Companies Immediately Announce Nearly 100,000 Jobs in Response to the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act

     American manufacturing declined by roughly 50 percent between 1980 and 2020. As it would turn out, COVID taught the United States an important, albeit painful, lesson about the importance of restoring Made-In-America manufacturing and ensuring strong supply chains. A lot of progress had already been made on these fronts under President Biden, from a program expanding apprenticeship opportunities to the Ocean Shipping Reform Act to a national action plan on trucking to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and so much more. The CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, however, were a one-two punch of historic legislation to ramp this progress up a notch. Without adding a penny to the deficit, these bills provide tax incentives and direct investments to create or retain a combined total of 12 million jobs over the course of the next decade, nearly all in manufacturing. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act, America was able to create 650,000 manufacturing jobs, more than restoring those lost during COVID. These two bills put America on track to fully restore American manufacturing by 2033.

     The math on the 12 million number checks out. In just the few weeks since these two historic bills were signed, companies have announced the creation of nearly 100,000 manufacturing jobs. Micron announced more than $15 billion to create 17,000 jobs at a massive facility in Idaho as well as $40 billion to strengthen facilities across the country, creating another estimated 40,000 jobs. That's a combined $55 billion investment in semiconductors since the CHIPS Act became law from Micron alone, which is more than the bill provided to the total industry. The benefits of the CHIPS and Science Act will create economic growth and tax revenue that will far outweigh the costs even without direct tax increases. The Inflation Reduction Act, meanwhile, will reduce the deficit by $300 billion.

     Just in the past week, Corning announced a new Arizona manufacturing plant that will create 250 jobs in response to the record demand for broadband produced by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; in response to incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act, First Solar announced $1.2 billion to expand solar panel production in Ohio and elsewhere; Toyota announced a $2.5 billion investment in electric vehicles in North Carolina; Honda announced that it would build a $4.4 billion EV plant in the United States; and more.

     This is the level of exciting news we can expect every month for the next decade now that the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act are law. Kamala Harris had to cast the tie-breaking votes on the latter bill, while Senate Democrats had to trick Republicans into voting for the former after it was held hostage by Mitch McConnell. Every Republican in Congress fought against a pair of laws that are achieving what politicians on both sides of the aisle only talked about for decades. Remember that when you go to the ballot box in November.