WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday the House of Representatives would soon introduce a bill on competitiveness to help bolster semiconductor investment and supply chains.
The announcement came just hours after Intel Corp said it would invest more than $20 billion in two new chip-making plants in Ohio in a massive manufacturing project that could benefit from federal funding in the years ahead.
President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing to persuade Congress to approve funding to help boost chip production in the United States, as shortages of the key components used in autos and computers have exacerbated supply chain bottlenecks.
Biden is grappling with Americans’ frustration over inflation running at a near 40-year high in part as the COVID-19 pandemic has snarled global supply chains.
His public approval rating hit the lowest level of his presidency this week, 43%, a Reuters/Ipsos poll has shown.
“The House legislation will supercharge our investment in chips, strengthen our supply chain and transform our research capacity, plus many other key provisions,” Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic colleagues.
Biden, in a news conference on Wednesday, said inflation had “everything to do with the supply chain” and that the United States had the capacity to become self-reliant on the computer chips it needed to manufacture automobiles.
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
