we're here today to talk about the importance of passing the chips for america act to strengthen our national and economic security later today the senate is going to hold a key vote to advance this critical legislation god willing and i'm glad we have an opportunity to hear from the industry and labor leaders uh about this important topic i'm going to turn this over to brian now to get us started brian great thank you mr president and uh we are joined here by members of your economic and national security team as well as business and labor leaders from across the country we thought sir that we would try to divide this into two categories the first being the national security implications and the second being the economic security and economic opportunity embedded in this legislation but we wanted to really try to zero in on both the urgency of acting and of congress as you say acting without delay hopefully today and in the coming days but also the opportunity uh and the opportunity for the country uh and for our national security as well uh so sir with your permission we'll start on the national security side uh and uh kicking this off uh go to uh jim taylor the the ceo of lockheed martin you've had the opportunity to visit their facility down in alabama earlier this year and jim i was hoping if you could just for the president and all of us just give us your sense of the broader national security concern here and also the ways in which semiconductors feed into the strength of our national security industrial base across the country thank you brian good afternoon mr president [Music] we believe a robust secure supply of microprocessors is essential both to national security and to the health of the defense industrial base in the aerospace industry as a whole mr president when we visited the javelin production operation down in alabama as brian mentioned we were talking to the teams that actually build the product build the javelins and they mentioned that you might recall each of those uh javelins requires over 250 microprocessors for each and every one and if we look at a larger product a helicopter such as the ch-53k that we're building for us marines today there are over 2 000 microprocessors in that helicopter so when we go on to networking and adding in autonomy under kind of a 21st century national security architecture that we're building microprocessors are going to get even more important so it's critical to increase u.s production and and test capacity there's a couple other reasons it's very important too one is trust we've got to have confidence in the security of the hardware itself that it hasn't been tampered with or degraded when we receive it to put it into our aircraft in missiles etc right also we want to have made in the usa access to the latest cutting edge technologies to put into the systems that our sailors marines airmen and soldiers are going to be using in our defense and you know we're all in a in the era unfortunately a renewed great power competition as well and in an era like that we need to revise revitalize the u.s semiconductor industry it's imperative to maintain an effective deterrent we believe for the future keep our country safe and today our company and our suppliers we've got adequate access largely to the semiconductors that we need to produce what was being done today mr president but because much of the production is in china and in taiwan access to be guaranteed for u.s industry including in defense industry is fragile you know should china decide to withhold its production or inhibit taiwan from exporting its ships or building them we would have a serious economic and eventually national security issue on our hands and so given the long lead times for producing a fab and building the factories it is important and urgent to begin to rebuild u.s semiconductor chip manufacturing in the u.s jim i'm glad you mentioned uh security uh to be secure that any part we're putting in a weapon system or a helicopter anything we have that we are assured that no one's been able to tamper with that that is made in america built in america stockpiled america and i think it's really important and by the way i was really impressed with your workers down in alabama when they went through the plan i was there for several hours as you know and uh i think they really really take their work seriously and so how does passing this legislation know how does this make a difference and how and uh how does it ensure our systems are going to stay at the leading edge it's one thing to say there's uninterrupted access we make it here and build it here in america but tell me talk to me a little bit more about how this ensures the system stay in the leading edge well we're moving forward really rapidly mr president both in sort of physical world technologies like hypersonics really advanced space sensors stealth aircraft like the f-35 etc but we're also inserting what we call 21st century digital technologies into the system as well those are things like 5g ai distributed cloud computing we need the latest and you know sub 10 nanometer chips and we need them to be trustworthy to be able to introduce those kinds of capabilities uh you know again in service of our you know sailors airmen guardians marines and aviators so we've got a lot of emphasis and a lot of importance on those latest technology chips because they are the building blocks of those defense systems of the future am i correct to assume that the more sophisticated systems are going to be coming along and the more that do just inevitable the more the need for reliance on the availability of these high-end computer chips are available to us made in america here in america i mean is there a correlation there there's a total correlation mr president you can't conduct you know 5g distributed cloud computing operations with you know legacy technology chips and we're going to have to stay on the cutting edge of those building blocks as like as i mentioned earlier to be able to deliver that for the country so it's really important that we don't seed our leadership in semiconductor technology and ultimately manufacturing and tests outside the u.s because again just like
