Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Ahead Of The Commerce Department Launching The First Application For CHIPS And Science Bill Funding Tomorrow

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor and stressed the importance of the Commerce Department opening applications for CHIPS and Science bill funding starting tomorrow. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a great leader in my opinion, announced recently that starting tomorrow, the Commerce Department will launch their first application for CHIPs funding, with a focus on chip fab manufacturing facilities.

I’ll have more to say in the morning, but I just want to reaffirm that six months after CHIPS and Science was passed into law, the benefits are clear and unmistakable: over $200 billion in private investment have been announced across 16 states.

That includes $100 billion proposed by Micron to manufacture advanced memory chips in my home state of New York, an investment that will translate to tens of thousands of good-high paying jobs and transform upstate NY, once the manufacturing powerhouse of America. Of course, so many of those jobs went overseas but CHIPS and Science, high-tech, gives us a great chance to revive that area. This story is being replicated not only in upstate New York but in many parts of the country that similarly lost jobs over the last decades.

I applaud Secretary Raimondo for rolling out the CHIPS funding, starting up a brand new and major program quickly and efficiently. As you know, the CHIPS and Science bill was a pet of mine and we worked for two and a half years to get it done.

I also applaud my colleagues from both sides who spent years pushing this bill over the finish line. This is about laying a crucial foundation to make the U.S. a global leader in chip production once again, which is critical to our national security and competitiveness. And starting tomorrow, applications will be open to begin to make these significant investments in U.S. industry and in U.S. workers.

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