By: Adrienne Viarengo
Last year, the bipartisan, landmark CHIPS Act made waves for its landmark $53 billion investment in America’s semiconductor industry highlighting the strength of American innovation and intention to work towards tech independence. The CHIPS Act recognized that the U.S. has an economic and national securityinterest and simultaneously addressed the need for child care to accomplish its goals. This historic investment is on the heels of growing U.S.-China tensions over semiconductor access and manufacturing, which is seen as a direct corollary to military and tech dominance.
In 1990, the United States held a 37% share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity, but high costs in the U.S. compared to other countries have diminished that share to just 12%, and none of the most advanced chips. The U.S.’ relations with China further complicate this, as President Biden’s recent executive order signed August 9, 2023, aimed to prevent China from leveraging U.S. investments in advanced computer chips and other technologies to strengthen their military’s technological capabilities. This order requires notice to the Treasury Department for any active investment funds into identified countries of concern, including China. These efforts are partly prompted by the U.S. reliance on foreign semiconductor supply, particularly for advanced chips.
Currently, Taiwan currently produces 70% of chips and 90% of the most advanced chips and China’s aggression towards Taiwan further threatens the United States’ and global supply of semiconductors. This is highly concerning since many technology industries rely on semiconductors including advanced communications, artificial intelligence, electronics, automobiles, aerospace, and defense. The CHIPS Act attempts to address this reliance upon foreign manufacturers and supply chains and recognizes access to semiconductors as an economic interest and national security interest.
The U.S.’s economic interest rests on the country’s dependencyon foreign semiconductor supply chains, which ultimately contributed to widespread inflation. In 2021, the scarcity of semiconductor chips increased car prices and limited access to medical devices. China has responded, producing more than 80% of new global capacity for certain chips and growing its already high market share. Underscoring the importance of combating this, U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo states, “the brutal truth is that, without manufacturing strength in the U.S., and the innovation that flows from it, we are at a clear disadvantage in the race to invent and commercialize future generations of technology.”
Secretary Gina Raimondo further states that the CHIPS Act won’t be successful without expanding the labor force, and that means enabling women to join the workforce. Women are disproportionately responsible for child care within American households, and currently, only 3 out of 10 manufacturing workers are women. Providing affordable childcare better enables women to join the semiconductor manufacturing industry. According to the Center for Manufacturing Research at the Manufacturing Institute, the lack of child care availability is a contributory reason women are underrepresented in the manufacturing workforce. Some employers have realized this – and have voluntarily provided child care benefits to their employees to help meet the need for both child care and workers: Toyota has provided child care at a factory in Kentucky since 1993.
Therefore, after the passage of the CHIPS Act, the Department of Commerce issued guidance calling on any applicant applying for $150 million or more to include and submit for approval a plan to provide child care for workers. This move is in response to the Biden Administration’s repeated efforts to provide large-scale investment in child care and make it more affordable for working families, and Congress’ repeated attempts to block it. Originally, President Biden’s signature Build Back Betterproposal had funding for child care that Congress ultimately declined to pass. Then, his 2024 budget had included $600 billion in spending for child care investments and early education. However, this effort likewise failed in the Senate.
The CHIPS Act’s efforts to fund child care as a means to increase the workforce arguably serves to define child care as critical infrastructure in relation to the country’s greater tech goals; Annie Dade, a project policy analyst with Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, opined, “it’s encouraging that the administration sees child care as critical[.]” The success of implementing the child care provision will ultimately serve as a benchmark for other attempts to leverage federal funding for child care investments.
Student Bio: Adrienne Viarengo is a second-year J.D. candidate at Suffolk University Law School and is a staff writer for the Journal of High Technology Law. Adrienne has extensive experience working in Democratic politics and government, both in the U.S. Senate and on national and statewide campaigns. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science with a History minor and concentration in International Relations and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
