U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill May 18, 2021. Schumer and the Democratic senators took questions from reporters about the Endless Frontier Act, which aims to counter China’s (CCP) global economic ambitions, and the situation between Israel and Palestine.
U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday night unveiled a cross-party amendment that would authorize $52 billion over five years to significantly increase U.S. semiconductor chip production capacity and research.
The emergency funding proposal is part of the Endless Frontier Act, which provides for approximately $120 billion in U.S. basic and advanced technology research to strengthen the fight against Chinese (Communist Party of China) competition in the technology industry. The Senate will consider it this week.
Schumer said the U.S. must address the growing threat from China (Communist Party of China) on all fronts, especially the technology race, “U.S. manufacturing is suffering considerably because of the chip shortage, and we can’t rely on foreign-made chips. This amendment will ensure that we don’t have to.”
Schumer said, “If we don’t step up boldly and dramatically, I’m afraid an entire generation is at risk of missing out on well-paying jobs by the millions.”
Last month, Ford warned that the chip shortage would cause production to be cut in half in the second quarter, costing it about two and a half billion dollars and about one million and a half units of capacity in 2021. And General Motors has also extended the shutdown of several North American plants because of the chip shortage.
The proposal announced by Schumer on Tuesday includes $49.5 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to fund the chip provisions in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.
According to the summary of the amended bill, “Funding is urgently needed to rapidly implement these critical programs for the sake of our economy and national security. The Communist Party is actively investing more than $150 billion in semiconductor manufacturing so that they can control this critical technology.” The amendment would “support the rapid implementation of the chip provisions in the defense bill.”
Proponents of the government’s investment plan say that while the U.S. accounted for 37 percent of global production of semiconductors and microelectronics in 1990, today only 12 percent of semiconductors are made in the United States.
As previously reported by Reuters, the bill also includes $39 billion in production and R&D incentives; $10.5 billion to establish the National Semiconductor Technology Center and implement the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program and other R&D projects. And $1.5 billion in emergency funding to support Western companies that can replace Chinese equipment suppliers Huawei Technologies and ZTE and accelerate the development of open architecture (OpenRAN) technology for U.S. telecoms.
The bill also prohibits the downloading of the Chinese (Communist Party of China)-owned social media “TikTok” to government devices “to better safeguard the privacy and security of Americans.
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