Rep. French Hill (R-AR), the vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told Breitbart News that House Republicans could work to unleash America’s financial power to revitalize American manufacturing, unlike the Biden-Harris failed domestic industrial policy.
The Biden-Harris administration tried to revitalize high-tech manufacturing with the CHIPS Act. Essentially, the bill doles out $39 billion in grants to encourage semiconductor fabrication in the United States.
Despite the billions of dollars being doled out to enact the Biden-Harris industrial policy, the move has been largely a failure.
Matt Cole, the CEO of Strive Asset Management, and Chris Nicholson blamed much of the failure on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies attached to the CHIPS grants.
They wrote in the Hill:
But less than a week later, Intel announced that it’s putting the brakes on its Columbus factory. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has pushed back production at its second Arizona foundry. The remaining major chipmaker, Samsung, just delayed its first Texas fab.
This is not the way companies typically respond to multi-billion-dollar subsidies. So what explains chipmakers’ apparent ingratitude? In large part, frustration with DEI requirements embedded in the CHIPS Act.
Now, Rep. Hill, who is running to be chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that there is a much easier way than what he calls “European-style industrial policy” mandates such as the Biden-Harris method.
He said, “I think the supply side effect of making America more competitive is a much better approach than a European-style industrial policy mandate, which looks good on paper, but rarely produces the kind of broad economic expansion that people expect.”
Hill cited failed Obama-era policies such as the $35 million federal loan guarantee to failed solar power startup Solyndra.
Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney explained that capital requirements could be adjusted to encourage economically beneficial lending for oil and gas exploration, pipeline construction, or even high tech manufacturing.
Carney wrote:
Unlike direct subsidies, which often lead to waste because companies are spending taxpayer funds rather than their own, companies would still be on the hook for these loans, and banks would still be taking risks in hopes of profit. Free market principles would still direct investment, but with less drag from regulation for activities deemed central to our economic might and national security.”
Hill said that he supports opening up the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction, and the Export-Import Bank to boost manufacturing exports. He noted that there can be wide regulatory, tax and permitting reform to boost manufacturing and investment in capital-intensive areas such as high-tech manufacturing and nuclear power.
He explained, “I’d say on the supply side, is what you talked about, which is, what can we do using the tax code … [and] permitting, regulatory relief? And yes, take a look at, you know, anything in the banking sector that would limit investments in that space, I would say the best thing you could do would be end the war on energy lending through ending the ESG Gary Gensler SEC Climate report — that would go a long way to do it.”
In 2022, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler proposed a rule to require publicly traded companies to disclose climate action, greenhouse gas emissions, and the financial impacts of severe weather.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
