Lawmakers call on Commerce Dept. to show how companies will be required to create good jobs, protect workers and communities, and meet environmental goals
Boston (October 11, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today sent a letter to the Commerce Department on the lack of transparency on contracts for awards granted to companies through the CHIPS and Science Act. After the Department of Commerce announced its first final commercial CHIPS Act contract, the Senators argue that the public deserves transparency on manufacturers’ commitment to key issues such as health, labor, safety, environment and other important provisions. The CHIPS Act invested more than $50 billion in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, with much of the funding going to private corporations.
The lawmakers wrote, “The Department of Commerce should use its role in the grant-making process to ensure that the U.S. semiconductor industry is safe and sustainable, creates high-quality jobs, and does not simply enrich shareholders and executives through stock buybacks. Communities near manufacturing facilities and American chip manufacturing workers deserve — and need — more transparency around these federal contracts to ensure manufacturers are held accountable to meaningful commitments.”
Senators Markey, Warren, and Sanders, along with Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), sent a letter in August to the Commerce Department urging the agency to ensure companies receiving CHIPS Act funds are held to the highest possible standards related to workers’ right to unionize, health and safety, and environmental impact.
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