Taylor, Mich. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined UAW President Ray Curry, Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and other Members of the Michigan Congressional delegation for a roundtable press event on semiconductor chips with members of UAW.  Below are the Speaker’s remarks:

Speaker Pelosi.   Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your very generous words of introduction.  I always accept any compliment on behalf of the House Democrats who make so, make so much – always accept every compliment on behalf of the House Democrats who make so much possible.

And I’m going to join you in acknowledging Debbie Dingell and our Vice Chair Pete Aguilar.  Where is Dan?  There’s Dan.  Dan Kildee and Haley Stevens and, of course, Andy Levin.  And also to you, Lieutenant Governor – thank you for honoring us with your presence.  We can call almost everybody in this room Mr. President or Madam President.  Laura, thank you for welcoming us here and for your leadership.  

Really, I wanted to associate myself with the remarks of President Curry, because the fact is we're in this situation, and we intend to succeed.  And I thank him for his letter to the Senators to say, ‘Pass the bill.  Pass the bill.’  And then when they do it, then we'll pass it.  But I want him to know how much we appreciate – we acknowledge – that he acknowledged in the letter that they should have had Trade Adjustment Assistance in the bill.  That’s very important.  

And we held out, we held out, we held out.  And I said, ‘If you're not going to have trade assistance in the bill, you're not going to have trade in the bill.’  So they took out the whole trade title.  So when we go back to those kinds of negotiations, we had that leverage.  

The President and Debbie talked about legacy chips, more mature chips, and how preeminent that your work is in all of that.  We're in this situation, as President Curry said so clearly – there was a time when we were preeminent in the world.  America was preeminent in the world.  And then corporate America and upscaling with these inventions was done in the U.S.  So more jobs were created here until they thought, ‘Well, if we upscale overseas, we make more money.’  And they did.  And that offshoring took us to a place where we have supply problems.  

And now, we're going to correct that.  So no longer will America always ever be dependent on something offshore that was created here.  Made in America, invented here – and we will, again, have the jobs here.  So that's what will happen this week – $52 billion, that an enormous amount of money.  But we don't just give it away.  We have guardrails to say you can't use any of this money or the money that springs from this for stock buybacks or dividends or to invest overseas.  It's about manufacturing here, manufacturing here.  

So this is really transformative in what it does.  We were very pleased that, in addition to the chips piece – which is critically important, you know that – we also have our science piece in there.  So that we are developing for the future.  The inclusion and diversity of the workforce and the rest was important to us.  How it was spread across the country.  So it wasn't just certain centers of excellence who always get the investment – so around the country.  So this is in keeping with President Biden's justice initiative.  In our infrastructure bill, we had 40 percent – 40 percent insisted that it would be about equity and justice, and that more people could participate.  And this is – in this legislation – now that we’ve won with the House side – we’re in there.  It’s about that too.  It’s not just about certain corporate companies, where – it's about how, how this is and how other companies can prepare the future.

Now, we know that you are such an important part of America.  When we did the bill – the bills to – with Debbie’s leadership before – as a lifeline to some of our friends in the auto industry, people said, ‘Oh, you're helping focus on corporations.’  We say, ‘No, we're not.  We're supporting an industry in our country for things that are union-made.’  And we don't agonize, we organize.  And we unionize.  And that's why on some future bills, we want to pass the PRO Act.  We want to pass TAA.  We have other things we need to do, because this is the salvation of America.  Collective bargaining.  

So I thank you all for what you do in that regard.  Now, I proudly quote Walter Reuther more than I quote most others of those who are no longer with us.  Walter Reuther said, ‘There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box.’  What you can accomplish at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative body depending on what happens at the ballot box.  So we want to make sure that we tried and spoke in every way to make this as bipartisan as possible.  So that it would succeed, that it could pass the Senate and the rest.  But we do then have to make sure that people know, that people know, that people know we want more.  It's about our workers.  And that our workers know it's about them.

So when Debbie said, ‘Will you come?’ – it wasn't so that I could talk to you about that, but so I could listen to what you all have to say.

President Curry, I thank you for your leadership.  I thank you for that, manifested in many ways, but in that letter, because it really hit the spot.  And you know, it just said we want more for our workers, for the future and for the present.  So thank you for that.

