U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Monday the CHIPS and Science Act will help provide jobs for women in construction.
President Joe Biden signed it into law on Aug. 9. The CHIPS and Science Act will use taxpayers’ money to subsidize semiconductor companies and invest in research. Semiconductors — commonly referred to as computer chips or microchips — are used in a range of electronic products, and supply chain shortages during the pandemic hampered production of commodities from electric vehicles to computers.
Raimondo, the former governor of Rhode Island, said the law will create approximately 100,000 construction jobs and will prioritize half of the jobs going to women, along with creating apprenticeships for people of color.
“When I go see these building trades,” Raimondo said on Boston Public Radio Monday, “I'm going to say, well, what are you doing to attract women? How are you training women to be welders and plumbers and pipefitters? How are you going to provide the transportation? How are you going to recruit them? How are you going to provide childcare?”
Lack of access to childcare during early-morning construction shifts is what often prevents women from entering the career, the commerce secretary said.
In working across the aisle to pass the CHIPS Act, she said “there were many things in this legislation that we wish we could have had, but we couldn't get through Republican votes, so we had to skinny the bill down to its bare essence around national security and innovation and be happy with that — which, by the way, is a tremendous accomplishment.”
The act will strengthen the country by no longer needing to rely on Taiwan to manufacture the chips that are needed for military and computing innovation, she said. Raimondo said it will likely take about five to ten years to get the chip facilities built to the level of production needed.
“Interestingly, China actually lobbied against this bill. They had paid lobbyists to lobby against the bill because they knew that these investments would make America stronger, which I found quite interesting,” Raimondo said. But, it “wasn’t about weakening China,” she said, but “about strengthening America so that we have more innovation, more manufacturing jobs, more supply.”
