Axios by Hans Nichols 3/20/2022
The Biden administration is enlisting former Trump officials on Monday to convince Congress to pass legislation bolstering America’s semiconductor industry.
Why it matters: Officials believe the bill will make American manufacturing more competitive with China. By coordinating with Trump officials, the Biden team is trying to depoliticize and add urgency to the legislation.
• The bill has stalled because of differences between the House and the Senate on how much — and where — to spend billions of dollars to strengthen America's supply lines.
Driving the news: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is hosting H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s former national security adviser; Matthew Pottinger, another Trump NSC official; Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google; and members of Congress, including Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), on Monday for a virtual conversation about semiconductor manufacturing.
• “This is clearly a national security issue, so we’ll be bringing together experts from both sides of the aisle, including Trump supporters,” Raimondo told Axios. “Every day that we wait is a day that we fall behind.”
• “Best-case scenario is we get this done in the next couple of months,” she said. “The worst-case scenario is nothing happens.”
The backstory: Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took a procedural step to resolve differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions.
More:
https://www.axios.com/biden-asks-trump-team-make-semiconductor-case-7ec4f67f-82da-4915-bfde-44e1a1428cf6.html
