President Joe Biden on Wednesday met with state lawmakers and business leaders to discuss America’s competitiveness in the global economy, where he took the time to call on the House and Senate to pass legislation that would increase the amount of goods and services produced in America.
“The bottom line is, this bipartisan innovation bill will allow us to stamp more products Made in America and it’s going to bolster our national security and economic security,” Biden said from the White House. “It matters. So let’s get it done.”
Those attending Wednesday’s meeting, both virtually and in-person, included Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, as well as Geoff Martha, CEO of Medtronic;Sanjay Mehrota, president and CEO of Micron; Elizabeth Door, senior vice president of Global Strategic Sourcing at Whirlpool and Enrique Lores, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, among others.
According to a readout of the meeting from the White House, “the governors and business leaders — which included some of the world’s leading manufacturing and semiconductor firms — discussed how the bill will foster domestic semiconductor manufacturing, create more resilient supply chains, invest in basic research and set a course for America’s innovation agenda while lowering costs for the middle class.”
Many of the companies present at Wednesday’s meeting have recently announced projects to bolster supply chains in the United States.
Last month, Intel announced it would invest more than $20 billion to build a new computer chip facility in Ohio. Last November, Samsung announced plans to build a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Taylor, Texas to produce chips and processors.
Other companies – like Micron – require legislation from Congress before they can commit to such projects.
“Micron is looking into making a multibillion dollar semiconductor investment here in America if this bill is passed,” Biden said. “They need Congress to pass the bipartisan innovation bill. And one of the reasons we need to do that is because there’s perhaps no production more important in reclaiming America’s leadership and owning our future than semiconductors.”
“Business leaders discussed their plans to reshore manufacturing and make more in America, building on the momentum of 423,000 manufacturing jobs created since President Biden took office,” the statement from the White House continued. “They discussed how their companies are trying to build more resilient supply chains, leading them to re-locate production in America, and how the bill would result in quicker innovation in American manufacturing and more investments in worker training.”
“They also discussed how domestic production can help Americans by addressing bottlenecks that are raising the costs of household goods like appliances, air conditioners, and washing machines,” the statement continued. “And the group discussed how, as we’ve seen over the past years, global events like the pandemic or Russia’s unprovoked aggression in Ukraine can result in higher prices for American consumers, which further underscores the importance of strengthening our economy and making it more resilient to these types of shocks.”
There are currently two bills in Congress that aim to bolster domestic supply chains. The Senate passed its version last June, dubbed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which would allocate funds towards projects like wireless supply chain innovation and semiconductor manufacturing; it would also impose sanctions on China for cybersecurity and human rights abuses and would require federal infrastructure projects to use a certain amount of made-in-America products.
The House later countered with its own proposal, the America COMPETES Act of 2022, which passed the chamber in early February. Like the Senate version, the COMPETES Act would fund semiconductor manufacturing and research, with both allocating $52 billion over five years towards the CHIPS for America Act.
There are several key differences between the two proposals – namely, the House bill contains more components focused on climate change, including more cooperation with China on the issue. It also takes a more diplomacy-central approach to U.S.-China relations, like mandating “the creation of new people-to-people programs to advance U.S. foreign policy goals and promote U.S. national security interests and values,” per Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and law firm.
The differences between the two bills will need to be worked out in a conference committee before lawmakers can vote on a final package to send to the president, a move Biden highly encouraged during Wednesday’s meeting.
“I’m urging the House and the Senate to work out the differences between the two versions of this bill, get it to my desk as quickly as you can,” he said.
Supply chain challenges and global shortages of critical products like chips, semiconductors and certain auto parts have impacted the U.S. economy since the start of Biden’s presidency. Biden argues one way to lower prices and inflation would be to move more manufacturing jobs stateside.
Biden on Wednesday the federal government can pursue two courses on inflation. It can either pull back on support and cause wages and growth to cool, or it can get rid of the pressure points that can lead to inflation when emergencies and uncertainties occur by having more goods manufactured in the U.S.
“Making it in America is one of the ways we can address our cost and supply chain challenges,” Biden said Wednesday. “When we build products we need, we don’t have to wait and we reduce shipping costs and we can get goods moving faster.”
Still, this plan would take years to implement and the consumer price report being released Thursday is expected to show that annual inflation rose to nearly 8% last month, according to the financial data firm FactSet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