And we expect in the next – well we were hoping they would vote today.  But I think the Senate went home.  So Monday, Tuesday, they may vote, then they'll send it to us.  And we want it to be, as I said, a strong bipartisan vote.  We were told the other side might whip against it.  But we're finding out that maybe not.  Because what we put in on the House side was very bipartisan, because we wanted to do the best job and that it would prevail.  

So with that I, again, I'm here to listen and to learn from all of you about this.  When I hear cars are expensive, because they're not enough – not enough fuel.  They don't have enough chips to make more cars and this and that.  

So your – this bill and your leadership on all of this is central, central to how our economy addresses inflation, job creation, collective bargaining – with guardrails to protect taxpayers.

And with that, I yield back to you.

Q.  Speaker, can you give us some idea of where this bill stands?  You have the votes in the House, you have things being worked on the Senate.  And this is coming up for a vote next week, so will we see it done next week?

Speaker Pelosi.   Yes.  The – earlier I alluded to, but not completely – the Senate – they have a process where it takes a week to clear your throat.

So they agreed, they got the votes – 64 votes that they could proceed from that time, then there would be – we wanted them to count the nighttime, but they didn’t.  The next day – 12 hours that hadn't been on the clock until now – start with – start the 30 hours of debate.  That isn't happening today, but it'll happen Monday.  30 hours of debate.  Up to 30 hours of debate, you don't have to use them.  We don't expect that those who oppose the bill will impede – well, who knows?  Up to 30 hours of debate.  

When they finish that and they send it to us, which means we – I was hoping we could get it Tuesday, but we might get it Wednesday.  We feel very confident.  Before I walked in here, coming from the airport, I was told that we have some important Republican support on the House side, which again, we take – we value the bipartisanship of this bill.  

I was on the train going to Connecticut yesterday from Washington with some of the Republican Members who were advocating for the bill as well – Michigan Republicans as well as Texas Republicans.  They do what – some of these states – Austin, know they do well with all of this.  So – and they understand the national security aspects of it.  That doesn't mean that – I don't know how many we get, but it will be bipartisan.  So yesterday, they were giving me information about the bill about why everybody should be voting.  And then today, they told me – I don’t know, it's not my announcement to make – it was very encouraging about your Ranking Member on the Committee.  He's been wonderful in the negotiations, we just don't know what shape it will be.

So send it next week – by sending it to the President for signature.

Q.  Sorry to interrupt, Speaker Pelosi.  I know we're here to talk about the semiconductor shortage and Chips for America Act.  That's coming up for a key bipartisan vote next week.  I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about your husband and how –

– Ma’am, I think that – I think that is on topic.  Your husband recently purchased a significant amount of Nvidia stock, which is a company that makes semiconductor chips and so wanted to ask specifically, you know, can you speak about the timing?

Speaker Pelosi.   The timing is that a long time ago, my husband bought – we're from San Francisco in the Silicon Valley area, so he had been following technology for a very long time.  These were options that were purchased a long time ago.  You asked me about time – that came to now.  That’s the timing.

Q.  There are a number of companies that have signaled that they believe 2022 – the second half of 2022 will be better in terms of the chip shortage.  Volkswagen, Electrolux, Hyundai have all said that they think some of this problem is going to be resolved.  In an environment of quantitative tightening, where we are already seen demand destruction, do you worry about artificially deflating the price of semiconductor chips?

Speaker Pelosi.  The more chips we have, the more the cost of what we use chips for.  There was something in the paper yesterday.  It was very, very encouraging.  It said that they found that –  it was found a massive discovery of cobalt, which was essential to the ingredients that go into chipmaking and battery – into batteries and the rest.  And that we would not be as dependent, for example, on China and other countries of concern that may want to use it all for themselves and not really share with that.  So again, we're always trying for something, whether in terms of manufacturing, that serves our purpose in terms of how it's used.  This was a real breakthrough.

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.   I want to make a comment.  I've talked to those companies, as you know, I talked to other companies regularly.  The fact of the matter is – but in a way, Germany has built a chips plant and the – and I've talked to CEOs of companies that are OEMs, who have said to me, that ‘we've waited for eighteen months for this to get resolved, and if this doesn't get resolved, we've told our suppliers they’re going to build plants in other countries.’  This is a matter of economic security, and it's a matter of national security.

