Tim Walberg Slams Raimondo And Biden Admin: You Sent Billions But ‘Few Projects Have Been Completed’

5 months ago

Last month, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) questioned Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on budget appropriations and oversight during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Ladies, time has expired. I now recognize myself for questioning.

00:04Madam Secretary, thank you for being here today.

00:06Thank you.

00:08We saw hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the administration and Democrats in Congress

00:13through the IRA, IIJA, and other COVID area packages. Unfortunately, though years have

00:19gone by since these funds were appropriated, very few projects have been completed or even started.

00:27From broadband to semiconductors to EV chargers, our constituents are still waiting to see where

00:33their tax dollars are going. There are many excuses for why this is the case. Washington's

00:39bureaucracy, permitting delays, as you just mentioned, and more. But one of the biggest

00:45issues I hear is workforce. The Biden administration has made no secret of their intent to use the

00:52CHIPS Act to benefit labor special interests. The CHIPS Act was first passed as a national

00:59security imperative, not a bill to increase the union roles. The data is clear. Across the country,

01:07fewer and fewer U.S. workers are members of unions. I've seen that in my Michigan district.

01:13At the same time, many of these semiconductor facilities are struggling to find qualified

01:18workers to build their facilities. It would then be reasonable to ask, why then is the

01:24administration asking these companies to acquiesce to big labor and increase union workforce at their

01:30sites, even in states where union workforce is at an all-time low, like Texas and Arizona? So,

01:36Secretary Mundo, why then add these regulations requiring unions' workforce conditions when

01:44doing business with the federal government? Does this not go against the intent of the law?

01:49And how does increased union participation in building CHIP facilities improve the national

01:55security imperative of establishing a secure and domestic semiconductor supply chain?

02:02Yeah, thank you for the question. Look, I want to be clear. It is a national security program.

02:07I say it all the time. There is no union requirement. There is no child care requirement,

02:12as we talked about earlier. My first phone call I took early this morning was with the CEO of TSMC

02:20to talk about workforce. Because as you say, every one of these companies is struggling to

02:24find enough workers. We believe if you're going to take taxpayer money, these people ought to

02:30have good jobs with decent wages, good working conditions, safe working conditions. And we

02:35believe if Americans in a facility want to unionize, they ought to be able to give them

02:42that opportunity. There is no such requirement. But what we are requiring is a workforce plan.

02:52And I stand by that requirement. We require every company to tell us what your plan is. How are you

02:57going to hire the workers? How are you going to attract women? How are you going to train people?

03:03And I think that that's just taxpayer protection. But fundamentally, I work very hard to make sure

03:08this is a national security priority and push back against any, you know, special interests,

03:16to use your words, who try to get us to veer from that national security objective.

03:21Well, I encourage you to make it very clear of that position to our president as well.

03:27The incentive is there for unionization, especially using the CHIPS Act. And I think that's

03:33a great concern to us. Let me move on. Since I listed all the spending bills enacted,

03:39won't that cause inflation to rise and have a harmful effect on small and medium-sized businesses

03:44who are struggling, not only in the area of workforce, but just staying alive?

03:51I don't think so. I mean, look, if anything, the fact that we don't make any semiconductor chips,

03:57leading-edge semiconductor chips in America, that's driving inflation. The fact that we buy

04:02them all from one company in Taiwan is a national security risk. And lack of supply drives inflation.

04:09These investments, whether it's in broadband, roads, bridges, water, they're investments. It's

04:15not profligate spending. I believe it'll make America stronger, able to outcompete the world,

04:21able to compete with China. And with respect to your issue, I can't speak to EV chargers and such,

04:29but there are cranes all over Arizona and Texas because of CHIPS plans. Can we go faster? I'm

04:37sure we can. I'm always trying to go faster, drive my team crazy. But we had a middle-mile

04:42ribbon-cutting this past Monday, putting money out the door to connect people to the internet.

04:47So I'll work with you to do more, go faster, be more transparent. But I don't think these

04:53are inflationary. I think it's what America needs to thrive. Thank you. My time has expired.

Tim Walberg Slams Raimondo And Biden Admin: You Sent Billions But ‘Few Projects Have Been Completed’

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