作为CHIPS money公司提案的一部分，商务部正在要求一项计划，其中包括为申请儿童保育的公司员工提供儿童保育服务数百亿美元的政府资金用于制造半导体该部门周二宣布。
商务部负责分配500多亿美元，包括390亿美元的半导体激励措施，推出了通过去年8月通过的芯片和科学法案申请资金的申请程序。
美国商务部长吉娜·雷蒙多(Gina Raimondo)周一在电话会议上告诉记者，“我们将要求所有寻求超过1.5亿美元直接资助的申请人提交一份计划，作为他们劳动力计划的一部分，该计划将如何为他们的工人提供负担得起的、可获得的儿童保育服务。”。“我们现在缺乏负担得起的托儿服务，这是将人们，尤其是女性排除在劳动力之外的最重要因素。所以我们需要看看这些公司将如何满足他们的劳动力需求。”
乔·拜登总统一再推动平价儿童保健，但未能在国会获得足够的支持，甚至是他的民主党同僚。
该部门表示，任何希望获得新补贴的半导体制造商都必须“为他们的工厂和建筑工人提供负担得起、方便、可靠和高质量的儿童保育服务。”
半导体是许多日常用品的基本电脑芯片，如冰箱和洗碗机、汽车和智能手机等。它们现在主要是国际制造的，主要是在台湾。
雷蒙多表示，申请过程分为五个部分，申请标准严格，包括确保获得资金的公司在10年内不会在“受关注的国家”扩张。
雷蒙多说，商务部在过去的五个月里一直在微调申请的标准。
根据商务部的说法，奖励将采取直接资助、联邦贷款和/或第三方贷款的联邦担保的形式，商务部表示，这些奖励旨在“补充——而不是取代——私人投资和其他资金来源。”他们说，强烈鼓励申请人把资金带到谈判桌上，一旦申请得到严格评估和协商，美国芯片奖就会发放。
雷蒙多说，作为申请过程的一部分，申请联邦资金的公司必须“公开账目”，这样商务部才能确切知道资金的去向和用途。
上周在乔治敦大学的一次演讲中，雷蒙多提出了确保半导体在美国制造的愿景，称在海外制造半导体主要是一个国家安全问题。
“从根本上说，这是为了确保我们制造我们需要的芯片，并推动我们需要在美国推动的创新，以便我们能够拥有道德权威和技术权威来领导世界并维护我们的国家安全，”她上周在乔治敦对学生们说。
她说，她希望美国有两个遍布全美的大型芯片制造工厂“集群”,并表示该计划将有助于重振美国制造业。
“每个集群都将包括一个强大的供应商生态系统研发设施，以不断创新令人印象深刻的技术和专业基础设施，”她说。“顺便说一下，这些集群中的每一个都将雇用10，000多名工人，他们是从事高薪工作的美国工人。”
当雷蒙多担任美国最小的州的州长时，她提倡对贸易工人进行投资，她当时采用的做法与现在相同。她呼吁大学和学院在芯片制造和开发方面培训国家劳动力。
她说，如果半导体落入坏人之手，比如像中国或俄罗斯这样的坏人，它们可能会对美国不利，世界上92%的半导体都来自台湾。
她说:“对芯片的投资让我们获得优势，对创新的投资将获得出口控制，对我们盟友的限制让我们保持优势，正如我所说，如果这些技术落入坏人手中，可能会发生非常糟糕的事情。”。
Commerce Department requiring proposal for child care as part of CHIPS funding
As part of company proposals for CHIPS money, the Commerce Department is requiring a plan that includes childcare for employees of companies that apply for tens of billions in government funding to make semiconductors the department announced on Tuesday.
Tasked with allocating the more than $50 billion, including $39 billion in semiconductor incentives, the Commerce Department rolled out its application process for funding available through the CHIPS and Science Act passed last August.
"We will be requiring all applicants who are seeking more than $150 million in direct funding to submit as part of their workforce plan, a plan for how they will provide affordable and accessible accessible childcare for their workers," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters on a conference call Monday. "We right now lack affordable childcare, which is the single most significant factor keeping people especially women out of the labor force. And so we need to see how these companies are going to be meeting their labor force needs."
President Joe Biden has repeatedly pushed for affordable child care but has failed to gain enough support in Congress, even from his fellow Democrats.
The department said any semiconductor manufacturer that wants new subsidies has to "provide both their facility and construction workers with access to affordable, accessible, reliable, and high-quality child care."
Semiconductors are computer chips essential for numerous everyday items, such as refrigerators and dishwashers, cars and smartphones and more. They are primarily made internationally right now, largely in Taiwan.
There is a five-part application process and rigorous application standards, according to Raimondo, including ensuring that companies that receive the funding will not expand in "countries of concern" for 10 years.
Raimondo said the Commerce Department has spent the last five months fine tuning the criteria for the application.
Awards will take the form of direct funding, federal loans, and/or federal guarantees of third-party loans, according to the Commerce Department which says the awards are designed to "complement—not replace—private investment and other sources of funding." Applicants are strongly encouraged to bring capital to the table, they say and CHIPS for America awards will be made as soon as applications can be rigorously evaluated and negotiated.
Raimondo said, as part of the application process, companies applying for the federal money will have to "open the books" so the Commerce Department knows exactly where the money is going and for what it will be used for.
In a speech last week at Georgetown University, Raimondo laid out a vision for ensuring that semiconductors were made in America, saying that it is primarily a national security issue that they are manufactured overseas.
"Fundamentally, it's about making sure that we make the CHIPS that we need on our shores, and fuel the innovation that we need to fuel in America so that we can have the moral authority and technological authority to lead in the world and maintain our national security," she told students at Georgetown last week.
She said she wants the United States to have two large "clusters" of CHIP manufacturing plants throughout the United States when it is all said and done, and said the plan will help bring back American manufacturing.
"Each cluster will include a robust supplier ecosystem research and development facilities to continuously innovate impressive technologies and specialized infrastructure," she said. "And, by the way, every one of those clusters will employ 10,000 Plus workers, American workers in high paying jobs."
When Raimondo was governor of the nation's smallest state, she promoted investing in trade workers, and the same practice she employed then she is employing now. She is calling on universities and colleges to train the nation's workforce in chip manufacturing and development.
She said that if semiconductors get into the wrong hands, such as a bad actor like China or Russia -- they can be detrimental to the U.S. and that 92% of all semiconductors made in the world are from Taiwan.
"Investments in chips allow us to gain an edge investing in innovation will gain an export controls and restrictions with our allies allow us to keep the edge and as I've said many of these technologies very bad things can happen if they get into the hands of malign actors," she said.