the russians did with natural gas recently in europe if china can constrain its own production uh and distribution of chips to us or they pressure or otherwise inhibit taiwan from doing so you have a global global market that's going to be upset it'll go beyond the defense industry but from a national you know securities perspective you know i think this is a really high priority jim thank you very much and again you should be proud of the folks you have down in your factory i was really impressed with them they seem to really not just they're doing a job but they seem to be on a mission i mean i'm serious it was uh it was it was great to see great to see anyway thank you it meant so much for uh all of them to see you mr president and i show your support so thanks thank you so mr president i wanted to tell you yeah i wanted to uh ask uh deputy secretary hicks uh and jake both to come in here uh to to put the the risks and the threats that uh jim is is framing up in the broader perspective here and maybe secretary hicks if you could start in sort of talking about the core security risks that you think are in play here uh when we're talking about semiconductors absolutely brian so uh jim tecla did a great job i think laying out uh the dependency that we have on the defense side that our military has on advanced microelectronics whether it's the javelins we saw down in alabama or the f-35 joint strike fighter that lockheed martin puts out to our nuclear weapons forces uh and of course as we look ahead to the future on emerging technologies just as jim said quantum ai hypersonics 5g 6g next g all of that is heavily dependent on ensuring our access to microelectronics we're not the only ones focused on this challenge of course china is also focused on this challenge and today approximately 98 of those commercial microelectronics that dod is so dependent on are assembled packaged and tested in asia and as jim said we need to make sure both that we can assure our access and that we can have the most advanced capabilities that the commercial sector can offer so semiconductors it's not an overstatement to say are the ground zero of our tech competition with china they are able to have heavy subsidies they weaponize the financial incentives to facilitate their acquisition of intellectual property they're building indigenous microelectronics capabilities and they're doing everything it takes to become the center of gravity for semiconductor r d and manufacturing so for the u.s military as we look ahead to what we need to make sure our war fighters have what they need to succeed on the field and that they can have a security in using those capabilities we know we must secure a supply chain and domestic investment here in the united states the chips plus act will help us substantially return leading edge microelectronics to the united states deliver winning combination of design system integration and manufacturing it will help us build commercially viable which is critical for us in dod state of the art fabrication facilities and that helps our commercial sector of course but i can't stress enough how much that helps our military the resources provided for the chips for american defense fund inside the chips plus act funds innovative prototyping experimentation it allows us to train our next generation of scientists engineers and tech entrepreneurs and it will assist us in retooling the community of small medium and large businesses that create our leading edge weapon systems by creating opportunities to onshore microelectronics fabrication assembly and testing the chips plus act helps solve these two important critical pressing microelectronics challenges facing our military both this issue of making sure we have assured access and also making sure that we can have state of the art technology to our war fighters jake thanks brian and thanks to both jim and kath who i think have really summed up the case very powerfully so i'll be brief in uh expanding on why the chips act is so essential for both our national security and our strategic competitiveness making investments in cutting-edge edge technologies is on one level obviously necessary to ensure that we stay ahead of china in the race for the industries of the future because as others have pointed out as the president has pointed out for the first time we face a competitor that has the means the resources and the commitment to overtaking u.s technological leadership if we don't up our game but we have the means capability and resources to stay at the leading edge to keep our technology leadership if we make the necessary investments and this is the necessary investment on another level these investments are also needed to mitigate the enormous risks to our national security and economic security that we face right now today due to vulnerabilities in key u.s technology supply chains that were exacerbated by the covid19 pandemic in particular passing this legislation and fully funding the chips act is crucial for strengthening our domestic supply of semiconductors for our defense intelligence and strategic sectors the bottom line is that continuing our dependence on a limited number of overseas facilities to produce so many of the chips we consume including all of our most advanced chips as of right now is flat out dangerous and a disruption to our chip supply would be catastrophic so i'm both excited and relieved that we're on the cusp of addressing this fundamental national vulnerability because the longer we wait the more dangerous the disruption we also understand that strengthening supply chains is a job we do in concert with allies we see cooperation as essential in this regard and with this bill we'll contribute our part to diversifying and securing our shared ship supply chains and we welcome our allies making their own investments as well one final note as much as we need to get the chips piece of this bill done it is chips plus because chips alone are not going to