Congress and private investors pumped in billions of dollars to build and maintain a semiconductor industry in the state of Texas last year. The CHIPS and Science Act split the Texas delegation in Washington D.C.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) voted against the bill but tells NBC 5 he supports money coming to his state and will use his role on the powerful commerce committee to make sure Texas gets its fair share.
"Once it passes, once it's law, I am enthusiastic that if we're going to spend money, that money comes to Texas."
In the summer of 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act. President Joe Biden signed it into law. The law allocates $52 billion in federal tax dollars to private companies to build semiconductor manufacturing facilities. It also provides more than $200 billion for technology research and development and $24 billion in tax breaks for private investments. Cruz's critics claim his vote against the bill was merely political by trying to prevent a win for the Biden Administration.
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Semiconductors are a key part of nearly every electronic device from cell phones to helicopter missiles. A bipartisan group of lawmakers passed the CHIPS Act to boost American production of the essential part and to move the country's reliance away from the country of Taiwan, which many fear is vulnerable to Chinese influence and encroachment.
The senior senator from Texas, John Cornyn, was a main driver of the bill. It also had support from U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Austin), U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont).
"The way we are going to compete with China and beat them is to out-innovate them," Sen. Cornyn said when the funding passed.
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Most Republican House members voted against the bill. Cruz told NBC 5 he supported the tax credit part of the bill but did not vote for the whole package because of the spending.
"I think bad things happen when the Federal government is giving billions of dollars to private companies. You often see cronyism," Sen. Cruz said.
The junior senator was a co-sponsor of the FABS Act, which offered a 25 percent tax credit for investments to build a semiconductor manufacturing, processing, or research facility. Much of that bill was rolled into the CHIPS Act with billions in funding. A FAB is a semiconductor fabrication plant.
Tuesday, Cruz toured the Dallas County Inland Point. That facility just received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to become an "innovation engine." Recent graduates and staff from a collection of local universities to work on cyber security, automation, and electrification. If the project is successful, the National Science Foundation could pump in up to $160 million over the next 10 years.
Cruz also teamed up with U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) to speed up the construction of new facilities. He attached a measure to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by removing some environmental reviews in the construction process. Part of the National Environmental Policy Act makes project managers study other more environmentally friendly options along with a public comment period. It significantly lengthens the amount of time to build a new facility. The final version of the bill still needs to be approved by both chambers and signed by the President.
As a ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Cruz has a key role in overseeing funds distributed across the country, including those from the CHIPS Act.
Samsung announced a $17 billion semiconductor plant in Central Texas from CHIPS Act funding. Texas Instruments is building a $30 billion plant in Sherman, Texas is starting to become a hub of chip manufacturing according to CNBC. The Texas Tribune reports out of the $200 billion investments announced by the new law, Texas is receiving around $61 billion.
"I have absolute confidence that if the money is going to be based on merit that Texas is going to get a very significant share of it because we’re driving the growth nationwide," said Cruz.
