BIS 'Grappling' With Chip Shortage's 'Lack of Transparency'
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is “very busy” working to implement semiconductor supply chain recommendations from the White House in June stemming from President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order on the chips shortage and other supply-chain…
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issues, said Sahar Hafeez, a senior BIS adviser. The agency is studying closer federal collaboration with industry on semiconductor demand and supply and is reviewing how export controls and investment restrictions might exacerbate supply-chain problems, Hafeez told an Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday. Perhaps the most immediate priority for Commerce is pushing Congress to pass and fund the Chips Act, she said. The bill, which would provide funding and incentives for U.S. semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, has been funded by the Senate but hasn't been approved in the House (see 2107220005). “We're laser focused on the House, and we encourage you all to help us get that across the finish line,” Hafeez told the ISTAC. She said Commerce is “cautiously optimistic” the House will approve funding. Though the global chip shortage has persisted for months, it still remains unclear to BIS which chips are most severely affected, Hafeez said. She said “mature node chips” are being “severely impacted,” but the shortage is affecting newer nodes as well, she said: “We've been trying to get more clarity. I don't know if it exists, That's an issue that we're grappling with -- the lack of transparency.”