(CNN) President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed off on a bill aimed at boosting US chip manufacturing as the start of a winning cycle begins to celebrate a string of victories in Washington.
CHIPS and Science will invest more than $200 billion over the next five years in an effort to help the United States regain its leading position in manufacturing semiconductor chips. It aims to lower the cost of goods, making the United States less dependent on foreign manufacturing and easing supply chain disruptions in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden described the law on Tuesday as "a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself."
"Today America advances and delivers, and I believe God is faithful 50, 75, 100 years from now people who will remember this week will know we met at this moment," Biden said at yesterday's event. The White House on the South Lawn.
The president, who recently came out of isolation after a rebound of Covid-19, coughed throughout his speech.
The event was attended by union leaders, industry executives from companies such as HP and Intel, congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle, and elected officials at the state level. Also speaking at the event were Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
According to the White House, this week the companies announced an estimated $50 billion in additional investment in US semiconductor manufacturing as a result of recently passed legislation.
"Micron announces $40 billion investment in memory chip manufacturing, critical for computers and electronic devices, which will create up to 40,000 new jobs" in construction and manufacturing, says the White House fact sheet. "This investment alone will raise the US market share of memory chip production from 2 percent to 10 percent."
In addition, Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries are announcing a new partnership involving $4.2 billion to manufacture chips.
Later in the day, Biden will sign the ratification for Sweden and Finland to join NATO. The addition of the two traditionally neutral countries to the alliance represented a major foreign policy achievement for Biden during a trip to Europe for summits in June.
And on Wednesday, the President will sign Sgt. Heath Robinson First Class to fulfill our promises to address the Comprehensive Poisons Act (PACT) of 2022 into law. The legislation extends health care benefits to the millions of veterans exposed to toxic burns during their military service.
The bill broadly expands health care resources and benefits for those at risk of scalding and could provide coverage for up to 3.5 million eligible veterans.
It adds conditions related to pit burns and exposure to toxins, including high blood pressure, to the list of illnesses the Department of Veterans Affairs has had or worsened during military service. Biden has long speculated that burns played a role in the cancer that killed his son, Beau, in 2015.
The law's signatures — along with other related accomplishments such as the recent targeted killing of Osama bin Laden's successor and continued low gas prices — amount to the possibility that Biden will get a boost before the midterms Democrats had been hoping for.
With the 2022 midterm elections less than 100 days away, and with Americans growing discontent during a summer of major economic and political changes, Biden's political standing among the public has declined.
A CNN poll, released in mid-July, found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans said Biden had not paid enough attention to the nation's most pressing problems. The president's approval rating in the poll was 38%. And at the end of July, another CNN poll found that 75% of Democratic and Democratic voters want the party to nominate someone other than Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
The events come after the president was impeached in the White House while dealing with a rebound case of Covid-19. Biden, who is at increased risk of developing a more serious case of Covid-19 due to his age, was cleared out of isolation Sunday after a second negative Covid-19 test.
Before the end of the month, Biden may have some other major opportunities for political victories.
Biden faces the real prospect of soon signing the Inflation Reduction Act — a version of his landmark bill on climate change and health care.
The sweeping bill passed in the Senate along partisan lines and is expected to be voted on by the House of Representatives later this week.
The legislation would mark the largest climate investment in US history and make major changes to health policy by giving Medicare the power for the first time to negotiate prices for some prescription drugs and extending expired health care subsidies for three years.
The legislation would reduce the deficit, pay for it with new taxes — including a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and a 1% tax on share buybacks — and strengthen the Internal Revenue Service's collection capacity.
It will raise more than $700 billion in government revenue over 10 years and spend more than $430 billion to reduce carbon emissions, extend benefits for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and use the rest of the new revenue to reduce the deficit.
Before the end of the month, the president will also have to decide whether to extend the patience of the nation's ongoing comprehensive federal student loan.
The president is also considering the possibility of canceling some student loans. It's an issue sharply divided between party and generational lines, but it could prove to be another political boon among some voters as the country continues to grapple with inflation that raises the cost of everyday goods and services.