A Transfer of Global Wealth to Happen Soon? Funding for Semiconductor Manufacture in the United States

Back in May of 2021, I noted that the Endless Frontier Act, which is designed to improve the United States’ competitiveness, had been proposed in the U.S. Senate.  Since that time, the Act has been renamed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and passed the U.S. Senate.  The U.S. House of Representatives has also passed two laws covering parts of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act.  A very nice article by Shelly Castle and Emily Jenkins titled “USICA and its House equivalents go to conference: what will be the likely outcome?” published in JD Supra has a very nice summary of the process of attempting to come to agreement about the contents of the ultimate law and a chart concerning where the proposed laws match up and differ.  Notably, according to the article, the House bills do not include appropriations for the CHIPs Act, which is designed to incentivize semiconductor manufacture in the United States.  There is an interesting question as to why this is happening, and I am not going to speculate.  Interestingly, in perhaps a bid to put pressure on Congress to fund the CHIPs Act, there are reports of a potential $50 billion chip manufacturing plant that may be built in North Carolina (the location of the Research Triangle).  Hopefully, Congress can get moving on this.  It is a midterm election year.