be sufficient to preserve u.s technology leadership which is why we need the rest of the innovation bill so that we invest not just in the core technology powering innovation today but also the technologies that will power innovation tomorrow that's why the additional authorizations for the national science foundation the department of energy national labs for nist and other institutions that are contained in this bill are so important so when it comes down to it there's bipartisan consensus there's support from business there's support from labor there's support from the national security community across the board and there is support from the american people to pass this legislation now and meet this moment and resolve these vulnerabilities thanks brian jake i'd like to ask you a question i can um you've heard me say it a bunch of times the last 15 months or so that is it used to be 30 years ago or longer we invested more than 2 percent of our gdp in pure research and development it got down to i think point seven percent of one one seven tenths of one percent and uh china and others have moved precipitously to invest more particularly china in research and development pure research and development and uh uh you say the second piece of this bill not not the purely defense piece elaborate a little more on what that will encourage or what we hope will encourage what kind of what what kind of research and the types of development we're talking about or are we in that regard no absolutely as i was saying that our ability to maintain our innovation edge to maintain our technology leadership uh rests on having the necessary inputs like chips but it also rests on as you just said those foundational investments in the industries of the future investments that are made in basic research on everything from artificial intelligence to quantum computing to biotechnology to the future of the internet and the future of telecommunications and the country that is able to be out in front to be leading the world in those areas not only will have a powerful economic competitiveness that will be reflected in job creation and the growth of a strong middle class but also will have powerful national security advantages and those are national security advantages that have helped sustain america's global leadership over decades and by making this big investment which is something that you have talked about for years now to actually get it done is going to make a massive difference in our ability uh to be able to maintain our competitive edge with respect to the industries of the future and in doing so it will also help us shape the rules of the road on technology on these important technologies in a way that reflects our interests and our values and doesn't leave them to be written by a competitor or a challenger of ours who doesn't share the same values we share i think that's a really important point i think the point is that we have as we've led the world in the past in research development generating new technologies we've been inclined to share with the rest of the world not not not not uh sort of just folk use it as a economic weapon we've we've expanded and and our partners the the democracies of the world have benefited and uh it seems to me this is this makes up a part of that madam secretary can i ask you a question as well the um uh you uh you you responded uh uh to jim's comments and gave your views on the core security risks at play what from your perspective what what is maybe are you able to prioritize what risk or greater or less security risk that's that's a tough question because who knows for certain but i didn't need to put you on a spot but can you sort of weigh them for me a little bit sure i think the in today's weapon systems what we worry about most is the compromise of the supply chain of the of the chips that are in our existing weapon systems or as we upgrade as we always have to do and put new chips in those are as i said largely dependent on the commercial market for whatever those chips may be and so we know that there have been others adversaries who have sought to affect our chip supply of salt to alter that and just making sure that we can assure that when we put our war fighters out their weapons will operate as intended and that we the united states retain control of that technology is incredibly important i would put that at the top and i would put second to that this issue of the kinds of capabilities we seek for the future the kinds of capabilities that make sure our war fighters are safer more ready can deliver effects in a way that deters adversaries from ever wanting to attack the united states and for that we need that next generation and most advanced most capable uh microelectronic supply chain to be secure that's important well thank you very much brian back to you thank you mr president so um we're going to pivot here from the national security case which i think you've heard is both compelling and urgent to the economic security element to this um and obviously as we make these investments our goal is to generate durable economic opportunity here in the united states and the opportunity there is quite significant i want to bring in uh jeff and tom and mark and chris into this conversation but to just frame this up at the beginning i want to ask secretary armando to just give us the sort of broader perspective here on the on the economics and the comedy in addition to being tireless uh on this uh effort secretary armando and the commerce department uh if passed would be given principal responsibility for implementing this legislation so uh mountain secretary if you could just sort of tee up what you see as the economic context and then want to bring in uh jeff and tom and mark and chris this conversation yeah absolutely thank you brian good afternoon mr president good to see you and thank you for convening all of us on this incredibly important topic so look i think the most important thing congress can do right now to support america's economy and america's workers and our global competitiveness is to