President Joe Biden in North Carolina on Thursday urged Congress to reconcile their differences on the Bipartisan Innovation Act, a bill that will boost domestic semiconductor production and bolster competitiveness with China, as he also acknowledged inflation concerns around the country and pointed to supply chain issues as a core driver of higher prices.
The president visited North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest of the United States’ historically Black colleges and universities, where he called on Congress to quickly pass the bill, which will also invest in STEM education and support the creation of a Regional Technology Hub program, among other initiatives.
Semiconductors are critical for the production of computers, cars, phones and other common electronics, but they are mostly produced outside the U.S.
"It's essential that the Congress take action quickly to support American innovation," President Biden said in a half-hour speech on the campus.
"Every action I've taken to rebuild our economy has been guided by one principle: Made in America," he added. "It means using products parts and materials built right here in the United States of America. It means bringing manufacturing jobs back and building the supply chains here at home, not outsourced from abroad."
The House and Senate both passed their own versions of the semiconductor bills in widely bipartisan fashion and now must come to a consensus in a conference committee, a joint delegation of lawmakers from both chambers.
“With demand for chips at an all-time high, it’s crucial that we bring chip production — and it’s good-quality manufacturing jobs — back home to the United States,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “This is essential to our national and economic security.”
The president also addressed his administration’s efforts to lower inflation, which hit its highest level in 40 years last month, in large part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on global energy and food markets, as well as rising housing costs.
Biden acknowledged that prices were too high for American families and attributed the increase in part to bogged-down supply chains over the last two years due to the pandemic, which is more evidence the country should invest in domestic manufacturing, he said.
"When we build more in America, we increase economic capacity, and ultimately it helps lower everyday prices for families," the president said.
He pointed out how China has surpassed the United States in investing in future technologies.
His trip to North Carolina comes just days after he visited Iowa, where he announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will allow for the sale of biofuels with larger quantities of ethanol in an effort to lower gas prices for Americans.
Biden on Thursday also met with robotics and cybersecurity students and toured a cyber defense lab, where students compete to replicate ransomware attacks and learn how to defend against them.
"What you're doing is very important," the president told students.
North Carolina A&T, the White House said, is the largest producer of African American undergraduates in engineering and with masters degrees in STEM in the country and is the alma mater of Biden’s EPA administrator Michael Regan.
Spectrum News' Charles Duncan contributed to this report.