WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today joined Cavuto: Coast to Coast on Fox Business to discuss his regulatory relief permitting legislation that would untangle bureaucratic red tape for key national-security manufacturing operations, like semiconductors, and how this legislation, in tandem with the CHIPS bill, will bolster America’s national security.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the CHIPS bill: “Well, it’s a complex bill, but the overarching concern has to do with our national security and our economy. We all know what we’ve been through with the chip shortage here in America over the past 18 months. We need to reshore that supply chain back from China. We’ve become far too dependent on a country that does not have our best interest at heart, and getting these critical semiconductor manufacturing capabilities back in America is my overarching concern. I was also able to negotiate a significant improvement in this bill, and if you think about it, it takes far too long to permit a chip fabrication facility here in America. When I called CEOs and asked them, why weren’t they manufacturing the chips here in America? They told me that it takes up to five years to obtain a permit for chip manufacturing facility here in the United States. The permitting process that I’ve passed, that I’ve got an agreement, a hundred percent agreement here in the Senate, and now House leadership has agreed to pass it, if not this week, as soon as they’re back. This will significantly compress the timeline for permitting, making us far more competitive. My hope is to get that timeline down to about 18 months. That’s going to actually allow us to speed up the implementation of this expansion of supply. It’s going to make this far more effective. And frankly, this is one of the most significant improvements in regulatory process and in permitting process that we’ve seen in years.”
Hagerty on reshoring supply chains through his permitting legislation: “My hope is that this process will actually help us incentivize and properly get these supply chains moved back. The manufacturers that I talk to don’t like the strategic position that they are in either. And if you think about what’s happening to industry right here in America, I mean, I was just visiting the GM plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, [there were] long lines of cars there that are waiting [for] the chips. The clients of chip manufacturing firms are not happy with this. We need to reshore this capacity now. The chip manufacturers understand this, and what we’re doing is facilitating that process again, getting these plant facilities in place and vertical much faster with my legislation and the larger legislation that brings certain targeted subsidies to bear, to try to help facilitate that as well […] So I think over time, and this is a mid to long-term fix, but we will be able to put a significant improvement in terms of our own national security and our economic security as we begin to reshore these supply chains.”
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