John Cornyn: “watching the wrapup by our friend from Connecticut and the Presiding Officer, I don't know anybody who could argue that…”

“watching the wrapup by our friend from Connecticut and the Presiding Officer, I don't know anybody who could argue that the Senate is incapable of getting a lot done in a short period of time, given the will. That was pretty remarkable. Mr. President, nearly 10 months after the Senate passed bipartisan legislation to fund the CHIPS Act, we are finally inching closer to the finish line. The House and the Senate are moving forward to a formal conference process to supply the CHIPS Program with $52 billion and make other investments in our competitiveness. Yesterday afternoon, Members of the Senate and the House heard from administration officials about how important this legislation is. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke about the economic risks of a weak semiconductor supply chain. I might just pause here for a minute in case people are wondering why semiconductors are so important. Well, the fact of the matter is that semiconductors are essential to run everything from your cell phone to the most advanced stealth fighters made by the U.S. Government, the F- 35, and everything in between. And during the pandemic and the mitigation efforts that we undertook, with kids studying remotely on their laptops, that would not be possible, nor would the Wi-Fi connections be possible without access to semiconductors. So these microcircuits have become absolutely essential to our way of life.…”