Cornyn Opposes Controversial Wage Provision Attached to Semiconductor Funding

Recently on the floor, I discussed the unnecessary provisions impeding the passage of funding for my Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act, which was signed into law last year as part of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act. Excerpts of my remarks are below, and video can be found here.

As Leader McConnell has said, a robust amendment process is critical to the success of this legislation. One of the most pressing needs though is to bolster our domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

My preference is always to fund things through the regular order whenever possible. We simply cannot get into the habit of cutting the Appropriations Committee out of the appropriations process. But there's clearly broad support for the CHIPS for America Act, as I said, 96 senators voted to include it in the Defense Authorization Act, and I'm committed to securing funding for the program created by the bill.

But, unfortunately, politics being what it is and Washington being a political city, there are unnecessary and purely political provisions related to the payment of prevailing wage, which U.S. semiconductors already pay their employees, and they've created a problem for funding this noncontroversial measure to bring chip production back to American soil.

We need to pass this essential funding, but we should not be bogged down by partisan or political points to be scored when, in fact, they really don't make any difference to the semiconductor industry because they already pay high wages.