What is in the CHIPS Act, Aimed at Childcare Expansion and National Security

But analysts said it remains to be seen how difficult it will be to enforce these provisions. Company finances can be opaque, and when a company saves a dollar in the United States, it may then choose to invest it elsewhere.

Helping workers by attaching big strings

The program also includes some ambitious and unusual requirements aimed at benefiting the people who will staff semiconductor facilities.

For one, the department will require companies seeking awards of $150 million or more to guarantee affordable, high-quality child care for workers who build or operate a plant. This could include building company child care centers near construction sites or new plants, paying local child care providers to add capacity at an affordable cost or directly subsidizing workers’ care costs.

Applicants are also required to detail their engagement with labor unions, schools and work force education programs, with preference given to projects that benefit communities and workers.

Other provisions will encourage companies, universities and other parties to offer more training for workers, in both advanced sciences and in skills like welding. The department said it would give preference to projects for which state and local governments were providing incentives with “spillover” benefits for communities, like work force training, education investment or infrastructure construction.

This is part of the Biden administration’s “worker-centered” approach to economic policy, which seeks to use the might of the federal government to benefit workers. But some critics say it could put the program’s goal of building the most advanced semiconductor factories at risk, if it adds excessive costs to new projects.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/business/economy/chips-act-childcare.html