Senate votes to advance bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

The Senate voted Tuesday to advance a bill that would provide $52 billion in subsidies to domestic semiconductor manufacturers, as well as invest billions in science and technology innovation, in a bid to strengthen the United States’ competitiveness and self-reliance in what is seen as a keystone industry for economic and national security.

The legislation — which has been referred to as the “CHIPS Act” but which Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) dubbed the “Chips and Science” bill on Tuesday — resembles the United States Innovation and Competition Act, the original form of the bill, which cleared the Senate last year but ran aground in the House. On Tuesday morning, the Senate voted 64-32 to limit debate and move the bill toward a final vote. If the Senate passes the legislation, as expected, it would then move to the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said it has the support for passage.

“It’s a major step forward for our economic security, our national security, our supply chains and, as I said, America’s future,” Schumer said Tuesday afternoon. “I feel this bill so passionately. It’s not one of these things that, you know, people immediately say, ‘Oh, yes, we must have that done.’ But it is something we must have done.”

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