WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the importance of maintaining U.S. strategic competition with China in critical industries and highlighted the progress that has been made in restoring American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing since his CHIPS for America Act became law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 and was fully funded by Congress through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.

“Never in the history of the world has the United States’ strategic competition with China mattered more. Perhaps the most critical nexus of this competition is in manufacturing in critical industries, such as advanced semiconductors.”

“Now, we find ourselves in an increasing position of vulnerability and in competition with them for this most advanced technology to fuel the data centers, to train the artificial intelligence that are going to determine how everything from our weapons systems to our industrial economy work in the future.”

“The Trump administration had already contemplated the issue of chips and this vulnerability before COVID and asked Congress to act, and I still remember the Secretary of State, in particular, Mike Pompeo, and the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, were the first ones in the first Trump administration to bring this to the attention and to sound the alarm.”

“In 2020, I got together with our colleague, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, to introduce the CHIPS for America Act. The goal of the bill was pretty simple: to restore American leadership in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.”

“With the good help of our friends across the Capitol in the House of Representatives, particularly my friend Michael McCaul, a Congressman from the Austin area, within six months, the CHIPS Act became law, and about a year and a half later, it was fully funded by Congress through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.”

“Most important to me in the CHIPS and Science Act was the major investment that this produced in my state, the State of Texas. We used this funding to build new semiconductor fabs at Samsung, Texas Instruments, and other places, create new workforce pathways, and quickly upskill Texans for these industries that accelerate advanced chip manufacturing.”

“Texas has the second largest semiconductor workforce in the nation, totaling more than 42,000 well-paying jobs, thanks to these investments.”

“There’s certainly a lot more work that needs to be done to address America’s supply chain vulnerabilities, not only for semiconductors, but for mining and processing and rare earth elements and active pharmaceutical ingredients as well, but the CHIPS and Science Act was an important step toward reshoring our critical industries.”

“As I look back, I’m very proud of the work we all did together through this CHIPS and Science Act, which transformed not only our national security, but transformed Texas and put us in a posture to ensure that America leads the way for generations yet to come.”