[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 62 (Thursday, April 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2103-S2105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 USICA

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, watching the wrapup by our friend from 
Connecticut and the Presiding Officer, I don't know anybody who could 
argue that the Senate is incapable of getting a lot done in a short 
period of time, given the will. That was pretty remarkable.
  Mr. President, nearly 10 months after the Senate passed bipartisan 
legislation to fund the CHIPS Act, we are finally inching closer to the 
finish line. The House and the Senate are moving forward to a formal 
conference process to supply the CHIPS Program with $52 billion and 
make other investments in our competitiveness.
  Yesterday afternoon, Members of the Senate and the House heard from 
administration officials about how important this legislation is. 
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke about the economic risks of a 
weak semiconductor supply chain.
  I might just pause here for a minute in case people are wondering why 
semiconductors are so important. Well, the fact of the matter is that 
semiconductors are essential to run everything from your cell phone to 
the most advanced stealth fighters made by the U.S. Government, the F-
35, and everything in between. And during the pandemic and the 
mitigation efforts that we undertook, with kids studying remotely on 
their laptops, that would not be possible, nor would the Wi-Fi 
connections be possible without access to semiconductors. So these 
microcircuits have become absolutely essential to our way of life.
  Over the last couple of years, manufacturers have had to halt 
production of the various products that they make, shift their 
offerings, or even lay off workers because of a shortage of these 
semiconductors, these microcircuit chips. Now, at the micro level, this 
disruption is having a big impact on consumers: empty car lots, 
backordered electronics, higher prices on home appliances. But at the 
30,000-foot level, the macro level, this is terribly damaging to our 
national economy.
  The semiconductor shortage has shaved an estimated $240 billion off 
of our gross domestic product last year--

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$240 billion lost because of an inadequate access to these 
semiconductors, these microcircuits. Based on the way that things are 
trending, the strain is only going to get greater. Global demand for 
these semiconductor chips is expected to increase by 56 percent over 
the next decade.
  If you think about it, our dependency on technology is going to do 
nothing but get greater and greater and greater; hence, the demand and 
the need for these semiconductors and the demand that will go up by 56 
percent, it is estimated, in the next decade.
  It is absolutely critical that we start investing in domestic, made-
in-America semiconductors now to insure that we have the capacity to 
meet that need in the future. And it is not just our economy. This has 
a very clear connection with our national security.
  Not only will the CHIPS Program, as it is called--introduced 
originally by the senior Senator from Virginia, Senator Warner, and 
myself--this program will help us pave the way for new jobs and big 
investments in cities all across our country.
  If you want an idea, a glimpse, of just what those benefits would 
look like, my State is an example of one place that will change 
dramatically as a result of this demand for these microcircuits.
  Last fall, I joined leaders from Samsung, a South Korean company that 
has a large presence in Austin, TX, and they announced a $17 billion 
investment in a new chip fab--that is what the manufacturing facilities 
are called, a fab, fabrication unit--in Taylor, TX, which is just 
outside of Austin. This facility is expected to directly create 2,000 
high-tech jobs, as well as thousands of related jobs, once it is 
operational. And each of these fabrication manufacturing facilities 
will create a whole ecosystem of suppliers that will grow up around it. 
So the $17 billion spent by Samsung for just this one fabrication 
facility will be multiplied by many times in terms of the economic 
benefits and the jobs created.
  This is great news not just for my State, for Texas, but also for the 
national economy and for our global competitiveness. Our friends and 
allies are going to need a reliable chip supply, too, and I hope that 
we can soon send advanced semiconductors, made in America, to countries 
around the world.
  Once this CHIPS Program is funded, I expect more announcements like 
the one I mentioned from Samsung to follow, both in Texas and other 
States across the country. We have already seen Taiwan Semiconductor in 
the process of building a new fab, or manufacturing facility, in 
Arizona. You have seen new investments announced by Intel in Ohio, 
along with the one by Samsung in Texas, and I believe there are more to 
come.
  This legislation would open up about $3 billion for each new or 
expanded semiconductor fabrication facility, providing a huge incentive 
for companies to make this level of investment right here in America.
  The potential economic benefits speak for themselves, but the biggest 
reason to pass this legislation is to protect our national security. 
Chips are critical components of far more than just the cell phones and 
washing machines that I mentioned. Advanced fighters, quantum 
computers, missile defense systems--you name it--5G, all of those rely 
on semiconductors. A single rocket interceptor like we have seen used 
in Iron Dome in Israel, knocking down rockets coming from Gaza, each of 
those interceptors alone uses 750 of these microcircuits.
  An overreliance on other countries to produce these key components of 
our most vital defenses is a huge, huge risk. Yesterday, in addition to 
Secretary Raimondo, we heard from Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen 
Hicks, who talked about the immense national security risk that the 
failure to produce these most advanced semiconductors in America has 
opened up. Just to be clear, we produce zero of these most advanced 
semiconductors that we depend upon for the most complex technology, 
including our national security.
  Our military superiority really hinges on state-of-the-art 
technology. That is the one thing that we do better than any other 
country in the world. If we can't produce these products because of a 
lack of chips, well, the risk is obvious. And when you look at who is 
producing the lion's share of the world's chips, you can see the danger 
to which we are very clearly exposed.
  Now, I blame COVID for exposing these vulnerable supply chains, 
whether it is PPE or it is chips, but now, it is as plain as the nose 
on your face, and we need to do something about it.
  So here are the facts. The vast majority of semiconductors are made 
in Asia, with 63 percent of the most advanced semiconductors in the 
world made in one place, and that is Taiwan.
  Even more concerning is the 92 percent of the world's most advanced 
semiconductors that come, as I said, from Asia. But if that supply 
chain, both from Asia and Taiwan in particular, were cut off, it would 
lead to disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, this prospect is not 
some farfetched conspiracy theory or doomsday scenario.
  Xi Jinping has made no secret of his desire to invade and unify 
Taiwan with the People's Republic of China, even saying he wants to be 
ready to do so by the year 2027, just 5 years from now. But we can't 
depend on his stated timetable because he could do it any time he 
wanted to start that invasion and jeopardize our access to these chips.
  We don't want to be in a position--we can't be in a position--where 
the belligerence of one nation impacts our most critical supply chains. 
The war in Ukraine has made that clear. Put simply, we need to bolster 
domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and we have not a moment to 
waste. Chip making is a very big endeavor.
  A number of our colleagues and I traveled to Taiwan a few months back 
to Taiwan Semiconductor's facility there, where they, as I said, make 
the world's leading-edge semiconductors. It is a big operation, and it 
is highly automated and very complex and expensive. In order to build 
one chip, you need very expensive, highly advanced equipment; you need 
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 
facility and the equipment ready to go.