get this chip sack over the finish line and onto your desk this week it's vital you know the chips act proposes a 52 billion dollar investment in domestic semiconductor production which will uh enable us to revitalize our domestic semiconductor manufacturing i mean the truth of it is we invented the semiconductor industry right silicon valley is silicon valley because we invented it right here in the united states of america we used to make 40 of the world's chips we make about 12 now and as jake said we make essentially none of the leading edge chips and we're utterly dependent upon taiwan uh for the leading edge chips so in terms of economic security chips are a cornerstone technology that underpin our entire economy you need chips for smartphones computers cars medical equipment nearly every piece of life-saving medical equipment in a hospital runs on chips and the reality is while we have invested nothing to spur domestic chip manufacturing china has invested more than 150 billion dollars to build their own domestic capacity so we're very much behind and the ceos who are with us this afternoon they know america's become totally reliant on china particularly for the mature chips the larger chips that are necessary for medical devices aircraft industrial machines etc the reality is um i don't it's not possible to have a strong economy and a strong country if we don't make things in america and certainly if we don't make chips in america so right now america chip manufacturers are finalizing their investment plans and passage of the chips act is necessary it's urgent because the chips funding will be the deciding factor on where those companies choose to expand we know they will expand because they have to in order to meet demand there's no question about that the question is where will they expand and we want them we need them to expand here in the united states uh we want high quality good-paying jobs in america and you know the truth of it is as i've said all along this chip's money's not a subsidy for big companies to make them more profitable or so they have more cash for stock buybacks or to pad their bottom line or to invest in other countries this is about investing in the united states of america in our workers in our economy and in our national security and we need congress to act so we send a clear signal to the world that uh we're serious about rebuilding our domestic manufacturing industry it's good for our economy it's good for our competitiveness and it's good for american workers thanks uh thanks gina i i want to bring uh jeff uh you and tom into this conversation uh and uh and and maybe a start with you jeff that the secretary just mentioned it but some people are actually surprised to understand the healthcare nexus here but can you just elaborate a bit on how you see the systemic impact in the healthcare industry both on the risk side but also the opportunity side when when you when you're thinking about semiconductors and the security of supply of those of those chips sure well first of all thank you mr president for uh including me in this really important conversation it's a real honor to represent the medical technology industry here um you know brian as you were saying you know one of the most critical aspects of our ability at medtronic and for the medical technology at large uh to get life-saving and innovative medical technology to patients is semiconductors they are essential components and and thousands of medical devices uh secretary armando is referring to that americans rely on every day things like um instruments uh that enable surgery or um devices that manage chronic conditions like an insulin pump for a diabetes patient or a pacemaker for a patient with an irregular heartbeat or even uh treating coving right uh we we manufacture pulse oximeters that measure the oxygenation of the blood as well as ventilators for for those patients that are really sick with covid and you know our industry's volumes are you know a relatively small small compared to some other sectors uh we're we're in the low single digits of the overall chip market but every semiconductor every semiconductor component used in a medical device directly impacts a patient's life and now we appreciate the efforts of the semiconductor companies to try to alleviate the current constraints with additional investments but but more capacity is needed you know that's why i've been a vocal supporter of the chips act for a while and urging congress to pass and fund this act uh look beyond the manufacturing and we definitely need manufacturing here in the us to increase our capacity you know we need expanded research and development as well and so it's passing this act won't solve all the problems overnight but the investment will result in new infrastructure will spur innovation increase supply and this will help us solve these supply constraints that we're under sooner but more importantly it'll help us avoid these challenges going forward i mean uh you know in medtech we've done our best to manage the situation with limited supply and we've been you know nimble enough and adaptive enough to avoid major disruptions to delivery of patient care but there have been disruptions and there's ongoing disruptions to patient care and this puts a strain on an already strained uh you know healthcare environment the hospitals and the healthcare workers as we're trying to move inventory around to cover cases and this shortage on on semiconductors is predicted to go on for some time investment is needed and as secretary mondo um mentioned the particular types of ships that we use that are larger and and are much more efficient on energy are the ones that are you know the most uh and most critical uh you know demand right now and the shortest supply uh and you know in terms of opportunities going forward shifting gears as you mentioned you know we're at a great inflection point here of of uh in health care where you've got traditional bio biomechanical or biomedical engineering advances and you combine those with advancements in the digital world