Hagerty’s watershed bipartisan bill to enhance U.S. competitiveness with China will be passed in connection with CHIPS legislation
WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has secured agreement from leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives that the House will pass, in tandem with the CHIPS legislation, Hagerty’s bipartisan legislation introduced with Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Rob Portman (R-OH).
Hagerty’s legislation, which passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent in January, would untangle bureaucratic red tape for key national-security manufacturing operations, like semiconductors, by granting them access to the FAST-41 improved federal permitting program. The CHIPS legislation provides incentives to boost chip manufacturing and development in the United States in order to reduce our reliance on China and other foreign production sources. Together, these two bills promote American leadership in essential industries at the heart of America’s strategic competition with the Chinese Communist Party, and therefore Hagerty intends to support the CHIPS legislation.
“I ran for the Senate to advance constructive policy solutions that create jobs for the American people and bolster our national security,” said Senator Hagerty. “My semiconductor legislation to reduce government red tape and unleash American competitiveness, which will be adopted by the House of Representatives in the coming days, will augment the CHIPS package by facilitating faster construction and operation of critical American manufacturing facilities. This will not only create American jobs, but make our Nation more competitive by strengthening the American semiconductor industry and accelerating America’s efforts to win the strategic competition with the Chinese Communist Party that will define the century. This will provide significant regulatory relief for critical American industries during this era of predatory behavior by the CCP.”
By reducing the time it takes to obtain the permitting necessary to build chip facilities in the United States, Hagerty’s legislation will create American jobs, improve our supply chains, and fortify our national security by increasing domestic development of these critical sectors. The bipartisan bill complements the CHIPS legislation by improving the permitting process for these new projects so that they will be built in the United States more quickly.
A companion bill to Hagerty’s legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives in May and is being led by a bipartisan group that includes Representatives Michael McCaul (R-TX-10), Deborah Ross (D-NC-02), Jake Ellzey (R-TX-06), Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), and Bryan Steil (R-WI-01).
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