WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of nearly 120 U.S. lawmakers on Friday urged Congress to avoid lengthy environmental reviews that could delay completion of semiconductor factories that receive government subsidies, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Semiconductors are crucial to the production of smartphones, cloud computing, cars, medical devices and weapons systems. A shortage of chips during the pandemic prompted U.S. auto production cuts.
"We cannot impose years-long delays to semiconductor projects important to national and economic security," said the letter signed by Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, Republican Ted Cruz and others calling for streamlined environmental reviews to an annual defense bill.
The $52.7-billion "Chips and Science" bill approved in August 2022 includes a $39-billion subsidy program for the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing sector but no awards have been issued yet.
The lawmakers, including Senators Sherrod Brown, John Cornyn, Bill Hagerty, Kyrsten Sinema and Representatives Michael McCaul and Debbie Dingell want to ensure some projects receiving semiconductor subsidies would not require National Environmental Policy Act reviews. Such an exclusion would include projects already under construction or starting within the next year, projects getting 10% or less federal funding and those expanding or modernizing existing semiconductor facilities.
The Commerce Department will require environmental reviews unless Congress acts.
"(Reviews) could halt or delay commencement of new projects, impacting the United States’ ability to bolster its national security interests, economic growth, competitiveness and technological leadership," the letter said.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Congress recently the government should "streamline the process, speed the process, make the process more efficient and user-friendly."
She added that "environmental concerns matter. We are not in any way suggesting we should do anything that hurts the environment or is unsustainable."
It is still not clear when the department will announce awards.
"I am moving as fast as I can but it's more important to get it right than move fast," Raimondo said this month. "I hope we will have some chips funding announcements this fall." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Rod Nickel)
