[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 26, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3688-S3689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                           CHIPS ACT OF 2022

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise to express my support for the 
substitute amendment to the House message accompanying H.R. 4346, which 
is the vehicle for the so-called CHIPS Act.
  Semiconductors are crucial to nearly every sector of our economy. 
They are in our cars and trucks, medical devices, and 5G 
telecommunications equipment. America created the semiconductor 
industry in the 1960s. We ceded global leadership in the 1970s. We 
regained it, to an extent, in the 1990s but have lost it again. In 
1990, the U.S. share of semiconductor manufacturing was 37 percent. By 
2020, that share had declined to 12 percent. As Mark Muro and Robert 
Maxim of the Brookings Institution recently reported:

       While the 1990s saw a significant expansion in U.S. 
     innovation capacity in semiconductors, the nation's 
     production capacity continued to decline. In some cases, this 
     owed to foreign countries out-competing the U.S. on labor 
     costs. But more can be attributed to the significant 
     subsidies foreign governments have been providing to build 
     and maintain fabrication plans--a level of support that the 
     U.S. hasn't matched.

  The Senate is poised, with strong bipartisan support, to get the 
United States back on track with respect to domestic semiconductor 
manufacturing, which is critical for our national and economic 
security. The substitute amendment provides $54 billion in grants to 
domestic manufacturers and another $24 billion in tax credits through 
the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors--CHIPS--for 
America Fund. The substitute amendment also authorizes $102 billion 
over the next 5 years for the National Science Foundation--NSF--the 
Department of Commerce, and the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology--NIST--a $52 billion increase over the Congressional Budget 
Office--CBO--baseline.
  These funds will be a ``shot in the arm'' for domestic manufacturing; 
here is a list of some firms that plan to use funding to expand or 
establish manufacturing facilities: Intel and TSMC plan to build 
factories in Ohio and Arizona; GlobalFoundries wants to expand a 
facility in upstate New York; SkyWater Technology and Purdue University 
want to collaborate on a new $1.8 billion factory and research facility 
West Lafayette, IN; and IBM and the State University of New York at 
Albany want to establish a semiconductor research center in Albany.
  While the substitute amendment is necessary, it is not sufficient. It 
does not extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance--TAA--Small Business 
Innovation Research--SBIR--or Small Business Technology Transfer--
STTR--Programs, for instance.
  Fortunately, conferees are still working on those and other 
provisions from the Senate-passed United States Innovation and 
Competition Act--USICA--and the House-passed America Creating 
Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and 
Economic Strength--America COMPETES Act. I hope the Senate will have 
the opportunity to vote on a conference report that covers many issues 
the substitute amendment does not address.
  Many Senators have spoken on the floor about the importance of the 
semiconductor incentives in division A of the substitute amendment, and 
I have just added my voice to that chorus. But I would also like to 
highlight the science provisions included in division B, which are also 
important. division B authorizes: $20 billion for the first-of-its-kind 
NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships, which 
will accelerate domestic development of critical national and economic 
security technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum 
computing, advanced manufacturing, 6G communications, energy, and 
material science; $9 billion--$4 billion over the CBO baseline--for 
several NIST initiatives and programs, including a tripling of funding 
for the Manufacturing Extension Program--MEP--and leverages the MEP to 
create a national supply chain database, which will assist businesses 
with supplier scouting and minimize supply chain disruptions; and the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration's--NASA--Artemis Program 
to return Americans to the Moon as a prelude to sending humans to Mars.
  Division B also extends the International Space Station through 2030 
and supports a balanced science portfolio, including Earth science 
observations and continued development of the Nancy Grace Roman Space 
Telescope.
  Division B codifies the Planetary Defense Coordination Office and 
requires NASA to continue efforts to protect Earth from asteroids and 
comets. Just 2 months from now, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test--
DART--will deliberately crash a probe into the minor-planet moon 
Dimorphos of the double asteroid Didymos to shift Dimorphos's orbit. 
The asteroid poses no actual threat to Earth; it was merely selected 
for the test to assess our ability to deflect an asteroid on a 
collision course with Earth through kinetic energy.
  I introduced the Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act in the previous 
Congress and again this year and am pleased

[[Page S3689]]

that division B directs NASA to continue research in aeronautics, 
including the use of experimental aircraft, to advance aircraft 
efficiency and supersonic flight.
  Finally, division B requires the White House Office of Science and 
Technology Policy--OSTP--to promulgate guidance to all Federal research 
Agencies that would: prohibit Federal research Agency personnel from 
participating in foreign talent recruitment programs; require covered 
individuals on applications, e.g., principal investigators, to disclose 
participation in foreign talent recruitment programs; and prohibit 
awards in cases where covered individuals are participating in malign 
foreign talent recruitment programs.
  In the aggregate, the substitute amendment will help the United 
States recapture and maintain its technological preeminence in so many 
sectors. I want to thank and congratulate Leaders Schumer and McConnell 
and Senators Cantwell and Cornyn and so many others who have been 
instrumental in bringing the Senate to this point. As I said a moment 
ago, however, our work does not end here. I entreat the USICA/America 
COMPETES Act conferees to reach an agreement so that the Senate may 
consider the myriad provisions not contained in the substitute 
amendment--provisions that are equally important to our economic and 
national security.
  As with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, we are 
demonstrating that the Senate can work in a bipartisan fashion to pass 
bills that make life better for all Americans.

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