and the use of appropriate use of data to really customize a therapy for a patient i'll just give you one example uh you know patients suffering from parkinson's often get a stimulator to apply low amounts of stimulation to a certain part of their brain to control the parkinson's uh symptoms which are very difficult to real to live with uh historically those patients would have to come into their neurologist and get that device reprogrammed on a pretty frequent basis because disease is a progressive disease but now with the computing capabilities that are out there and the use of data we can we can do that all remotely and and actually customize that therapy for that individual patient and the outcomes are just much better and the strain on the health care system is much less and i can give you thousands of examples of like that where the use of chips inside devices uh on the edge uh in the cloud and the advancements in computing power are really being harnessed to change patient care and in such a profound way you're improving outcomes you're improving access and you're bringing down cost all at the same time so that's the exciting part that we want to accelerate but it's really hard right now given the the semiconductor supply that we're facing thanks uh thanks jeff tom i wonder if you can offer your perspective too we've heard a lot about the concerns in the transportation sector and engines but also both in the today constraints but also the vision forward to the electrification of the transportation sector as well we welcome your thoughts here thank you brian and mr president it's great to see you so well thank you for the opportunity to join this group of thought leaders from government and and industry and labor on the importance particularly of innovation funding for the semiconductor industry i think you know cummins is over 100 year old company we are headquartered in columbus indiana we have over 25 000 employees in the us and we work together to innovate on power solutions from the industrial sector it's remarkable how much jeff and i have in common with our perspective on semiconductors from completely different sectors like others at the table we are facing the supply chain crisis we are unable to get the components we need and semiconductors is always at the top of the list and semiconductors are really the basic building blocks they're the steel of the 21st century they're what make everything happen in the industrial sector just as they do in the medical sector we appreciate the administration's focus on the bottlenecks and challenges we're facing and your continued support of securing semiconductor funding in congress the semiconductor shortage has not only impacted our ability to meet customer demand but the technology and equipment we need to run our operations we rely on semiconductors to power our machines to put our electronic control modules in our engine systems to control emissions even to make badges for our employees so they can all come back to work in cummins case we also buy the full range of semiconductors and i want to highlight how important that is jeff talked about what we often call legacy chips these are larger scale chips they're more efficient in his case they're also more robust in our case they live in engines that serve some of the most demanding applications and those legacy chips are just as important as the new technology and the latest chips are for the defense industry those legacy chips are what power the trucks cars and many other basic building blocks of our economy today you know these these chips now deliver our food they make sure that our generators support our hospitals and data centers they make sure on the hottest day of the summer you've got air conditioning in the and on the cool you've got heating in addition to manufacturing delays costs have escalated dramatically so the supply chain crises and some of the effects that secretary armando talked about have also driven significant cost increases we are often buying ships from brokers now and paying as much as 10 times their regular cost to get these chips just to make sure that we can keep trucks on the road driving inflation in our industry and challenges throughout our supply chain and i would say the semiconductor manufacturing as all of us know requires high capital investments and and the return for those investments for especially for legacy chips and more basic chips is not as high as it is for the latest edition chips i think that's why some of this funding is so critical to ensure the kind of investments we need in you know made in the united states are actually made we believe that ships for america act will go a long way to ensure not only the high-tech chips are made uh for the innovation of tomorrow which is critical but also that these basic and legacy chips are also provided as part of our supply chain in addition to the semiconductor funding this bill also provides critical funding for the national science foundation and other agencies that will ensure that we are keeping pace with the investments made by other countries for their domestic manufacturers the way that i think about that is that these the investments made in the chip act are going to move us from ringing our hands about where we sit in competition with others to actually moving onto the field and helping you the u.s manufacturers compete and i think we all know that when u.s
