"The House will
soon introduce its competitiveness bill," she said in a note to Democratic
colleagues.
The announcement came
just hours after Intel had said it would invest more than $20 billion in two
new chip-making plants in Ohio in a massive manufacturing project that could
benefit from federal funding in the years ahead.
President Joe Biden's administration is
pushing to persuade Congress to approve funding to help boost chip production
in the US, as shortages of the key components used in autos and computers have
exacerbated supply chain bottlenecks.
"I want to see Congress pass this bill
right away and get it to my desk," Biden said. "Let's do it for the
sake of our economic competitiveness and our national security."
The Senate passed the US Innovation and
Competition Act last year, which includes $52 billion to increase US
semiconductor production and authorizes $190 billion to strengthen US
technology and research to compete with China.
"The House legislation will
supercharge our investment in chips, strengthen our supply chain and transform
our research capacity, plus many other key provisions," Pelosi said in a
letter to Democratic colleagues.
Biden earlier in the week said surging
inflation had "everything to do with the supply chain" and that the
United States had the capacity to become self-reliant on the computer chips it
needed to manufacture automobiles.
The administration has made efforts to
alleviate the chip shortage, including meeting with industry executives and
allies to discuss the topic, and initiating a study from the Commerce
Department to identify chokepoints and other problems.
Biden touted Intel's investment Friday at a
White House event with the chip company's CEO Pat Gelsinger and made the case
for congressional action.
Gelsinger said in an interview with Reuters
before the White House news conference that without government funding
"we're still going to start the Ohio site. It's just not going to happen
as fast and it's not going to grow as big as quickly."
Intel's initial $20 billion investment - the largest in Ohio's history -
on a 1,000-acre site in New Albany will generate 3,000 jobs, Gelsinger said.
That could grow to $100 billion with
eight total fabrication plants and is the largest investment in Ohio's history,
he told Reuters.
© Reuters