Congressman Fred Upton is urging House leadership to take up a bill that would encourage the production of more semiconductor chips in the United States. He tells WSJM News the auto industry is struggling with a shortage of chips.
“The auto industry probably made a mistake a couple of years ago when COVID started hitting, thinking that they weren’t going to have the auto sales that they otherwise could, so they canceled a number of these chip purchases,” Upton said. “Now they’re caught.”
The Creating Helpful Incentives for the Production of Semiconductors for America Act, or CHIPS, includes $2 billion in support for the production of semiconductor chips used by the automotive industry.
“We need to actually build these here, and hopefully we can see some domestic production that will start at some point.”
Upton says the Senate has moved on legislation to invest in chip production, but the House hasn’t. He’s one of 38 House members to sign a letter to the leadership asking for action on the CHIPS Act. He says many countries that are big producers of the chips needed by automakers have been hit hard with COVID.