And so we need to get this done, because we want to keep those jobs here at home.  Good-paying American jobs.

Congressman Dan Kildee.   Can I just add one more thing?  I think the demand, you're assuming sad demand, but I think – well I’m not saying assuming, but the question – I think the demand is exploding.  You know for – in cars today and in cars in the future, they will need way more chips than the ones we make today, and that's true of all kinds of products.  So I think it's America's place to have the capacity of – make them here for our own demand.

Q.  Just a quick follow up on that.  There has been about $250 billion in private investment.  That is the estimate.  And there’s even been a dissension in your own party.  Senator Bernie Sanders said that he’s concerned about giving a $52, $53 billion dollar blank check to corporations, and some made $20 billion last year.  There were a lot of struggling families.  We've heard about that today in this room.  Are there concerns over a corporate welfare image, the optics of that?

Speaker Pelosi.  That's why we had – we insisted that we couldn't vote for any legislation unless it had the guardrails in it.  That this money would be used for the purpose – for the job creation in our country.  And they know, because some of them are saying, ‘Well, we can't have that in there.’  Well then you can’t have a bill.  We have to have guardrails in there.  And that's a long, specific list of things that they're not able to do.  And there's transparency, so that we can see.  There is notification that they must tell any kinds of thing that they might want to do.  

So the Secretary of the Commerce Department feels very confident that they have the wherewithal to make sure that the money is spent for the purpose of that visit and their plans to establish these plants all over the country.  Ohio has them, Texas and Arizona.  And here.  Everybody wants them, so that's why the diversity of location and diversity of inclusion of people comes in.  

And you know, there's some other things in the bill that help our friends in labor in their areas, in their fields, whether it's eight carpenters with different unions that will benefit from this legislation.  This week – this is a winner for us.  And legislation is legislation.  We're legislators who can tell you it's not easy.  We're not complaining, we love it.  But you have to make sure people understand this is there for this reason, and why something else might not be in it at this time.  

I've done enormously – and I've been fighting KLA ever since – for 35 years, and we have never been satisfied.  Never been enough.  Even more we had it.  But we live to fight another day on that, and it shouldn’t be a deal breaker.  As long as they don't have the advantage that they want to trade.  We can – we took that out. We took note on it, take the whole title out.  You know that from your —

Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist.   I want to make this really real.  So in Michigan – and Madam Speaker, I appreciate you – however, I am very selfish and I want all the semiconductors to be made in Michigan.  And I want this to happen to really build on the momentum that we have demonstrated when I talk about people in Michigan being ready to work.

We have had tremendous semiconductor industry investment in Michigan over the last three years.  We've had KLA announce a $200 million investment in our township.  We have had SK Siltron in Bay City.  Hemlock Semiconductor made a $300 million investment.  We will increase the level of investment by an order of magnitude here in the state of Michigan with the Chips Act being passed, and that means more people, more union members with more opportunities to deliver the products that we all know people want.  And that people in Michigan are clearly clamoring for – all the frustration that you hear is because the demand is ready to go.  

And so I just want to make no mistake about it.  This is clearly the right thing to do, obviously a good thing to do, and it will benefit Michigan families and our economies directly and deeply.  And so that's why, you know, we certainly, from a state perspective, have been so clear and so adamant in that we need to get this done.  And we needed to get it done.  We first started advocating for it a year and a half ago.  And so we are here now on the precipice, and everybody here now is ready to get this across the finish line.

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.   Okay, one more question.

Speaker Pelosi.   If I just may say one more thing about what the distinguished Lieutenant Governor said.

All of us on the Democratic side – well, we're giving money to corporate America.  Well, why?  It's not for corporate America.  It's for jobs in America so that they stay here and keep the jobs here.  Is there sometimes collateral benefit?  As long as we get our side of it?  Yeah.  There'll be some collateral benefit.

Barney Frank used to always speak about – he said, ‘Yes, there'll be collateral benefit if we're doing something – the private sector and with us, making sure that we have the upside for the workers.’  100,000 union, Davis-Bacon jobs.  This is not about bringing home the bacon.  This is about bringing home the Davis Bacon.

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the Floor of the House of Representatives in support of H.R.