UPDATE 7/28: The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday with a 64-33 vote, while the House OK’d it today with a vote of 243 to 187. It now goes to President Biden for his signature.
Original Story: The Senate this week moved a step closer to passing legislation intended to prevent another chip shortage and encourage US-based production of the semiconductors necessary to power the most popular consumer electronics.
The Senate on Tuesday completed a procedural step on a trimmed-down version of the CHIPS Act that advances the bill to a full Senate vote later this week or next, CNBC reports. Given that the procedural vote was approved with a 64-34 vote, the CHIPS Act appears to have the votes it needs to pass the Senate and move over to the House, but a lot can happen in a week.
The bill would provide subsidies totalling roughly $52 billion to incentivize semiconductor manufacturers to build their chips in the United States. That includes Intel, which has lobbied hard for the CHIPS Act; it recently threatened to scale back a planned Ohio chip plant if the funding doesn't come through.
Tuesday's vote also required some behind-the-scences D.C. dealing. It only happened after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin tanked a spending bill over climate- and tax-related provisions. Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn then said the move cleared the way for Republican support of the CHIPS Act, even though the two bills are separate pieces of legislation.
This CHIPS Act comes after the original $250 billion version of the bill was approved by the Senate last year. It was never approved by the House, which created its own version of the bill that was rejected by the GOP over climate and other provisions. This new version is the Senate’s latest attempt to present a bill that can make it through both chambers of Congress.
On Twitter, Sen. Cornyn suggested that ceding control of the semiconductor market to China and South Korea could result in a loss of 5 million US jobs and $2 trillion of GDP over three years.