FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2022
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ANOTHER WIN FOR GEORGIA: After Year-Long Push from Reverend Warnock, Bipartisan Jobs and Competition Bill to Lower Costs, Protect Georgia Jobs Becomes Law
Reverend Warnock: This Is An Investment In The Future Of The Georgia Economy. This Is About Jobs. This Is About Innovation.”
Atlanta, GA – Yesterday, after a year-long push led by Reverend Warnock, the jobs and competition bill — bipartisan legislation that will boost Georgia manufacturing jobs, spur scientific innovation, and reduce reliance on foreign nations like China — was signed into law.
The jobs and competition law will provide long-awaited support for cities like West Point, where a KIA plant was shut down for days due to a lack of semiconductor chips. By investing in domestic manufacturing to produce semiconductors for everything from washers and dryers to cars , Reverend Warnock’s legislation will lower costs, protect and save Georgia jobs, and reduce reliance on foreign nations like China.
Here’s what Georgians are seeing as this groundbreaking legislation becomes law:
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: Could the Columbus area become a regional technology hub? It’s possible.
- Could the Columbus-Auburn-Opelika area become a regional technology hub? Will Columbus State University get more federal grant dollars?
- Warnock said Columbus is one of the Georgia cities well positioned to take advantage of the new legislation.“It means jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said. “It means investment in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and the future workforce.”
- Columbus is considered one of 102 prime locations for technology hubs based on research from MIT professors Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson, authors of “Jump-Starting America,” Warnock said.
- “We need to make sure that the incredible human potential doesn’t leave Columbus for the West Coast,” Warnock said. “This is a part of our state with a lot of smart people… These tech hubs would look to bring together government, the private sector (and) university resources to spur innovation, which is the fuel for our economy.”
- As a smaller institution, Columbus State could gain from the expanded pool of federal STEM funding promised. One NSF program that Columbus State University currently participates in, the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, should see a 50% increase in the number of scholarships awarded over the next five years, according to the bill.
Karla Heath-Sands: “Senator Raphael Warnock co-sponsored legislation that could send billions to our state, and one car plant in Georgia is expected to reap some of those benefits.”
Reverend Warnock: “This is an investment in the future of the Georgia economy. This is about jobs, this is about innovation, and I’m so very pleased that this is finally happening.”
Katrice Nolan: “The Kia plant in West Point Georgia not only produces cars, it also manufactures semiconductors or chips that are used in nearly every electronic item you use on a daily basis.”
Stuart Countess, CEO of Kia Georgia: “It’s certainly been growing in everything that we use as a consumer, whether it’s in your iPhone, your laptops, PlayStations, you pick the topic, there are semiconductors in everything.”
Katrice Nolan: “And with growth, comes demand. Therefore, Senator Warnock says he introduced a bipartisan technology bill with one component of helping the Kia plant and production of semiconductors on U.S. soil.”
Reverend Warnock: “This bill will ensure, and invest in the domestic production of CHIPS.”
Katrice Nolan: “Currently only 12% of semiconductors are produced in the U.S., China leads the market. According to Senator Warnock, he saw a need after a recent visit to the plant.”
Reverend Warnock: “I recently visited the Kia plant in West Point, Georgia, a plant that shut down on a couple of occasions, not for a lack of customers, but because of a lack of chips.”
Katrice Nolan: “And leaders at the Kia plant say the bill is needed to make sure the supply chain is not interrupted again.”
Nick Proto: “Meanwhile, the Senate will start working toward the passage of a roughly $50 billion incentive package for the semiconductor industry otherwise known as manufacturing chips. Last night Senator Raphael Warnock spoke about how that package may help The Peach State.”
Reverend Warnock: “We use chips in everything from washers and dryers and automobiles to our high-tech military weapons, and we’re waiting on microchips from Asia to be put in military weapons in the United States of America, that doesn’t make any sense.”
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON REVEREND WARNOCK’S LEADERSHIP
- On July 15th, Reverend Warnock sent a letter calling on Senate leadership to put partisan bickering aside and swiftly pass bipartisan CHIPS legislation to address the semiconductor shortage and other supply chain issues while boosting American research and innovation.
- In the letter he wrote: “This historic bipartisan legislation is too vital to be used to score political points, and employing tactics to derail this critical and overwhelmingly bipartisan bill is shameful.”
- Reverend Warnock was a lead negotiator on the jobs and competition bill and secured the bill’s provision to increase semiconductor production—bipartisan legislation that would become the CHIPS and Science bill that will protect and save Georgia jobs, lower costs, and reduce reliance on foreign nations like China.
- Last year, the Kia facility in West Point, Georgia, shutdown for two days in the wake of a semiconductor shortage—an issue that Reverend Warnock met with Kia officials about and raised in a Commerce Committee hearing.
- The law will reduce the nation’s reliance on semiconductors made in other countries like China, and instead manufacture those key materials in the United States, creating jobs and also helping with supply chain issues that have impacted American businesses.
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