Biden signs $280b Chips act in bid to boost US over China

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a $280 billion bipartisan bill to boost domestic high-tech manufacturing, part of his administration’s push to boost US competitiveness over China.

Flanked by scores of lawmakers, union officials, local politicians and business leaders, Biden feted the legislation, a core part of his economic agenda that will incentivize investments in the American semiconductor industry in an effort to ease US reliance on overseas supply chains for critical, cutting-edge goods.

“The future of the chip industry is going to be made in America,” Biden said in a sweltering Rose Garden ceremony Tuesday, referring to the diminutive devices that power everything from smartphones to computers to automobiles. The legislation sets aside $52 billion specifically to bolster the US computer chip sector.

The bill has been more than a year in the making, but finally cleared both chambers of Congress late last month with significant bipartisan margins. The Senate passed it 64-33, with 17 GOP senators supporting it, while the House quickly followed suit with a 243-187 vote that included 24 House Republicans in favor, even though party leaders began urging their ranks to vote against it after Democrats advanced a separate sweeping bill focused on climate and health care.

The White House sought on Tuesday to begin selling the immediate impacts of the semiconductor measure, noting that Micron, a leading US chip manufacturer, will announce a $40 billion plan to boost domestic production of memory chips, while Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries will unveil a $4.2 billion expansion of an upstate New York chip plant.

The administration has also repeatedly portrayed this legislation as a critical component in countering the influence of a rising China and ensure the US can maintain a competitive edge against Beijing, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing. Administration officials have held multiple briefings for lawmakers to sketch out the national security implications of this bill, and Biden noted during his remarks Tuesday that the Chinese government had lobbied US businesses against the legislation.

“The CHIPS and Science Act is going to inspire a whole new generation of Americans to answer that question: What next?” Biden said Tuesday during the signing ceremony. “Decades from now, people will look back at this week and all we passed and all we moved on, that we met the moment at this inflection point in history.”

Tuesday’s ceremony is one of several public events Biden has scheduled since recovering from COVID-19, including a visit to flood-ravaged Kentucky on Monday and another signing event on Wednesday for legislation aiding veterans who have suffered from toxic burn pits. But Biden appeared to be dealing with some residual symptoms, coughing heavily several times during his remarks and apologizing at one point for doing so.

Meanwhile, a sweeping bill passed by the US Senate on Sunday and intended to fight climate change, lower drug prices and raise some corporate taxes, will bring down inflation over the medium to long term and cut the deficit, rating agencies Moody’s Investors service and Fitch Ratings told Reuters on Monday.

The legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, however, will not bring down inflation “this coming year or next year,” said Madhavi Bokil, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.

Charles Seville, senior director of sovereign group economics at Fitch, said that the legislation was disinflationary “but for all the rebranding of the legislation, the impacts on inflation are relatively small and will only really start to compound over the medium and long term as these provisions take effect.”

“We do think that this act will have an impact (of cutting inflation) as it increases productivity,” Bokil said, adding her horizon was two to three years.

The Senate on Sunday passed the $430 billion bill, a major victory for President Joe Biden, sending the measure to the House of Representatives for a vote, likely Friday. They are expected to pass it and send it to the White House for Biden’s signature.

Republicans, arguing that the bill will not address inflation, have denounced it as a job-killing, left-wing spending wish list that could undermine growth when the economy is in danger of falling into recession.

Bokil said in the immediate short-term future, inflation was going to be tackled by the Federal Reserve as it raises rates.

Agencies