View Chips “plus” legislation bill text here

On Tuesday evening, the Senate voted to advance legislation to provide urgently needed investments in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and research and development of new innovations and technologies vital to the United States’ national security and global economic competitiveness.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and chair of the USICA conference committee, spoke on the Senate floor immediately before the vote, urging lawmakers to support the bill, built on USICA and which largely reflects “four corners” agreements negotiated before Sen. McConnell halted bipartisan discussions.

“[T]oday's vote is really about whether we're going to stop shipping jobs overseas, and instead invest in American R&D,” Sen. Cantwell said. “…[T]his underlying bill invests in 10 key technology areas that we need to make investments in, and it makes sure that we in the United States of America are saying, ‘we want to see that innovation here, we want to see these in tech hubs and tech centers, we want our universities to translate that science faster, and keep our patents and make sure that we are … continuing to lead the world in innovation.’”

Sen. Cantwell on the Senate Floor Before the Vote

 Sen. Cantwell’s floor speech video is available here and transcript here.