If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
That’s one of the reasons why, in his State of the Union address, President Biden’s praise for an emerging manufacturing renaissance was so welcome. He said, “If we invent it here, we should also make it in America.”
He sounded a lot like a microelectronics CEO.
Two decades ago, the United States had more than 2,000 companies designing and manufacturing printed circuit boards to satisfy 30% of the global demand. Today that number is less than 150 companies, representing only 4% of PCB production.
A refreshed bill from Reps. Blake Moore (R-UT-1) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA-16) aims to address this atrophy with direct government funding and tax credits that will make American printed circuit boards cost competitive with foreign sources.
Next month, the PCBAA will gather in Washington to meet with lawmakers and lobby directly for this important legislation. This conference is the culmination of a multifaceted campaign we have been leading for more than two years.
There is no substitute to for in-person advocacy, and here’s why we’re taking our fight to the halls of Congress:
Some might argue that in our new “virtual” work environment, the need to show up is out of fashion, but I strongly disagree. Sitting across the table, shaking hands, telling the story; there is no replacing that kind of connection and the results it can bring.
If anyone still doubts the value of direct engagement with lawmakers, you need only look to the CHIPS Act. Far from a safe bet when it was first proposed, the CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) Act took nearly three years to go from an idea to signature by the President. During those three years our colleagues in the semiconductor industry worked tirelessly in Washington to make it happen.
That understanding led to nearly $52 billion in government investment and more than $400 billion in private funds that followed the government’s strong signal.
Now it is time to finish the job.
It took almost three decades to shrink our PCB manufacturing base. We’re not going to reverse that trend overnight, but we must act. Now is the time to sit with our elected officials and explain that “chips don’t float.” A truly secure, robust, and resilient supply chain includes semiconductors, substrates, and printed circuit boards manufactured in America.
We owe it to our shareholders, employees, and customers to make this vision a reality. That’s why I am going to Washington, D.C., next month. If you care about American manufacturing, I hope you will join us.
This column originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine.
06-06-2023
If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. That’s one of the reasons, in his State of the Union address, President Biden's praise for an emerging manufacturing renaissance was so welcome. He said, “If we invent it here, we should also make it in America.” He sounded a lot like a microelectronics CEO.
View Story05-11-2023
David Schild recently became executive director of PCBAA and shares some of this thoughts here about the association and its role in moving legislation forward that will benefit the printed circuit board industry. David acknowledges that the CHIPS Act is a great start toward making our supply chains more resilient, but more work is to be done.
View Story03-28-2023
I was pleased to see that President Biden mentioned the CHIPS Act during the State of the Union Address this year. That bill succeeded because lawmakers saw semiconductor manufacturing as a pressing national level issue. The CHIPS Act is a great first step in restoring one aspect of high-tech American manufacturing. What is missing from the dialogue in Washington is the rest of the microelectronics ecosystem.
View Story03-08-2023
Recently, hundreds of thousands gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, where amazing new tech was rolled out—everything from razor-thin TVs to smart robots that clean your home. As an executive in the materials science space, I was struck not just by the pace of innovation, but also by the incredibly complex supply chains that were necessary to bring those products from the drawing board to reality.
View Story01-10-2023
Woven into almost every economic story these days is “reshoring,” a word most Americans had never heard just 18 months ago. For decades, market pressures and foreign subsidies drove manufacturing of everything from socks to semiconductors overseas. Policymakers and economists called this “offshoring.” This shift was the natural consequence of an increasingly interconnected world, new trade agreements, and a period of unprecedented global peace and security. Consumers reaped the benefits of offshoring in the form of inexpensive goods. But, as the COVID-19 pandemic made clear, we paid a price for sending the production of critical technologies overseas.
View Story12-02-2022
Regardless of what emerges from the 2022 mid-term elections, we know that on Jan. 3, 2023, the 118th Congress will be seated and begin their work. The ongoing effort to build secure and resilient supply chains will be front and center on their agenda. On the heels of everything that has been done to invest in semiconductor reshoring, some might ask why further action is needed.
View Story11-07-2022
Now that the much-heralded CHIPS and Science Act has been signed into law, the work to secure the entire microelectronics ecosystem must begin. We have a long way to go in restoring balance and resilience in our critical supply chains. Over the past 20 years we have let the manufacturing and the know-how that goes with it migrate overseas. U.S. dependance on foreign suppliers won’t be reversed overnight, even by building semiconductor fabrication plants here.
View Story05-17-2022
It’s been more than 800 days since the global COVID-19 pandemic upended the supply chains of almost every industry. Whether it’s a shortage of commercial and consumer electronics or automobiles, businesses and their customers are bearing the brunt of what decades of offshoring and billions in foreign manufacturing subsidies have caused. One sector that sometimes escapes the attention of everyday Americans is aerospace and defense, where high-tech platforms and equipment are essential to mission success.
View Story03-22-2022
Like many of you, I’ve spent the last few years grappling with the challenges posed by a global pandemic. Whether it’s staffing a production line or obtaining key materials, PCB manufacturers and their suppliers have had to adapt quickly to a radically changed environment. We’re more than 700 days into this new world, but as an industry, we cannot allow our day-to-day focus on operations to distract us from what is happening in Washington and what it means to the microelectronics ecosystem.
View Story01-24-2022
I-Connect007 welcomes new columnist Travis Kelly, president of Isola Group and now chairman of the newly formed Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA). This organization was formed to address to the U.S. Congress the critical supply chain issues facing the printed circuit board and semiconductor industries. It has three major objectives: To support domestic production of PCBs, enhance domestic supply chain security, and advocate for initiatives that create fair market conditions. Kelly is currently leading PCBAA, comprised of several domestic PCB fabricators with a vested interest in lobbying Congress on these important issues.
View Story
