Federal funding that Ohio leaders have said is critical to the expansion of the Intel project from a $20 billion facility to the world’s largest semiconductor factory could pass soon.
But Ohio’s Democratic U.S. Senator says it likely won’t be a bipartisan measure.
$52 billion in federal funding for computer chip manufacturing has been folded into the America Competes Act, a huge bill to help the U.S. compete with China.
US Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) both supported that funding in the Senate, but Brown says House Republicans are announcing they’re opposing this bill.
“I’m not really sure why except I think they don’t want Joe Biden to have a victory, but this is a victory for our country. It means that Intel will likely grow, as they say, bigger and quicker in Ohio," Brown said.
Republicans have proposed stripping $8 billion in climate change funding that’s in that bill, which is expected to pass the House on a mostly party line vote.
But differences would have to be worked out with the Senate before the bill could be signed by President Biden.
Intel announced last month in Newark it would build two manufacturing plants, or fabs, for $20 billion, with construction starting later this year. The plants would be operational by 2025. But the company said it could expand to a $100 billion investment if the federal funding is approved.
Ohio leaders have been pushing for that money to be approved, as has Biden. He announced the Intel project before the Ohio event with a press conference that included both Brown and Portman.
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