The executive order “demonstrates that we are rapidly executing on the President’s vision for a 21st century American industrial strategy,” National Economic Council Director Brian Dice said in a statement. “The CHIPS Act will secure critical supply chains for American manufacturers and strengthen vulnerabilities to lower costs for families and strengthen our national and economic security.”
The law marked a dramatic, bipartisan effort to push tens of billions of dollars into manufacturing, research and development and science — all areas where the U.S. has lagged behind some global competitors in federal investment in recent years. US competition with China, and its rapid rise economically and militarily, was seen as a central and often driving force behind the push during the legislative process.
The executive order will create a 16-member implementation board made up of cabinet secretaries and top White House officials from across Biden’s national security and economic teams. The council will be co-chaired by Diss, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Alondra Nelson, deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The order will also detail Biden’s six priorities for the implementation process in the coming months, which include a series of critical factors designed to guide speed, oversight and private-sector relations for more than $52 billion in new funding to supercharge domestic chip manufacturing to create long-term economic and national security.
“We will move as quickly as possible to use these funds while ensuring the time required for due diligence,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a key player in the law’s passage and a member of the new board, said in a statement. “This program is intended to be an investment in America’s long-term economic and national security, and we will take the necessary steps to ensure its success.”
Biden’s other priorities will include a focus on intensive review and compliance in how funds are used, and a focus on attracting significant private capital as part of a more sustainable and long-term effort. Regional production hubs and law innovation groups and a focus on including a wide range of stakeholders are the other key elements.
The Department of Commerce also created a website, CHIPS.gov, that will serve as a central hub for implementation resources, including funding opportunities and timelines.
“We are committed to a process that is transparent and fair, and CHIPS.gov will be an essential channel through which we communicate with the public about CHIPS program initiatives,” said Raimondo.
Raimondo said her agency has been preparing “for months” while Congress reached a final agreement on what implementation would entail.
Biden signed the law amid a flurry of potentially transformative legislative success last month, which included finally closing the deal on a $700 billion economic and climate package that White House officials had been pushing for since the first months of his presidency.
But throughout, growing concern about the vulnerabilities created by a lack of domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity served as a vital — and increasingly urgent — issue within the West Wing.
In the days before the bill was unveiled on Capitol Hill, officials repeatedly cited China’s push to increase domestic production of critical components for everything from cars and washing machines to critical military weapons systems as a major cause for alarm.
