Department of Commerce

The Commerce Department is hard at work. Thanks to major investments like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the CHIPS and Science Act, and your support through the appropriations process, the Commerce Department is making substantial progress on some of our nation’s most pressing economic and national security priorities, including those related to our supply chains, manufacturing, innovation, and workforce. The Department must maintain sufficient oversight of the grants it makes.

I’d like to talk about the incredible opportunity we have as a nation to unleash the next generation of American innovation, protect our national security, and preserve our global economic competitiveness as we implement the historic CHIPS and Science Act....Today, because of President Biden’s leadership, working with Congress, the CHIPS and Science Act presents us with an opportunity to make investments that are similarly consequential for our nation’s future. But only if we--as a nation—unite behind a shared objective, generate a similar public-private mobilization and think boldly.

The United States and our allies are in a high-stakes technology competition with authoritarian adversaries. How this competition plays out will profoundly shape our economic security – our ability to innovate, grow exports, create jobs of the future, and provide opportunities to all our people. It will also shape our national security – our ability to protect our advantages while preserving our freedoms and democratic values at home and abroad.