“The future of the chip industry is going to be made in America,” President Joe Biden said at the signing at the White House on Tuesday.
Evan Vucci/AP
The final bill comes in part from the conference process to reconcile the differences between the two bills, with some of the science titles coming from the America COMPETES Act. Dropped from the bill were trade policies that would have taken a more adversarial stance towards China.
Biden was joined at the signing by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Schumer and Young; Speaker Nancy Pelosi and seven other House lawmakers; Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, OMB Director Shalanda Young, and administration officials from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council.
“Today, by enacting the Chips and Science Act, we say that America’s best days still lie ahead,” Schumer said at the signing Tuesday.
“This bill is about more than chips,” Biden said. “It’s about saying, decades ago we used to invest 2 percent of our GDP [in research and development] and led the world in everything. We lead the world in everything from internet to GPS. Today, we invest less than 1 percent [of the nation’s GDP].”
The bill was nearly dead in the water last month. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened to kill the bill if congressional Democrats continued to pursue a party-line reconciliation bill. Once that legislation appeared dead, the Senate passed the semiconductors bill and Democrats soon after resurrected a party-line spending bill that has since been approved by the Senate and awaits a House vote later this week.
One reported factor in the GOP reversal on the chips bill was a bipartisan Senate briefing by Raimondo, who reportedly underscored how important boosting domestic semiconductor production was to national security.
“This is an incredible, incredible day,” Raimondo said Tuesday. “There were ups and downs and it was a long path to get here. … This couldn’t have come at a more urgent moment.”
The bill’s signing represents a slew of recent legislative victories for Biden and congressional Democrats. In addition to the reconciliation bill, which Democrats have dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act and which is expected to pass when it comes up for a vote in the House, Biden plans to sign the PACT Act Wednesday, which would provide health care for veterans who developed health issues as a result of being near burn pits.
“Honest to god, I believe that 50-75-100 years from now, people who will look back on this week, they’ll know that we met this moment,” Biden said.