Three years ago, the Biden administration, backed by big bipartisan majorities in Congress, launched the CHIPS and Science Act to revitalize domestic semiconductor manufacturing. After decades of outsourcing that reduced the U.S. production share of advanced chips from 37 percent to 10 percent, this “industrial policy” investment was justified as necessary for national security and as a measure to reinvigorate manufacturing.  

To date, Congress has appropriated over $37 billion in CHIPS grants and loans to 32 companies and 48 projects across the country. Despite the billions in spending, this legislation is only the beginning of an answer to our semiconductor challenges. 

A secure semiconductor supply chain requires three components: manufacturing infrastructure, the technology to power it, and the workforce to operate it. Early on, both the government and the electronics industry recognized that building factories and installing machines was just part of the solution — a skilled workforce would also be essential. With persistent labor shortages, especially in manufacturing, this represented a major task. So, Congress included hundreds of millions for workforce development in the Department of Commerce fab grants and in separate initiatives at the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and Department of Energy. 

Continue reading at The Hill.