TRANSCRIPT: Majority Leader Schumer Remarks Celebrating $6 Billion Awarded To Micron In Upstate New York Thanks To The CHIPS And Science Act
Syracuse, N.Y. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke alongside President Joe Biden, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra at a press conference celebrating the historic expansion of Micron’s chip factory in Upstate New York and its economic impact on the region. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:
Now, this is a historic day, a historic investment, a historic moment – for Syracuse, for Upstate New York, and for all of America.
Today we celebrate one of the largest federal investments for a single project ever for Upstate New York.
Thanks to our CHIPS & Science Law, $6 billion dollars – that’s with a B – will supercharge Micron to build the most advanced memory chip factory in the world right here in Syracuse and Central New York. The most advanced chip memory factory in the world right here!
So, we are rebuilding Upstate New York’s economy one microchip at a time!
Our country will be more economically secure because of Micron!
Our national security will be stronger because of Micron!
And Syracuse, Central New York, and Upstate New York’s economy will be more prosperous because of Micron!
This expansion will bring nearly 50,000 good paying jobs, enough to fill every seat in the JMA Dome.
This funding will help Micron invest a record more than $100 Billion in Upstate. Folks, this is the largest single private investment in all of New York State’s history, and one of the largest investments ever in the nation’s history. Is that not great?
And Micron, which has always been such a progressive company, is doing this while supporting quality jobs, above and beyond compared to the rest of the industry.
Every square foot of Micron’s massive expansion – the size of 40 football fields – will be built with good-paying union construction jobs, the largest Project Labor Agreement ever in American history!
And listen to this: Micron is the only company providing child care to its workers on all of their sites. Micron is fully committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce.
And Micron is publicly committing to the rights of workers to form and join unions and collectively bargain. Micron is leading the way as the only major company to agree to sit down with unions and have a conversation about the future of their workforce.
Very soon the world’s most advanced memory chips will be recognized by a simple phrase that will be known around the world: “Made in Upstate New York.”
For the first time in 20 years, we are bringing back leading-edge memory chip production to the U.S.
That loss of manufacturing is all too familiar for the families in this community and all of Upstate New York.
I still shake with anger when the head of United Tech told me they were going to shutdown and move operations of Carrier out of Syracuse to Asia. I’m still infuriated when I remember him saying that.
So, I made it my mission to change that, and I wrote the CHIPS & Science Law with Syracuse & Upstate New York as my north star. I wrote the bill with this day in mind and here we are.
Today this vision becomes a reality, and the bill delivers bigger for Central New York than I even imagined. And I had a big memory for that – a large, grand memory at first.
Now, it took a lot of work to get the CHIPS bill over the finish line.
It wasn’t easy to convince everyone in Congress about the importance of this bill, but I kept pushing and pushing and pushing because I knew the huge stakes for Central New York and for our country.
Because of CHIPS & Science, the law we passed, and we did it bipartisan, America’s future will be built in Syracuse, not in Shanghai!
And folks, during those intense days, those final days that Congress negotiated the bill, I spoke with CEOs like Sanjay, who told me emphatically that if we failed to enact the incentives contained in the CHIPS bill, companies like Micron would have to look overseas to other countries to build these fabs.
It is no exaggeration to say that without CHIPS and Science, investments like Micron’s would not have been possible, and the future for Upstate New York might have looked very, very different.
So to all those who have had their doubts: Micron is here! Micron is real!
It’s never going away! We’re here for good, and this is going to be great.
And today, the federal government is betting big on the bright future for Upstate New York.
And Micron’s not the only one. I’ve been working hard to get the benefits throughout the state. We have GlobalFoundries in the Capital Region, Wolfspeed in Utica, Edwards Vacuum in Genesee County between Rochester and Buffalo, and so much more!
And it’s not just New York, although we’re doing damn well: it’s Idaho and Ohio and Arizona and Texas and New Hampshire and more who are seeing new investments and new jobs thanks to CHIPS and Science. We are bringing back manufacturing jobs to America.
And I want to thank the person who made this great moment possible: and that is President Joe Biden.
Upstate New York is proud to call President Biden one of our own!
And Syracuse is part of the President’s DNA – he knows the struggle people here face to make ends meets. He’s seen it. He’s lived it, through his family. For him, it’s personal. He knows we must invest in places like Syracuse to create an economy that lifts everyone, from the bottom up and the middle out.
And while she is not here, I want to thank Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Deputy Secretary Graves, who deserve so much credit for this investment. I knew from our very first conversation when I was beginning to conceive this law that she got it. She knew the importance of reviving American manufacturing and rebuilding Upstate New York.
I want to thank Governor Kathy Hochul and her Empire State Development team. She has been a genuine partner with us on many of these endeavors, including landing Micron and making New York a global hub of the microchip industry.
And someone special: County Executive McMahon. Ryan, your vision on finding that plot of land. When I started trying to woo companies here they said, “Do you have a site ready? Places?” Syracuse did, because of you, Ryan. So he made sure how a plot of land in Clay, New York, could grow into a field of dreams for new investment.
I want to thank Mayor Walsh, Rob Simpson of CenterState, Greg Lancette of the local building trades, and so many other great union leaders from across the state and across the country who are here to celebrate this wonderful moment, and who worked with us to bring Micron to New York.
And last but not least, let me also thank my friend, Sanjay Mehrotra. Since the first time we talked about all New York has to offer – and he made us jump through a whole lot of hoops – he has been a man of his word.
Sanjay has shown time and again how much he cares about the country, about bringing new life back to Upstate New York, about investing in the workers, he cares about his workers! Sanjay deserves tremendous credit for his leadership and commitment to making one of the largest investments in the nation’s history.
Just like the federal government, he and Micron are betting big, not just on the U.S., but on Upstate New York! So, Sanjay, come on out here.
Together, we know this is not just a once in a generation investment, it’s an investment that will span generations with Micron in the lead and Central New York going to great heights.
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