White House Presses Lawmakers for Passage of Semiconductor Act

Todd Shields, Bloomberg News

A circuit board component for Continental's new cloud-based end-to-end car control system on display at the Continental AG TechShow 2021 preview event in Frankfurt, Germany, on Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. Continental lowered its sales and profit guidance for the year after the semiconductor shortage and other supply-chain snarls intensified in the third quarter to further disrupt vehicle manufacturing. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The White House is pressing Congress to quickly pass legislation providing $52 billion to help computer chip manufacturers and ease a shortage of the components vital for a range of industries, a National Security Council official said Thursday.

“We are doing everything we possibly can to get CHIPS Act across the finish line before the end of the year,” said Peter Harrell, senior director for international economics and competitiveness, at an online event on semiconductor supply difficulties that was sponsored by the AT&T Policy Forum.

Action has stalled in the House on the legislation passed by the Senate in June, threatening to deepen a microchip shortage that’s reverberated across the economy, with production cuts from companies including Apple Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.

The Senate passed a bill in June with almost $250 billion in funding for research and development programs, including $52 billion in emergency funding to provide grants and incentives to the semiconductor industry in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America, or CHIPS, act.

Industry representatives have been pressing Congress to pass the chips money to aid plans to build facilities in the U.S. Time is short as the congressional sessions nears its end.

“We have to get it passed,” Harrell said. “And we are certainly from our perspective keeping up the pressure on Congress to get it passed.”