  So it is clear, in light of this vulnerability that we have in this 
essential supply chain, that we have squandered enough time already. 
After the Senate passed our version of this legislation, it took 8 
months to get it back from the House of Representatives. Even then, 
their bill fell short in nearly every regard. Rather than mirror the 
bipartisan process here in the Senate, the Democrats in the House 
negotiated a bill just among their fellow Democrats. In other words, it 
was a partisan bill. That type of legislating does not lead to good and 
sustainable results here in Congress.
  The House-passed bill sends a whopping $8 billion to a U.N. climate 
slush fund which has provided more than $100 million to China. The 
entire purpose of this effort is to counter threats from China, not to 
bolster China's economy with taxpayer dollars. So it defies all logic 
to send billions of dollars to an unaccountable fund that could end up 
helping our chief competitor, the People's Republic of China.
  The House COMPETES Act also added provisions relating to immigration, 
from creating new types of visas to removing green card caps. I am fine 
with having a discussion and debate and votes on immigration issues, 
but they do not belong in this legislation, certainly not in a partisan 
fashion.
  In true fashion, our colleagues in the House who are the majority 
party added a range of handouts to their political base, especially 
organized labor. From massive slush funds to burdensome new labor 
requirements, the unions would have won big in this bill.
  And, as I said, unfortunately, the House decided to undertake this 
effort in a purely partisan fashion, which leaves us with very little 
common ground to work with. I am frustrated, and I know that I am not 
the only one. There are Democratic Senators who have joined me in 
expressing their frustration over how slow it is to get this process 
moving. But it is more important to get it done right away so we can 
get the job done as thoroughly as necessary.
  Well, there is broad bipartisan support for this effort. I have a 
hard time explaining to my friends and constituents that when the White 
House is in favor of something, when Democrats are in favor of 
something, Republicans

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are in favor of something, the House is in favor of it, and the Senate 
is in favor of it, we still can't seem to get it done. But I hope that 
we will take advantage of this opportunity--now that conferees have 
been appointed by the House and the White House--to get the conference 
committee to work, to do our job, and to get this bill on the 
President's desk as soon as we can. I fully expect the final version to 
look very much like the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate rather 
than the partisan bill that came from the House.
  I expressed to the Senator from Washington, Ms. Cantwell, that I hope 
we can work efficiently and reach a final agreement as soon as 
possible. It is critical that we get a strong bill to the President's 
desk and finally back this CHIPS Program with funding and protect 
ourselves from this, really, almost existential economic threat and 
threat to our national security.
  The bill has undergone a number of name changes over the years. It 
started out as the Endless Frontier Act. Then it became the U.S. 
Innovation and Competition Act. Then the House called it the America 
COMPETES Act. Then we gave it a new name: the Made in America Act. But 
now, we have a new name--and hopefully the final name--called the 
Bipartisan Innovation Act.
  I hope we can work together to craft a truly good bill that lives up 
to that title, the Bipartisan Innovation Act, and delivers economic and 
national security benefits for all of the American people.
  I yield the floor.

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