manufacturers compete with the workforce that we have and the capabilities we have we can win thank you tom um i uh mr president uh uh with with your permission i would i would uh just ask uh chris to come in here too that uh that last point tom that you made i think is is very salient that the this is a bill that is also about opportunity for americans workers and for the opportunity to build good jobs good jobs in construction and installation and operations of both the facilities to produce chips themselves and the larger larger and broader ecosystem so chris could you just give us your perspective from uh from the ground of how you're thinking about this bill and where you see the opportunity for american workers yeah chris if you can hear us i think you're muted sorry uh thanks for inviting me here mr president uh we're really grateful to be here because as far as we know cwa is the only union representing manufacturing workers at a final assembly semiconductor factory in the united states and we have been strong supporters of the chips act the chips act is a is a key component of both creating good jobs here in the u.s and strengthening our ability to compete with china passage of this bill is going to drive a huge amount of investment in semiconductor manufacturing across the country it will result directly in tens of thousands of jobs to help grow a key component of our manufacturing sector as i mentioned cwa already represents hundreds of workers in mountaintop pennsylvania right down the street from the president's hometown who manufacture semiconductors the only plant that we know of in the united states that's union represented with the passage of this bill and the growing investment in semiconductor production i'm expecting to be able to help organize thousands of additional workers for those workers this bill will be a ticket to a better life i'm also glad that the bill includes key protections to prevent companies that receive the money from turning around and investing in semi-conductor production in china instead of the united states that means that it will help grow us grow this industry right here in the usa for the long term and it actually goes far beyond that this bill will help prevent us from having to face the situation where the numerous industries that depend on semiconductors and that's just about every industry are simply unable to acquire them ever again so this bill is a key part of rebuilding our manufacturing sector as a whole there's no question that we need a comprehensive approach to compete and to take on china's unfair trade practices this bill is a great first step in putting that approach together i hope that congress sends this bill to your desk mr president as soon as possible and continues working to strengthen our competitiveness and create good jobs for american markets thank you thank you chris mr president we've um uh we've lost mark for the time being so let me uh turn it back to you mr president for uh any questions you have um our closing uh closing comments here well i do have a couple questions uh for um tom i'd like to go back to him for a second you know uh tom since i took office there's been a massive investment in electronic vehicles and the ev batteries uh i know cummins is on the cutting edge of fuel cell and battery electronic technology these technologies are more you use more semiconductors and uh how's this legislation going to make a difference for you in terms of accelerating your innovation and i might add that in the uh in in the act we passed for infrastructure we have an awful lot of money for putting in uh electronic charging stations all throughout america along our highways and the like and but that doesn't even count the battery technologies that we need to develop other things so talk to me a little bit about the technologies and the use of semiconductors and why that's like increase and and how this can affect innovation because i know it's a broad question but maybe not unfair it's a great president it's a great question mr president and thank you for asking it the the use of semiconductors in cars and trucks and other industrial equipment goes by an exponential scale effect every single new range of models you see an exponential increase in semiconductors i think that's part of the reason why the industry is so far behind now as the as demand increased for vehicles they just didn't do the math right about how many more of these legacy chips we were going to need and as you say as we move into electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles use burning hydrogen we are going to need that exponential curve is just going to keep growing and i would say that in addition to the fact that we will need more semiconductors newer versions more capability to invest we want to establish leads in those technologies so that we can sell those climate improving technologies to the rest of the world that's really the way that the u.s industry builds we solve the problems that we need to solve here in the us and then we use that same technology to export those products to the rest of the world and we get 95 more customers that's essentially how cummins built its business i think that's a lot of us have benefited from that and we add jobs at home by building that business overseas so i think we have a big opportunity here but we need to invest now that the time is running running out for us to get to the lead we already see europe and china and other places moving faster in battery electric and fuel cell electric technologies and we have to sprint to catch up and then of course the infrastructure bill was a big help there i think there there's also hydrogen that's going to be needed in the semiconductor industry and we're and where we and other companies in the u.s offer electrolyzers that can provide that hydrogen using green energy and then we have green hydrogen so we decarbonize the industry significantly as well so there are there's a lot of upsides for us investing here in the us in terms of building out that clean energy portfolio that allows us to lead for decades to come well i couldn't agree with you more i uh seems to me that you know like i joke and i don't joke i'm serious when i said well i think of climate change i think jobs uh and uh i think there's so many opportunities we have people understandably don't even realize that if we could just get our act together in the congress we'd be able to do a heck of a lot more and uh create literally thousands and thousands of thousands of good paying jobs um let me shift over i was going to ask mark as well with chris um thank you for uh all the support you've been given to this effort it was a top priority for me to ensure that incentives for semiconductors