WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – President Joe Biden invited business leaders and governors of Michigan and Indiana to the White House on Wednesday to urge Congress to advance a large-scale manufacturing bill designed to close gaps in the U.S. supply chain.
Some experts say supply chain holes are at least partly to blame for high inflation. The Chips Act will invest billions in the domestic production of semiconductor chips to close one of these holes.
“This opportunity is really important to our nation,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. “We need Congress to make a law on CHIPS.”
She sat next to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, at the president’s roundtable to express her support for the act. She says this is the key to returning jobs to the US and lowering prices for consumers.
Semiconductor chips can be found in a variety of things, from your smartphone to computers that help drive your car. Most are manufactured overseas, and difficulties in delivering them to the U.S. during the pandemic have caused problems for companies.
“I’ve seen a lot of cars waiting for chips. We also had (car) factories without work, ”due to a shortage of chips, Whitmer said.
Whitmer also argued that the bill, if it becomes law, will help keep inflation under control in the future.
“(Foreign production) puts us at the mercy of shortages and bottlenecks in supply chains,” Biden said. “The drying up is that this bipartisan innovation bill will allow us to stamp more” Made in America “products.”
Democrats and Republicans are working on a compromise between House of Representatives and Cenace versions of the legislation before being sent to the presidential table.
While he has broad support, some say Congress needs to move on. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Said he should work to support domestic production in more sectors.
“We need to make all of our critical supplies in the United States,” Hawley said. “At least 50 percent of them are made in the United States.”