So, one of the first facets of this massive Inflation Reduction Act (sic) was the Chips and Science Act of 2022.  This portion of the overall pacakge runs more than 1000 pages long.

This $ 280 billion bill passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 243 to 187- and a big bipartisan approval in the Senate (64 To 33).

Why?  Because the ostensible aim of this bill is to reduce- if not eliminate- China’s ability to starve the US of computer chips and technology.

Maybe now it’s time for a little background.  The US used to manufacture some 40% of the chips used in the world- and now, we barely clock in at 12%.  (That’s why during the COVID shutdowns, our ability to produce cars [idling production workers for weeks at a time; especially since there are some 1000 chips in each modern automobile] and other products that rely on chip technology was decimated.)  Most of the chip production is now centered in Taiwan.  (You know, that little island that China covets- and given how Russia has been stealing Ukraine, China feels we won’t do much- if anything- to keep Taiwan independent. The other big chip producer is Korea [where Samsung reigns as king.])

But, this bill includes lots of items.  From reauthorizing the US Space program and (I kid you not) appropriating $ 20 million to protect Supreme Court justices and their families.  (Hmm.  Anyone else see chips or science in this provision?)

Obviously, one of the big portions of the bill is the $ 52.7 billion to induce firms to develop, research, and manufacture semiconductors and chips here in the USA.   (This includes a 25% investment tax credit for those firms who participate.)  $ 39 billion is directed to fund the construction and expansion of US chip manufacturing capabilities. $ 11 billion is directed at workforce training and manufacturing research, with $ 2 billion set aside to direct laboratory advances into military capabilities.

The good news is that Samsung (who is promising a $ 200 billion investment in 11 plants in Texas over the next decade or so), Intel (a $ 20 billion factory in Ohio) and TI (Texas Instruments, $ 30 billion plant in Texas) have jsut committed to building these new facilities in the US.

Then, there’s the program that Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson have been advocating for a few years.  These two MIT professors conceived of a national program to revitalize towns and cities to produce sci/tech products and research.  Not just the obvious places like Silicon Valley, Route 128, and the DC Beltway.  (You should know that legislation based upon their premise had its genesis and the Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) of 2021.  It never passed.)

As detailed in their monograph, their concept is to build R&D centers in some 120 communities across the USA.  Instead of funneling these funds to our elite institutions (which means the benefits accrue to  metropolitan Boston, metropolitan NY, metropolitan Atlanta, metropolitan LA, Silicon Valley, etc.), we should pick smaller communities (like Indianapolis, Kansas City, etc.) which have strong university and industry- to afford new centers of research that would build the US economy, amplify the capabilities of smaller cities and regions, and begin to eliminate the inequality that pervades across the USA.

This Chips bill provides some $ 200 billion for just those sort of developments.  The funding is directed to rural states- and for the creation of 20 regional hubs across the USA.  The areas of interest include AI (artificial intelligence), quantum computing, wireless communications, and precision agriculture.  In addition, NSF (the National Science Foundation) will manage a $ 20 million program to advance technologies that are critical to US security.  (The bill also augments the NSF budget by $ 16 billion to $ 61 billion, funding university researchers across the US.)

The bill also includes a five year increase to the Office of Science (Energy Department) by $12.9 billion to promote clean energy, nuclear physics, and high intensity lasers.  There’s also $ 17 billion to promote advanced nuclear reactors to replace the retiring coal power plants.

Now, this is a bill FOR American Innovation.

 

 

On a separate note.  Today is Independence Day in Ukraine.  May it truly achieve free and independent life, shucking off the criminal Russian invasion.