have a davis bacon prevailing wage requirement and these semiconductor projects there are billions of dollars and thousands of construction jobs in each of these sites and how are those davis baking requirements going to make sure that jobs that those jobs are good jobs uh is there a correlation um yeah the dave speaking requirements will make sure that people uh you know that uh there isn't a race to the bottom that there'll be a a an even playing field for the people working in this industry and the people working on on building the factories that will build these semiconductors and uh you know davis bacon requirements will make sure that that happens and that uh you know no one will be left behind and it will give us uh uh really really good uh union jobs mostly to make sure that the factories are built by union labor and that the manufacturing is done by professional union people who really care about what they're doing and will stay on the job because they're making good wages and have a good job union labor is that you know you uh all the folks working for you essentially have a college degree in the technology that they're working i mean you just don't join your union and all of a sudden everything falls in place you got to go to school in effect you got to be trained you got to be in a position to be able to do what you do better than anybody in the world does it and so that was the reason why i pushing uh davis bacon and you know some of the facilities that one that god willing will be built uh very shortly it was announced a while ago pending what happened to this legislation now is one outside of uh outside of columbus ohio it's going to create a whole lot of jobs about it's going to create a lot of jobs it's also going to create a whole lot of job building the facilities and uh it it it matters a lot it seems to me and i've and i say to all of you i think we're a heck of a lot stronger as an economy more sustainable when we build from the bottom up in the middle out because when that happens everyone does well business does very very well the wealthy do very very well and i think we got a shot as we move down the line here and this chip spill is an important piece of it to be able to stay in the game and be the most competitive nation in the world that's we have to re-establish we still are in a lot of places we've got to do it here and uh but uh i uh i i don't know uh chris uh you know talking about the benefits uh uh the workers in the communications and media industry as well as the importance of manufacturing jobs in the country supply chain resilience do you guys talk about that do you do you worry about whether or not that's going to happen i mean is that is that something you know when you're sitting around your guys actually discuss in practical terms we we talk about it every day mr president because we see what's happening we see that lots of industries that as some of the ceos said uh lots of them can't build or make whatever it is they make because they can't get semiconductors for instance and that you know when it's another country making these things instead of uh good american workers uh they can always stop and they do stop and uh we see this happening every day and we you know we worry about what's going to happen to this country if nothing is ever made here again if we don't make it here we can't be sure that a it works and that b we're going to be able to use it well we've actually increased manufacturing thank god even though we've missed opportunities but we've increased manufacturing here at home and look i want to thank everyone for joining today's meeting i know i've kept you a long time here but the chips act in my view is going to advance the nation's competitiveness and our technological edge you know we've been working closely with the senate in the house to finalize a strong bipartisan bill congress must pass this bill as soon as possible so we get it to my desk we can sign and get moving i know we just talked about it but for the folks at home let me explain why this is so urgent first there's an economic imperative as we just heard this bill is going to supercharge efforts to make semiconductors those tiny chips the size of the fingerprint which is you know so some are larger but the size and fingerprint that power our everyday lives in america you know they're the building blocks for the modern economy powering everything from smartphones to dishwashers to automobiles they could go on america invented semiconductors but over the years we let the manufacturing of those semiconductors get sent overseas and we saw that during the pandemic when our factories overseas that make these chips shut down because of in the case of coven was a big reason for it the global economy basically comes to a hall driving up the cost for families all around the world particularly here at home one third of the core inflation last year in 2021 one third of it was due to the high price of automobiles you know what as it was driven that's driven by the inability to manufacture more automobiles why the shortage of semiconductors one third and even as we had that historic job growth and economic growth last year we sacrificed 240 billion dollars in additional economic activity because of the chips shortage so for the sake of the economy jobs we have to make these semiconductors here at home at home second there is and as you heard there's a national security imperative as deputy defense secretary hicks and jake salasal pointed out semiconductors also power our weapon systems and and jim earlier this year i went down to lockheed's factory as i said in alabama where they're making the javelin missile that were supplying to ukraine to defend themselves against putin's unprovoked war it's a crystal clear to me that we need these semiconductors crystal clear you gotta just all you do is be there to talk to the workers not only for these javelin missiles but also for the weapon systems of the future that we're going to even be more reliant on advanced chips unfortunately we're not producing enough of them taiwan