Semiconductor bill backed by top Texas Republicans heads to Biden

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Thursday handed a bill backed by leading Republicans in Texas to encourage home semiconductor manufacturing, whilst most Texas Republicans within the chamber voted towards the measure.

U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul of Austin and Kay Granger of Fort Worth have been the one Texas Republicans to vote for the bill, together with all of the chamber’s Texas Democrats. The bill handed the House by a vote of 243-187-1 after successful U.S. Senate approval earlier this week. It now awaits closing approval from President Joe Biden, who helps the bill.

The laws incentivizes firms that produce semiconductors — chips that energy something from a automotive to a cellphone — to work within the United States, as considerations mount over China and different nations’ rising affect over the trade. The U.S., as soon as thought of a pacesetter in world semiconductor manufacturing, has seen its share of chip manufacturing wane over the previous few a long time.

The bill supplies $52 billion in subsidies for home semiconductor producers and supplies a tax credit score for investments in semiconductor manufacturing.

The bill had the help of main Texas Republicans, together with Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan, who lauded the bill as a chance for job creation within the state. It’s a uncommon level of settlement between Republicans in Texas and the Biden administration, which has been pushing for months to fight international domination of chip manufacturing.

“This legislation will assist the United States in cementing a secure semiconductor supply chain, which is vital to our nation’s economy and national security, and better equip Texas to compete for investment in this industry,” Abbott mentioned in a press release final week.

Texas is a hub for semiconductor manufacturing, main the nation in semiconductor exports for 11 straight years. Samsung, a pacesetter in semiconductor manufacturing, lately filed paperwork suggesting plans to develop its presence within the state by constructing 11 chip-making services within the subsequent 20 years. The know-how large introduced plans final yr to construct a $17 billion semiconductor facility in Taylor.

House GOP management selected Wednesday night to encourage their members to vote towards the laws that had lengthy been thought of a bipartisan settlement. The effort failed, as 24 Republicans defied their management to vote for the bill, together with McCaul and Granger.

That got here after Senate Democrats stunned lawmakers after they launched a sweeping piece of laws meant to decrease well being care prices and fight local weather change — simply hours after the U.S. Senate handed the laws on Wednesday on a bipartisan vote of 64-33.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, helped lead the hassle to cross the semiconductors laws. Ted Cruz, Texas’ junior Republican senator, voted towards the bill due to the cash distributed to huge companies.

“I’m all for using the tax code to incentivize manufacturers to build semiconductors in America, but when the federal government simply gives billions of taxpayer dollars directly to massive corporations, it invites cronyism and corruption,” Cruz mentioned in a press release after the bill’s passage.

The bill additionally confronted opposition from progressives who, like Cruz, derided it as a type of “corporate welfare.” Progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, additionally voted towards the bill.

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