WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of
Representatives will soon introduce a bill to increase U.S.
competitiveness with China and boost federal spending on
semiconductors, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday as the Biden
administration seeks to boost domestic chip production.
"The House will soon introduce its competitiveness bill,"
she said in a note to Democratic colleagues.
The announcement came just hours after Intel Corp
said it would invest more than $20 billion in two new
chip-making plants in Ohio in a massive manufacturing project
that could benefit from federal funding in the years
ahead.
President Joe Biden's administration is pushing to persuade
Congress to approve funding to help boost chip production in the
United States, as shortages of the key components used in autos
and computers have exacerbated supply chain bottlenecks.
"I want to see Congress pass this bill right away and get it
to my desk," Biden said. "Let's do it for the sake of our
economic competitiveness and our national security."
The Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act
last year, which includes $52 billion to increase U.S.
semiconductor production and authorizes $190 billion to
strengthen U.S. technology and research to compete with China.
"The House legislation will supercharge our investment in
chips, strengthen our supply chain and transform our research
capacity, plus many other key provisions," Pelosi said in a
letter to Democratic colleagues.
Biden earlier in the week said surging inflation had
"everything to do with the supply chain" and that the United
States had the capacity to become self-reliant on the computer
chips it needed to manufacture automobiles.
The administration has made efforts to alleviate the chip
shortage, including meeting with industry executives and allies
to discuss the topic, and initiating a study from the Commerce
Department to identify chokepoints and other problems.
Biden touted Intel's investment Friday at a White House
event with the chip company's CEO Pat Gelsinger and made the
case for congressional action.
Gelsinger said in an interview with Reuters before the White
House news conference that without government funding "we're
still going to start the Ohio site. It's just not going to
happen as fast and it's not going to grow as big as quickly."
Intel's initial $20 billion investment - the largest in
Ohio's history - on a 1,000-acre site in New Albany will
generate 3,000 jobs, Gelsinger said. That could grow to $100
billion with eight total fabrication plants and is the largest
investment in Ohio's history, he told Reuters.
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; editing by Jonathan Oatis and
Alistair Bell)