Skip to content

SCHUMER ANNOUNCES SENATE TAKES FIRST STEP TO ADVANCE HIS HISTORIC FEDERAL SEMICONDUCTOR LEGISLATION; SENATOR MAKES FINAL PUSH TO PASS BIPARTISAN LAW & OUTLINES GAMECHANGING CHIP AND INNOVATION BILL CREATING THOUSANDS OF NY JOBS, ATTRACTING NEW COMPANIES & POWERING THE FUTURE OF THE UPSTATE ECONOMY

Semiconductor Chips Are Integral To Everyday Life – From Cars To Refrigerators, But Most Are Not Made In The U.S., Threatening National Security, Increasing Costs For Work Families, And Weakening U.S. Competitiveness

Schumer’s Historic Billions In Fed Investment For American Chip Manufacturing, R&D Incentives Will Boost Companies Like GlobalFoundries in The Capital Region, Corning Inc., Spur Research In Western NY And Southern Tier, Help Lure New Companies to CNY And More

Senator Says Making Chips Here At Home Will Fight Inflation, Attract New Investment, & Cement NY As Global Tech Leader

Schumer: Semiconductor And Innovation Bill Will Be A Rocket-CHIP For Upstate NY Economies & Make NY The US Launching Pad

After years of relentless advocacy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer announced today that the Senate has taken a major step forward in advancing his historic federal semiconductor incentive, scientific research, and technological competitiveness bill to bring manufacturing back from overseas to places like Upstate New York.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted to begin consideration of Schumer’s American-built chips and innovation bill with a strong bipartisan vote of 64-34, paving the way for the new package of investments to overcome a filibuster and pass as early as next week. This will directly help alleviate the current supply-chain crisis that has increased costs for families, worsened inflation, and presented a national security threat due to the critical lack of microchips.

Schumer said that, “With the bill now in the homestretch of becoming law, Upstate New York is primed to reap the rewards and become the foundation for the future of America’s high-tech manufacturing and innovation for the semiconductor industry.”

“This bill means lowering costs for families, solving our nation’s chip shortage, strengthening our national security, and bringing manufacturing back from China to Upstate New York. With its rare combination of a world-class workforce, advanced manufacturers, and renowned higher education institutions, I wrote and championed this legislation with Upstate New York always at the forefront of my mind,” said Senator Schumer. “This once in a generation federal investment can fundamentally reshape the Upstate New York economy with new microchip manufacturing, the building of new regional tech hubs, support for New York entrepreneurs and research at our renowned universities and laboratories. After years of fighting we are finally on the precipice of making this major investment in Upstate New York’s tech economy a reality and I will not stop fighting to make sure the future of America is built here in Upstate New York.”

Currently, only 12% of chips are currently manufactured domestically, compared to 37% in the 1990s, and many foreign competitors, including China, are investing heavily to dominate the industry. Nearly 75% of global semiconductor production is now occurring in East Asia and foreign government subsidies drive the majority of the cost difference for producing semiconductors overseas. Schumer said that his legislation would help turn the tide on this trend by bringing manufacturing back to America, along with investing in other key technology and R&D so New York and the country can lead the world in innovation.

The bill under consideration includes:

  • $39 billion in financial assistance for the CHIPS for America Fund: to build, expand, or modernize domestic facilities and equipment for semiconductor fabrication, assembly, testing, advanced packaging, or research and development.
  • $11 billion for Department of Commerce research and development including creating a National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) a public-private partnership to conduct advanced semiconductor manufacturing and other specialized R&D programs.
  • $200 million for the CHIPS for America Workforce and Education Fund: to kick start development of the domestic semiconductor workforce, which faces near-term labor shortages, by leveraging activities of the National Science Foundation.
  • $2 billion for the DoD CHIPS for America Defense Fund.
  • A new Investment Tax Credit for semiconductor manufacturing facilities and equipment.
  • $1.5 billion for the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund: to spur the race to 5G, software-based wireless technologies, and innovative ‘leap-ahead’ technologies in the U.S. mobile broadband market.
  • $10 billion Regional Technology Hubs to support regional economic development efforts around the country to not only research and innovate technologies, but also manufacture them here in America.
  • Increased investment for National Science Foundation (NSF) Research and Development Programs, including in a new technology directorate as proposed in Schumer’s original bipartisan Endless Frontier Act, and STEM education and training programs.

