(The Center Square) – A bill to make it easier for semiconductor facilities to be built is making its way to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The legislation is intended to make the process for permitting to be simpler for the industry, which is rapidly trying to expand in the United States but has occasionally been marred by construction and labor delays.
The “Building Chips in America Act of 2023” already passed the U.S. Senate unanimously, but it will now come before the House of Representatives this week, according to a schedule. Specifically, the bill would tackle hurdles involving the approval process related to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 by making it clear what is under “the scope of a major Federal action.”
“Manufacturing semiconductors in the United States is vital for our economy and national defense. When fully constructed, microchip manufacturing plants will create thousands of good-paying jobs all across the country,” Sens. Mark Kelly and Ted Cruz said in a joint statement.
“But duplicative permitting reviews saddle these projects with uncertainty and cause avoidable delays. Our bipartisan legislation clarifying the scope of environmental permitting reviews, which the Senate has twice approved unanimously, is critical to preventing risks to our economic and national security,” the statement continued.
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 has doled out billions to the private sector in grants and loans to bolster efforts to make the United States and the western world less dependent upon the island nation of Taiwan for chips, which are critical for many technologies. As Taiwan continues to face a high risk of conflict with China, the push has led to companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Intel to pour resources into Arizona and other states for domestic production. In addition to the chips themselves, various other companies in the semiconductor supply chain have also benefited from the push.
