Bumps, bipartisanship in fight for semiconductor bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Five weeks ago, senior Biden administration aides gathered for their regular Thursday morning meeting about passing a bill to revive the U.S. computer chip sector, worried that it could be in peril.
After 18 months, the bipartisan effort to provide $52 billion for semiconductors was getting close to the finish line. But they were concerned that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell might block it.
This was not just another would-be-nice bill. Many in the meeting had sat through multiple Situation Room briefings about frightening scenarios if the deal stalled. They had come to believe the very trajectory of the economy and national security was at stake.
The billions for computer chips and scientific research, they argued, could help to cut inflation, create new factory jobs, defend the U.S. and its allies and preserve an edge against an ambitious and aggressive China.
More than 90% of advanced chips come from Taiwan. Should Taiwan be invaded or shipping channels closed, the U.S. and much of the world would face a cascading economic crisis and find the weapon systems meant to defend their citizens impossible to maintain and update.
The Biden team resolved to ignore any possible McConnell threats as a "false choice" and keep working with Republican senators who had backed the bill, like John Cornyn of Texas, Todd Young of Indiana and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, recalled the sentiment coming out of the meeting: "There's been too much progress, too much trust and there's too much at stake" to see the effort stall now. "We're going to keep our heads down and drive forward."
Just hours later, McConnell vowed on Twitter that the semiconductor bill would be dead if Democratic senators tried to push through a separate budget and domestic spending package on a party-line vote.
But the Kentucky senator's gambit would ultimately fail.
President Joe Biden will soon sign into law the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act — which also includes substantial money for scientific research. The event has been delayed by Biden's rebound case of Covid-19. This account of how the bill came together draws from interviews with 11 Biden administration and congressional officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The back story reveals the complexities of bipartisanship, even when all sides agree on the need to act.
McConnell threatened to block the semiconductor investment even though he supported the idea, hoping to head off separate Democratic legislation. Biden's team took the unusual step of enlisting former members of the Trump administration — a group generally reviled by Democrats — to find Republican votes. There were GOP lawmakers such as Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas who helped craft the bill but ultimately felt obligated to vote against it, displeased by the Democratic tax increases and spending that could soon follow.
"House Republicans have been working in good faith this entire time to come to consensus legislation that can be passed by both chambers," Lucas said in speech to the House last week. "But time and time again, we've been thwarted as Democratic leadership has moved the goalposts, shut down the process, and chosen their divisive, partisan policies."
For most of the process, the technical nature of computer chips and scientific research meant that the talks could occur beyond the din of partisan squabbling.