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Biden admin Commerce Dept seeks to exhaust CHIPS Act funding before Biden leaves office
by Alec Schemmel · Fox NewsThe Commerce Department is pushing to spend every dollar allocated under President Biden's CHIPS and Science Act before President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House, the agency's Secretary Gina Raimondo said during an interview this week.
Speaking to Politico, Raimondo said that it is the agency's goal "to have really almost all of the money obligated" by the end of Biden's term and that the upcoming transition to a Trump administration represents "a clear deadline."
"That’s the goal. And I certainly want to have all the major announcements done as it relates to the big leading edge companies," Raimondo said. "I also would like to have all of that research and development money out the door by the time we leave as well."
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Raimondo told Politico that she has been pushing her staff at the department hard to make these goals a reality, noting they worked all last weekend to shore up the spending.
In total, the CHIPS and Science Act allocated roughly $53 billion to help try to bring semiconductor supply chains back to the U.S. and to invest in research and development initiatives, among other programs aimed at boosting domestic chip manufacturing.
Thus far, only two companies have formalized binding awards to receive funding, according to Politico, and in order to get all the CHIPS Act's funding out the door before Trump's arrival, the agency must shore up multiple multibillion-dollar deals. The department has provisionally awarded much of the grant money so far, but much of it is tied up in complex negotiations, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Meanwhile, Trump has publicly shared his plans to claw back much of Biden's spending from the last four years and has derided Biden's CHIPS Act as "so bad." He has also expressed fervent support for trade tariffs, which Trump could use in an attempt to spur domestic manufacturing as opposed to spending more money.
On Tuesday, Trump announced Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as his choice to replace Raimondo. Lutnick has expressed support for Trump's trade tariffs and cutting government spending.
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The Department of Commerce did not provide Fox News Digital with any on-the-record comments prior to publication of this story.