Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1535414
26 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2025 Lobbying Congress Supports the Supply Chain American Made Advocacy by Shane Whiteside, PCBAA e upheaval in world markets is driving daily headlines. e global supply chain has seemed "normal" for the microelectronics industry because over the past three decades, an increasing percentage of microelectron- ics components and materials have been made overseas. For many years, other countries, pri- marily in Asia, invested heavily in their micro- electronics industry while U.S. companies off- shored manufacturing services in pursuit of the lowest cost. As a result, U.S. companies couldn't compete with manufacturers in those countries. To its credit, the current administra- tion is attempting to bring manufacturing back to the United States. e challenge is that without concurrent boosts to domestic capacity across the entire technology stack, including printed circuit boards (PCBs), tariffs alone won't reach the goal of reshoring manufacturing. Tariffs drive up the cost of microelectronics materials and components sourced in other countries. Com- bine higher costs and a lack of business incen- tives and government investment in American- made microelectronics and existing microelec- tronics just become more expensive. If there were a quick and easy way to ramp up manufacturing here, this wouldn't be a prob- lem. However, without an enduring domes- tic demand signal, private investors are reluc-