produces 90 of the leading edge chips we produce zero china is moving ahead of us in manufacturing sophisticated chips as well as we watch the us production of these chips decline from 40 of the global production to 12 at the same time we watched china go from two percent to sixteen percent and china's goal is the reason they've stated is 25 they need to produce 25 to become fully self-sufficient it's no wonder china's watching this bill so closely and actively lobbying u.s businesses against the bill american benefits of semiconductor it's time to bring it home that means others can't do the time we bring it home for all that we need for our security and our economic growth third it's just not me signaling there is signaling an emergency here listen to the business leaders here today and across the country they're making decisions right now about where to invest and ramp up production of these semiconductors are they going to invest in china india japan south korea the european union they're all making historic investments in the tens of billions of dollars to attract businesses to come to their countries the countries i just named to produce these chips the united states has to lead the world the production of these chips our own safety safety is almost economic growth let me be clear this bill is not about handing out a blank check to companies commerce secretary mundo will be overseeing the key investments of this bill explained how she's laser focused on the guardrails that will protect taxpayers dollars and interest of the american workers small businesses and the communities in which they reside during the bill the bill required that i personally have to sign off on the biggest grants before they can be dispersed it's not sufficient i've got to sign off on the big ones secretary armando will have the power that companies don't meet the commitments and that every they're required to meet by this in this bill she can take back the money this includes the requirement on construction of these semiconductor facilities to pay davis bacon prevailing wage which will ensure that tens of thousands of new construction jobs are good-paying union jobs and the facility is the best built in the world and we're not allowed you know we're not going to allow companies to use these funds to buy back stock or issue dividends have to invest and finally this bill is about more than just semiconductors it authorizes significant investment in american science and technology which i mentioned earlier we have a need to power our economy and national security for the decades to come we make those decisions now and the bill has requirements that when use of taxpayer dollars to fund research and development the companies who get those funds have to deploy that technology that comes from that r d and the manufacturing of it right here in america they get the money they best they find a way they find an answer they have to invest in america and a facility here in america you know we'll we'll we're we're going to both invent in america and make it in america we're going to make sure that we include all of america tapping into the greatest competitive advantage our diversity and talent workforce making sure technology and the future don't only benefit wealthy shareholders on cogniti coast but support technology hubs all across america including historic investments in historically black colleges universities and minority serving institutions which have the capacity to do so much more given the opportunity look i know we can go on for a long time and i'll be back to you god willing but i want to thank you again for joining me today and for the work in getting this bill to this point so uh we're close we're close so let's get it done so much depends on it and thank you all for helping today i truly appreciate it mr president how are you feeling with kelvin i'm feeling great you know i've had two full nights of sleep all the way through matter of fact that my dog had to wake me up this morning my wife's not here she usually takes him out in the morning while i'm upstairs working out so i felt this nuzzle of my dog's nose against my chest about five minutes to seven so uh no but it is i'm feeling good my voice is still raspy uh i've had every morning every afternoon i mean it's going to be every evening i get a full-blown series of tests everything from temperature to oxygen the oxygen into my in my blood to my pulse to i mean just across the board and so far everything's good i mean everything's on the button and so i'm i'm feeling better every day i still have this a little bit of a sore throat and a little bit of a cough but it's changing significantly it's now up in the upper part of my my throat actually it's more around my nose than anywhere else and uh but they tell me that's par for the course and i think i'm on my way to full total recovery when do you think you'll be back to work in person mr president well i hope i'm back to work in person by the end of this week um but i'm as you know i've been keeping a full schedule i mean i've done four major events today and you know i've and i i didn't start today until uh 9 30 but uh and i'll finish today probably by what times are now i'll finish uh about 6 30 plus i'm not keeping the same hours but i'm you know i'm meeting all my requirements that come before me and we're making decisions on a whole range of other topics as xi well china this week that's my expectation but i'll let you know when that gets set up okay i promise you know not be surprised and mr president we're getting gdp numbers on thursday how worried should americans be that we could be in a recession we're not going to be in a recession uh in my view uh we uh the employment rate is still one of the lowest we've had in history it's in the 3.6 area we still find ourselves with people investing uh my hope is we go from this rapid growth to steady growth and uh so see we'll see some coming down but i don't think we're going to uh god willing i don't think we're going to see a recession thank you all sir feel better thank you last
2022-07-27