The pandemic highlighted glaring holes in our infrastructure and shone an even brighter light on how much we depend on other nations to produce simple components that we take for granted in everyday usage. Nowhere was that light brighter than on the semiconductor chip industry.
These little chips power everything from cars to tractors and combines, to our everyday electronics. The United States has long been a customer of China?s semiconductor chips because of the cheaper costs. However as both economic superpowers battled the COVID-19 pandemic, we suddenly couldn?t get these chips. This meant that even if the production of certain products was still happening during the lockdown, they couldn?t move a lot of products very fast.
This has led to the empty car lots and implement dealers and the scramble to get as many used cars and implements as fast as possible to get something to sell. In fact, it is because of the shortage of these chips that we heard about farmers having to buy new implements because they couldn?t fix a breakdown over the shortage. Car dealers have begun to change their sales process and move towards more made-to-order vehicles to cut down on investing money into thousands of vehicles right away.
Congress has been long battling along party lines on how to get the American chip manufacturing industry back on its feet, so we can rely less on the Chinese to produce our products. A slimmed-down version of the CHIPS Act is now being moved. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) talked about the results of a procedural vote on the legislation.
The Senate hopes to vote on the full bill by midweek, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12th) says it will be quick work to move it through the House. She has supported this bipartisan, bicameral bill and hopes to have it moved no later than the beginning of next week.
Senator Schumer highlighted the research this bill will open up.
The CHIPS Act will invest $52 billion into new U.S. chip plants and billions more for the National Science Foundation and tech start-ups.
