Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., stood amongst vacuum cleaners, both new and old, in Portland to call for a “full steam” approach to pass federal legislation that will subsidize U.S. semiconductor production.
Wyden appeared with local tech and research executives at Stark’s Vacuum Museum on Saturday to tout the importance of passing $52 billion in CHIPS Act funding to subsidize domestic manufacturing and research.
Congress is looking to boost domestic chip production as a global chip shortage has made it difficult for consumers to purchase many products that rely on them, including cars, computers and yes, even modern vacuums.
“From the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed, Oregonians depend on products that involve semiconductors and chips,” Wyden said.
The bill could help boost the Portland area, which has one of the densest concentrations of semiconductor manufacturing in the nation, though most domestic expansion in recent years — with the notable exception of growth on Intel’s Washington County campuses — has occurred in other states.
Increasingly, though, the U.S. is dependent on chips made overseas to meet demand, in part because of subsidies countries including Taiwan, South Korea and China pay semiconductor manufacturers.
Both the Senate and the House have their own versions of a bill that will allocate funding towards domestic chip production. The Senate’s legislation was initially passed in June 2021 while the House passed their own in early February.
The House’s version added several Democratic priorities including climate protections and some immigration reforms, which has derailed the funding from moving forward.
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted that he will not support passing a bipartisan semiconductor package if Democrats move forward with separate legislation that would tackle, among other things, prescription drug and energy costs.
Wyden said Saturday that delaying the bill “threatens national security and jeopardizes what needs to be done in terms of strengthening our economy.” He said he would like to get the bill passed before Congress adjourns for its August recess.
Wyden said he would like to pass the semiconductor legislation along with the climate and social spending bill.
“Seniors are getting prescription medicine and they’re getting clobbered by their prices,” he said.
Standing alongside Wyden were other tech and research executives from Intel, Microchip Technology and nLight. Intel, which is Oregon’s largest corporate employer, is counting on the legislation passing to establish a network of semiconductor research centers.
“That will help us attract the best and brightest researchers around the world,” said Gabriela Cruz Thompson, who’s in charge of Intel’s university research collaboration team, making “Oregon again a launching pad for the best technology that can be made with semiconductors.”
She said other countries have signed incentives for semiconductor production, including the European Union, Japan, South Korea and India, adding that a majority of new semiconductor fabrication plants – known as fabs – are not located in the U.S.
The longer the legislation is stalled, she said “the higher the risk that the chip manufacturers will decide to invest and expand outside of the U.S.”
Intel said in late June that it will indefinitely delay a planned ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Ohio factories, a sign of frustration and pressure aimed at Congress to pass a semiconductor package.
The company said the passage of the bill would affect the expansion of its Ohio plant, which could become a $100 billion facility.
Dan Malinaric, corporate vice president of Microchip, said the company has invested over $600 million in its Gresham fab to boost chip production in the state. He said delays in the supply chain have created two years of backlog in chip production, when that used to be only two months pre-pandemic.
“The reality is still that demand far outpaces supply,” Malinaric said.
Malinaric said chips are integrated in parts of everyone’s daily life, from “alarm clocks when you wake up to iPads that you’re reading before you go to sleep.” He pointed to Dyson and Miele vacuums at Stark’s Vacuum as examples of products that use chips from Microchip Technologies.
He said funding the CHIPS Act will help with potentially developing a new semiconductor production facility in Gresham – one of the five sites the company is looking at around the country.
Wyden and other members of Congress will return to their chambers in Washington, D.C., on Monday to begin their work to advance the legislation.
“We have got to have bipartisan leadership, and it’s urgent, and we just have to work with everybody to get this done,” he said.
—Zaeem Shaikh; mshaikh@oregonian.com; 503-221-8111; @zaeemshake