Schumer explained that New York is uniquely suited to take advantage of these federal incentives to lead the revival and reassert America’s global technological leadership. New York is currently home to over 80 semiconductor companies that employ over 34,000 NY workers, including global industry leaders like GlobalFoundries, Wolfspeed, onsemi, IBM, and other major microchip and innovation companies that support them like Corning Inc. In addition, Schumer said that New York offers dozens shovel ready sites prime for the semiconductor industry and ready for companies to invest.  Schumer said that this first of its kind federal investment would touch every corner of New York:

Capital Region

Schumer’s legislation has already spurred chip industry investment in the Capital Region like GlobalFoundries’ announcement last year of building a second chip fab in Malta, focused primarily on auto and military chip production, creating thousands of jobs on top of the 3,000 employees that GlobalFoundries already employs in the area. Schumer also previously brought the Commerce Secretary and later Commerce Deputy Secretary Graves to the Capital Region to see first-hand how the Albany Nanotech Complex’s unique assets make it prime to be the hub for America’s first National Semiconductor Technology Center, which would be funded by Schumer’s legislation. 

Central New York & the Mohawk Valley

Major sites like the Marcy Nanocenter and White Pine Commerce Park are already attracting interest from large semiconductor-related companies due to their shovel ready infrastructure, and Schumer said his legislation would be the lightning rod for luring more jobs to Central NY and the Mohawk Valley. The industry has already taken notice, as highlighted by Cree-Wolfspeed’s $1.2 billion investment to build the world’s largest 200mm Silicon Carbide semiconductor facilities at Marcy, which will create over 600 jobs. Schumer also said Syracuse tech companies like JMA Wireless would be able to take advantage of other historic incentives like the $1.5B in 5G and telecomm tech development that could accelerate their expansion locally, and the R&D investments included in the bill will support the region’s efforts in UAVs and quantum computing.

Finger Lakes

Schumer said the recent $139M, 270 job expansion in Monroe County by Corning Inc. to support optic technology for the growing chip industry would help bolster this plant as more companies would rely on the components made at the new Fairport facility. In addition, the Finger Lakes high concentration of research institutions from the University of Rochester to RIT make the region uniquely suited to benefit from the historic increases to the National Science Foundation, which the Director of the NSF got to see firsthand when Schumer personally brought him to see their research facilities earlier this year. Schumer also cited a recent study authored MIT economists that analyzed over 100 regions to determine which are best poised to become new Tech-Economy hubs if provided federal scientific research & development investment and determined that Rochester, NY ranked No. 1 as the nation's top region ripe for technological and economic growth.

Western New York

In addition to shovel ready sites like STAMP that could benefit from the chip incentive legislation, Schumer said that Western New York’s spot in the EDA Regional Challenge for its manufacturing cluster proposal make it a top candidate to compete for funding through the new regional technology hub program. Schumer also said that research institutions like the University at Buffalo and technical training schools like Erie Community College are in a strong position to compete for manufacturing training and new NSF funds set to be boosted as well by his bill.

Southern Tier

The greater Binghamton area has already emerged as a growing hub for battery manufacturing and with Binghamton University as a finalist in the EDA Regional Challenge for its battery R&D proposal, Schumer said his bill could strengthen this plan even further by helping grow this critical supply chain in the Southern Tier.  In addition, top research schools like BU and Cornell University would be able to enhance their efforts through more federal research dollars and bolstering their workforce training initiatives. 

Hudson Valley

Schumer said the Hudson Valley is home to many chip companies looking to grow like IBM in Westchester and Dutchess Counties and OnSemi, which will soon be fully taking over the GlobalFoundries facility at iPark in East Fishkill that will be able to utilize these historic incentives to bolster their operations. Plus, the close proximity to NYC and available sites like the former TechCity Campus in Ulster County, which Schumer recently pitched to a major battery company for a potential 500 job expansion, making the region a prime area for growth from his tech investment.

Senator Schumer has a long history of fighting to advance semiconductor manufacturing and R&D and the broader tech economy in New York.  In June 2020, Schumer introduced his bipartisan American Foundries Act to authorize new federal incentives for expanding domestic semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. Schumer successfully added this bill as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passing the new federal semiconductor incentives into law in December 2020. In June 2021, Schumer then successfully passed through the Senate the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), legislation he introduced that combined his Endless Frontier Act to make a significant investment in research, development, manufacturing and innovation with other competitiveness legislation. As part of this package, Schumer also included $52 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to implement the semiconductor-related manufacturing and R&D programs that he had successfully pushed to authorize in the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and are at the heart of the package advanced this week. The House passed its companion legislation to USICA, the America COMPETES Act this past January and negotiations continue to reconcile the differences between the two bills. 

The bill under consideration this week combines the federal semiconductor incentives Schumer has been pushing with the investment in R&D and other innovation programs from his Endless Frontier Act. The remainder of policies from USICA/COMPETES continue to be negotiated as part of the conference committee to be considered later this year.

###

Previous
Next