Texas, Florida Lawmakers at Odds Over CHIPS Act

While some Texas Republicans are urging Congress to pass a $250 billion CHIPS Act, Florida’s Republican U.S. senators are opposing it, arguing it will continue to drive “Biden’s inflation crisis,” is a pro-China bill and gives billions of dollars to companies with no accountability.

Proponents of the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) Act argue it will bolster U.S. competitiveness in the semiconductor business, reduce reliance on foreign production, and offset supply chain issues.

The CHIPS Act was initially introduced in 2020 by Texas Republicans Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Michael McCaul, and incorporated into of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

This year, the initial version cost taxpayers $76 billion, was 73 pages long and less than an inch thick printed out, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) notes. Now it’s more than 1,000 pages long and roughly one foot thick and full of “reckless spending,” he argues. It also gives the Biden administration “a wide-open door to push its terrible Green New Deal policies,” he said.

Cornyn said that if the United States “lost access to advanced semiconductors (none made in U.S.) in the first year, national GDP could shrink by 3.2 percent and we could lose 2.4 million jobs.” The GDP loss would be three times larger than 2021’s loss due to the chip shortage ($718 billion compared to $240 billion). Over three years, he estimates, a more than $2 trillion GDP loss and an estimated “5 million people losing their jobs—a cumulative GDP loss over 9 percent and employment loss of 3.5 percent over that period.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott points out that “Texas is a national leader in the semiconductor industry” that employs more than 30,000 Texans. Last year, Samsung and Texas Instruments announced historic investments up to $47 billion to manufacture semiconductors in north Texas, pledging

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