WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure investment package includes $300 billion to boost the struggling U.S. manufacturing sector, including $50 billion for semiconductor production and research, the White House said on Monday.
Biden will highlight his push to rebuild manufacturing in remarks to a meeting of senior White House officials and top executives from nearly 20 major companies that will focus on a global semiconductor shortage that has roiled the automotive industry and technology firms.
“While manufacturing jobs have been a ladder to middle-class life, we have let our industrial heartland be hollowed out, with quality jobs moving abroad or to regions with lower wages and fewer protections for workers,” the White House said in a fact sheet outlining investments here under the Biden infrastructure plan.
Here are key elements of the manufacturing-targeted investments Biden is asking Congress to enact:
– $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research, as called for in the bipartisan CHIPS Act
– $50 billion to create a new office at the Commerce Department to monitor domestic industrial capacity and fund investments in production of critical goods
– $30 billion in manufacturing of medical countermeasures and biopreparedness and biosecurity over four years to create U.S. jobs and prevent severe job losses caused by pandemics
– $46 billion to jumpstart clean energy manufacturing through federal procurement, enabling innovation in sectors such as cars, ports, pumps and clean materials, as well as critical technologies like advanced nuclear reactors and fuel
– $20 billion in regional innovation hubs to help communities hurt by de-industrialization and underinvestment
– $14 billion in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to advance technologies and capabilities critical to future competitiveness
– $52 billion to increase access to capital for domestic manufacturers, focusing on successful existing access programs and targeting rural manufacturing and clean energy
– Extension of the 48C tax credit program to modernize supply chains, including in the auto sector
– Creation of a new financing program to support debt and equity investments for manufacturing to strengthen the resilience of America’s supply chains
– $31 billion in programs that give small businesses access to credit, venture capital and R&D dollars, creating a national network of small business incubators and innovation hubs, especially in communities of color
Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Howard Goller
