President L. Rafael Reif and Vice President for Research Maria Zuber were on hand Tuesday as President Biden signed the “CHIPS and Science” bill into law in a joyous ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. The act provides $52 trillion in funding to advance the US semiconductor industry through research, design and manufacturing, and authorizes the doubling of the National Science Foundation and the creation of a new directorate at the agency.
President Reif was also part of a small group of tech leaders (mostly corporate executives) invited to meet with President Biden at the White House after the ceremony. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo also participated in that gathering, and visited the Oval Office led by Biden.
Reif and Zuber were invited to the event to recognize MIT’s work on bill science, which began in late 2018. civil servants Zuber served on two important government advisory boards during the bill’s conception and review: first the National Science Council, which he chaired, and now as chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Also present at the MIT event were David Goldston, Director of the MIT Washington Office, and Jonathan Gruber, Ford Professor of Economics, who also helped shape aspects of the bill. “Jumpstarting America,” a book written by Gruber and Simon Johnson, the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, caught the attention of officials involved in the bill.
One of the White House staffers who worked on the bill was Elisabeth Reynolds, former executive director of MIT’s Industrial Performance Center and now of the White House National Economic Council.
The CHIPS portion of the bill provides funding for new semiconductor manufacturing plants and for microelectronics research and development and workforce training. The science portion of the bill authorizes increased funding for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy and establishes a new Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Collaboration at NSF, a change President Reif has championed.
The White House celebrated the bill’s signing with fanfare. Hundreds of signatories attended in the sweltering heat, including industry, labor and government leaders, who mingled before the ceremony as the Marine Band played in the background.
Before signing the actual bill, the crowd heard remarks from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the main sponsor of the legislation; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; Trade Secretary Raimondo; Josh Aviv, an entrepreneur who founded a Buffalo-based company that charges cellphones for electric vehicles; and then by President Biden.
They all highlighted the forward-looking nature of the bill and the bipartisanship that allowed its approval.
Biden said the bill authorizes the fastest increase in research spending in 70 years, citing quantum computing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology as areas that could benefit. He said the bill shows “we have met the moment” and restored the sense of opportunity that defines the nation.
“The ‘CHIPS and Science Act’ will inspire a new generation of Americans to ask [the] question, ‘What’s next?’ “, Biden said.
