F-35, and so this is 
not a manufacturing facility that will supply the semiconductors that 
are needed by our growing economy and for national security. This is a 
very narrow, targeted program at the Department of Defense, and, like I 
said, the Department of Defense's secure foundry or trusted supplier 
program is not a substitute for what we are trying to do here.
  Finally, let me say that there is broad bipartisan agreement about 
how important it is that we get this CHIPS Act passed.
  Secretary Raimondo, the Secretary of Commerce, whom I have come to 
know and come to work with and respect, said to CNBC yesterday: ``The 
U.S. is dangerously dependent on Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing, 
which is in a fragile situation, which I have tried to describe.''
  I agree with Secretary Raimondo. This is something that the President 
wants done. This is something the Senate has spoken to and passed on a 
broad bipartisan basis, and this is something that we need to do 
without further delay.
  So I hope the House will pass the bill if for no other reason than to 
give us a bill that we can conference the Senate bill with. But in the 
end, the Senate bill needs to be the template for what is ultimately 
done by the conference committee and what is ultimately passed by the 
U.S. Congress.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, first I would like to congratulate the 
senior Senator from Texas for his leadership on this incredibly 
important issue with Senator Warner, the senior Senator from Virginia.
  It really is important that we get this passed. Our national security 
depends on it. I think the American economy depends on it.
  The Senator mentioned that there was a time in our country's history 
not long ago--I am going to use my words, not his, but I will 
paraphrase it--where I think we thought that making things as cheaply 
as possible was the same thing as making things as efficiently as 
possible. And I would argue that we privileged the people in our 
economy who wanted to make stuff as cheaply as possible in China when 
there are a lot of really other important values at work, including our 
national security, the supply chains that we rely on, making sure that 
communities in our country have jobs and wages being created.
  I think we have an incredible opportunity as a nation to come 
together and build an economy that, when it grows, grows for everybody 
once again. And in my mind, that is what this bill represents.
  So I just want to say to the Senator from Texas how grateful I am for 
his leadership, and I hope that it won't be long before we pass it.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 2497

  Madam President, 80 years ago this month, President Franklin 
Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, 2 months after the bombing of 
Pearl Harbor, and it led to some of the most disgraceful chapters in 
our Nation's history--the forced dispossession, relocation, and 
concentration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
  Two-thirds of them were citizens of this country, forced out of their 
homes and into internment camps by their own government. They were our 
neighbors, and they were parents and shopkeepers and students, doctors 
and factory workers. They were Americans in every sense of the word.
  But racist fear forced them into these camps--crowded, squalid, and 
at war with everything that we stand for as a nation. One of those 
camps was Amache in Colorado, where nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans 
were detained against their will.
  This is a photo of that camp.
  I will mention, just because I looked it up--I figured this might be 
true, because we have Senators from Nevada and Texas here--that there 
were five such places in Texas, as well--internment camps.
  But this is one that was in southeastern Colorado, and these children 
are among the first arrivals at Amache, and they were forced to build 
the camp where their own families were interned for the duration of the 
war.
  I can't tell exactly the ages of the children in this photo, but I 
would be surprised if the pages on this floor are any older than them. 
And I would say to the President, in front of the pages, to ask them to 
imagine a time when our country interned people the age of the people 
who are pages on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  I have had the opportunity to visit Amache a few years ago with John 
Hopper, who is a high school teacher, a principal, out there near the 
camp, who along with his students, created the Amache Preservation 
Society.
  There wasn't anybody else to do it. It was just a high school teacher 
and his students. They recognized how much this site meant to Colorado, 
how much this site meant to the country. And, acting completely on 
their own, they worked year after year after year to restore the site 
so that the next generation of Coloradans and Americans--the young 
people sitting on this floor today--would have the opportunity to learn 
about what happened here.
  If it were up to me, every student in Colorado and throughout the 
American West and, for that matter, in our entire country would come to 
this site and learn about the Americans of Amache--the men and women 
who held on to hope year after year, who supported one another, who 
forged a community behind the barbed wires of this site, who never gave 
up on the United States of America, even as it was interning them on 
their own soil.
  And if they did go to Amache, they could learn about one of my 
heroes, Colorado's former Governor Ralph Carr, who spoke out against 
what was happening at a time when most politicians in the West and in 
this country--going all the way up to our President, Franklin 
Roosevelt--were either not speaking out or allowing this to happen.
  At that time, many Western Governors opposed internment camps, not 
just because they were unjust but--I am sorry. At that time, many 
Western Governors were comfortable locking up their fellow citizens so 
long as they were locked up in someone else's State because there was 
an anti-Japanese American prejudice in the land.
  Some Coloradans in nearby communities gave way to shameful fear of 
their fellow citizens and objected to their presence. To say the least, 
they objected to their presence.
  Speaking to an angry crowd one day on the Eastern Plains--I say to my 
colleague from Texas that this is where my colleague Senator Cory 
Gardner was from, this part of the State of Colorado--Governor Carr 
said: ``I am talking to . . . all American people whether their status 
be white, brown or black . . . when I say that if a majority may 
deprive a minority of its freedom, contrary to the terms of the 
Constitution today, then you as a minority may be subjected to the same 
ill-will of the majority tomorrow.''
  He went on: ``The Japanese are protected by the same Constitution 
that

