GOP senators: Computer chip money underwriting ‘woke’ agenda

and Samsung

— two possible applicants — already provide child care at their facilities in Taiwan and South Korea, respectively.,Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank focused on national security, described the child care provisions as necessary for the “fabs,” the chip industry’s term for factories.,“It is not, as some have wrongly argued, an issue of social policy,” wrote Sujai Shivakumar and Charles Wessner, both at CSIS. “It is a pragmatic move, clearly aligned with the nation’s security interests, to grow the workforce necessary to get the fabs built and producing the chips on which our country runs.”,There are roughly 360,000 jobs in semiconductor production, according to the Labor Department. Announced projects tied to the possibility of government support could add 200,000 more jobs, including 36,000 directly tied to computer chips, according to a report by the Semiconductor Industry Association.,That same report noted that the U.S. leads in terms of designing chips and the equipment to manufacture them. But more than 70% of the chips produced globally come from China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea — an economic and military weakness for the U.S.,Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the mandates for accessing government support would raise the cost of completing the factories planned by Intel

, Micron and Wolfspeed, which plans to make silicon wafers in his state.,“What we’re beginning to do is discount the value of the investment that we’re making,” Tillis said. “I think that what we’re doing is social engineering.”,Support for the computer chips legislation was bipartisan. Seventeen Republican senators joined with Democrats to back the bill. Twenty-four House Republicans voted for the legislation.,Raimondo, when asked if the law could get tripped up by politics, said: “You always worry. Washington’s unpredictable. And politics is crazy.”,Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said the practical impact of the guidance is limited because companies likely would have offered child care and relied on some unions anyway. But Young said the administration’s messaging is not going over so well with colleagues.,Young was instrumental in generating Republican support for the bill and worked closely with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in crafting it. The idea behind the proposed investments is “consistent with our free market principles,” he said. “But the communications exercise of the administration as related to these matters is complicating that.”,Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who voted for the bill, said he has exchanged text messages with Raimondo since the guidance came out and told her “that when the administration does things like that, it really undermines our ability to work together in a bipartisan basis to pass legislation.”,Cornyn said he realizes that Raimondo “doesn’t call all the shots,” but he hopes she’s sending the message to the White House about Republican frustration. He acknowledged that he is still evaluating the guidance and trying to figure out “what difference does it make.”,Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he voted to “give us the capabilities that we don’t have,” not the “union agenda” that he sees embedded in the application process.,Graham said Republicans have recourse to make sure the administration knows their objections, possibly taking the squabble well beyond computer chips: “Hold every nominee, make life miserable,” he said.,The tension is an example of the partisan mistrust that can arise in Washington even on an agenda item that lawmakers from both parties say is vital for U.S. national security. Republicans say the administration, in implementing the law, is trying to squeeze in priorities that please the Democratic base. They also argue that the guidelines will increase the cost of constructing semiconductor plants and will poison any sense of ongoing trust.