The emergency funding proposal will be included in a more
than 1,400-page revised bill the Senate is taking up this week, as first
reported by Reuters on Friday, to spend $120 billion on basic U.S. and advanced
technology research to better compete with China.
"American manufacturing has suffered rather
dramatically from a chip shortage," Schumer said. "We simply cannot
rely on foreign processors for chips. This amendment will make sure that we
don't have to."
The proposal includes $49.5 billion in emergency
supplemental appropriations to fund the chip provisions that were included in
this year's National Defense Authorization Act, but which require a separate
process to garner funding.
President Joe Biden has also called for $50 billion to boost
semiconductor production and research.
Supporters of funding note the U.S. had a 37% share of
semiconductors and microelectronics production in 1990; today just 12% of
semiconductors are manufactured in the United States.
"There is an urgent need for our economic and national
security to provide funding to swiftly implement these critical programs. The
Chinese Communist Party is aggressively investing over $150 billion in
semiconductor manufacturing so they can control this key technology," a
bill summary released Tuesday said.
The measure would "support the rapid implementation of
the semiconductor provisions" in the defense bill.
As reported by Reuters, the bill includes $39 billion in
production and R&D incentives and $10.5 billion to implement programs
including the National Semiconductor Technology Center, National Advanced
Packaging Manufacturing Program and other R&D programs.
Last month, Ford Motor warned the chip shortage might slash
its second-quarter production by half, costing it about $2.5 billion and about
1.1 million units of lost production in 2021, while General Motors has extended
production halts at several North American factories because of the shortage.
The bill also includes $1.5 billion in emergency funding to
help boost Western-based alternatives to Chinese equipment providers Huawei
Technologies and ZTE Corp, aiming to accelerate development of an
open-architecture model (known as OpenRAN) backed by U.S. carriers.
Another provision prohibits the Chinese-owned social media
app TikTok from being downloaded to government devices "to better
safeguard the privacy and security of Americans."
Schumer said the U.S. must address the rising threat from
China on many fronts, notably the technology race. "If we don’t step up in
a big and bold way, we risk missing out on a generation of good-paying jobs,
millions and millions of them," he said.
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