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protects us. An American citizen of Japanese descent has the same 
rights as any other citizen. . . . If you harm them, you must first 
harm me.''
  He went on to lose his next election. I think it was to the U.S. 
Senate. And I shudder to think what would have happened if people like 
Governor Carr hadn't been there to stand for our highest ideals as a 
country, or if survivors and their descendants and community leaders, 
many of whom have close connections to Colorado to this day or who live 
in Colorado to this day, hadn't worked for decades to preserve the site 
and the memory of what happened there.
  Thanks to their work, we now have the opportunity to give Amache the 
recognition and resources it deserves. That is why I introduced this 
bill, along with my colleague Senator Hickenlooper, to make Amache part 
of the National Park System. This would ensure Amache has the legal 
status and funding to preserve the site and the memory of what happened 
there for years to come.
  In the House, Congressmen Ken Buck and Joe Neguse introduced the 
bill. Not everybody here would know this, but I know Congressman Buck 
would know this. He and I ran against each other in 2009 and 2010. That 
was a tough, tough, tough election, and I barely--barely--won. I barely 
won. But I am proud to serve with Congressman Buck in the House and 
Congressman Neguse in the House who also have come together, just like 
me and Senator Hickenlooper, to support this bill.
  This site is in Ken Buck's district in Prowers County. Ken won 74 
percent of the vote there in 2020. By the way, I think I won 33 percent 
in 2016, so Ken is outpacing me there. We don't agree on a lot, but we 
agree 100 percent that this matters to our State and the legacy we want 
to pass on to the next generation.
  I have a list of 65 groups that support this bill: the Asian Chamber 
of Commerce, the Colorado Council of Churches, the Colorado Municipal 
League. If that weren't enough, the bill also has the support of the 
chairman and the ranking member of the Environment and Natural 
Resources Committee.
  But today, there is 1 Senator out of 99--and it is not the senior 
Senator from Texas--who is objecting to this bill.
  This bill passed the House of Representatives with all but two votes. 
We have 99 Senators on one side who support this and 1 objecting. I 
have absolutely no idea why that one Senator is objecting, and I hope 
that it is just a misunderstanding of some kind. We fight for a lot of 
things on this floor, but there is a bipartisan tradition going back to 
Teddy Roosevelt of both parties coming together to protect places that 
matter to our heritage as a nation.
  Amache matters to Colorado, and it matters to America. This is about 
whether we are going to ignore the worst parts of our history or lift 
them up and give future generations the opportunity to learn from them 
so that we can move this country closer to our highest ideals.
  So I hope that the Senator who is objecting to this bipartisan bill, 
with massive support in both the House and Senate, that is of critical 
importance to the State of Colorado, that doesn't touch or concern any 
other State in the Union, except to the extent that people from those 
States of the Union might someday like to come here and learn an 
important episode in our country's history--I feel strongly about this, 
in part, because my own mom and her family were dislocated by the same 
war. They were living on the other side of the world in Poland. The 
entire family was killed except for an aunt and my grandparents and my 
mom. And she got here when she was 11 years old, which is probably the 
same age as these young children here who were picked up from 
their homes all across the Western United States and brought to a place 
that they never had known before. It seems to me, the least we could 
do, with this massive bipartisan support, is to pass this bill.

  So as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 255, H.R. 
2497; further, that the committee-reported amendment be agreed to; that 
the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and 
that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, reserving the right to object, due to 
the winter storms that are shutting down airports around the country, 
Senator Lee, the Senator from Utah, who objects to this unanimous 
consent request is not here, and I had the bad luck to be here when he 
communicated to me his desire that I make an objection on his behalf.
  I would say to my friend from Colorado, I am a noncombatant on this 
issue. I didn't hold his bill. But I know Senator Lee does have an 
amendment, I believe, he wants to offer, and certainly he wants to be 
here to participate in the discussion and vote on the bill. So on his 
behalf, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I thank the senior Senator from Texas 
who, in fact, is a noncombatant in this effort. And I am sorry that he 
has had the misfortune of having to come out here and object.
  I will say that Colorado and Utah are right next to each other, and I 
faced the same travel issues that the Senator from Utah faces, I guess. 
I hope he gets where he is trying to go, but I stayed here this evening 
not because I objected to this but because I thought it was so 
incredibly important for us to get this work done.
  And I want the record to reflect that I actually didn't name the 
Senator who objected, but the Senator from Texas did.
  My fervent hope is that we can work this out because, really 
importantly, we are having the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's 
decision to inter these young people this month. And if we don't get 
this back to the House of Representatives, we may miss that 
anniversary, and people in Colorado would miss the chance to be able to 
demonstrate that they are carrying this really important legacy 
forward.
  When I think about my mom's experience and the experiences here and 
the country that these young men and women are growing up in who are 
with us today, it just makes me think even more about how important all 
of this is. And, Madam President, I can't think of anybody I would 
rather have this discussion with than with you presiding in the Chair.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Warnock). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.