HOUSE PASSES MATSUI’S BILL TO RESTORE U.S. LEADERSHIP IN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA), co-author of the Creating Helpful Incentives for the Production of Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act, issued the following statement after the updated CHIPS and Science Act passed the House.

“Two years ago, I introduced the CHIPS Act to address an urgent economic and national security threat – America’s decline in the strategically important semiconductor industry,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “Since then, the global chips shortage has only grown more severe and the need for this legislation more pressing. Semiconductors are the building blocks of the 21^st century economy and we simply cannot live without them. Other countries are making aggressive investments to surpass us, but this bill sends a strong, clear message that the United States is still the gold standard for innovation.”

“This package also includes another bill of mine that will make critical investments to accelerate the deployment of faster, more resilient 5G networks throughout the United States,” Matsui continued. “Reasserting American leadership in the semiconductor industry and laying the groundwork for innovation in Open RAN are both economic and national security imperatives. As an author of both the CHIPS and Open RAN funding bills, I know these critical economic drivers will create new American job opportunities for years to come. Their joint inclusion in this package is smart public policy that will strengthen our economy and make America safer.”

See what leaders are saying about the passage of Matsui’s CHIPS and Science Act:

“I congratulate Congress on coming together to approve funding for the CHIPS Act,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel.  “This is a critical step to support the entire U.S. semiconductor industry and to help ensure continued American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. I specifically want to thank Rep. Doris Matsui for her leadership over the last two years. I'm excited to put shovels in the ground and move full speed ahead to for our projects in Arizona, New Mexico and Ohio.”

“Congressional passage of the CHIPS Act would not have been possible without the strong, unwavering leadership of Rep. Matsui,” said John Neuffer, President & CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association. “Thanks in large part to her efforts, the CHIPS Act will strengthen American semiconductor production and innovation and reinforce the U.S. economy, national security, and our chip supply chains. We applaud congressional approval of this critical legislation, thank Rep. Matsui for playing a key role in its passage, and urge President Biden to swiftly sign it into law.”

“The coalition is grateful for the tireless work Congresswoman Matsui has dedicated to ensuring Open RAN solutions are developed and deployed,” said Diane Rinaldo, Executive Director of the Open RAN Policy Coalition. “The funding for Open RAN research and development included in this legislation is critical to increasing supplier diversity and catapulting the next generation of telecommunications network innovation. This investment by Congress now will foster the creation of a secure, sustainable and future-proof supply chain for wireless network technologies.”

Despite the importance of semiconductors for America's innovation economy, our share of the semiconductor industry has dropped from 37 percent in 1990 to just 12 percent today. The CHIPS and Science Act will restore semiconductor manufacturing back to American soil by increasing federal incentives to stimulate advanced chip manufacturing, enabling cutting-edge research and development – securing the supply chain, and bringing greater transparency to the microelectronics ecosystem.

Congresswoman Matsui successfully included an amendment based on the original CHIPS Act as part of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)to enable the building and modernization of semiconductor manufacturing facilities in America, and this package provides the necessary funding to fully implement these critical programs. Congresswoman Matsui has long led the effort to secure this funding, in March she led 147 colleagues in urging congressional leadership to secure full funding of the CHIPS Act. This updated version of the CHIPS and Science Act provides $52.7 billion of funding to fund these efforts.

Congresswoman Matsui has also been a longtime advocate of robust investments in Open radio access networks (RAN) technology. She led the charge to secure $1.5 billion in funding as part of this legislation. This technology provides the backbone for modern wireless networks and represent a unique opportunity for American companies. These investments in Open RAN technology will allow additional trusted manufacturers to enter the market and compete while enabling more flexible, efficient, secure, and resilient mobile communication.

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