Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1475010
60 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2022 and Anna Eshoo have put into this bill. It's fan- tastic that the printed circuit board industry is getting visibility on the importance it plays in microelectronics. ank you very much, Blake, and thank you, Anna, for co-sponsoring. Moore: I want to thank our respective teams for all their effort. Will Marsh has been a valuable resource working with my chief of staff, legisla- tive team, and my defense team. is situation affects everybody. It is ubiqui- tous, and something that we never really grap- pled with before last year. We all know what circuit boards are, but I never got into the weeds until this role in Congress. Now I see how this touches every industry. When you can look closely at the national security side, it's worth putting in the time and effort. Shoring up our national security supply chains is what our job in Congress is designed to do. e number of jobs and manufactur- ing plants just in Utah's 1st Congressional Dis- trict is overwhelming. We must also ensure we have strong supply of rare earth and critical minerals, and we need to keep costs in check. In addition, we have amazing people running the companies that are relying on PCBs, and they're trying to provide government con- tracts, defense work, and just general com- mercial applicability. When something like this touches so many facets of our lives, we must find some reasonable solutions. I am very confident that the work that we've done is that right direction. Matties: ank you for putting so much energy into this. Congressman Moore, when you became aware of the situation, how surprised were you that we were so vulnerable? Moore: It's my first term in Congress and I'm excited to talk about how I am trying to build a productive way forward, because it becomes such a blaring issue. I was very sur- prised to see how close this is to every indus- try. For example, as general consumers, we all buy cars. It's a typical purchase that has occurred seamlessly for decades in our nation. Now we have vehicles waiting on the lot for technolog y components that we know how to build, but we are just facing a major disruption. That's ver y concerning. The pan- demic highlighted some areas of our national economic armor that are vulnerable, so I was thrilled to put some elbow grease behind this. Matties: ank you for bringing it up to a high level of priority. Travis, thanks to you and the PCBAA for being such a strong voice for the PCB industry. Your results are already evident. Kelly: Great. ank you very much. SMT007 FOR YOUR INFORMATION CHIPS for America Act: The Creating Help- ful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act incentivizes investment in the U.S. semiconductor industry. While it was passed in January 2021, a funding package has not been approved by Congress. HR 7677: Introduced in House, the Supporting American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022 is intended to provide incentives for the domes- tic production of printed circuit boards, and for other purposes. USICA: United States Innovation and Com- petition Act of 2021 addresses U.S. technol- ogy and communications, foreign relations and national security, domestic manufactur- ing, education, trade, and other matters. The text of this bill substituted the text of the Amer- ica COMPETES Act of 2022. The amended bill was passed by the Senate and sent back to the House. Utah's 1 st Congressional District: Serves the northern area of Utah, including the cities of Ogden, Logan, Park City, Layton, Clearfield, and the northern half of the Great Salt Lake. It does not include a portion of Salt Lake County.