Casten Calls for Stronger Taxpayer Protections in CHIPS Funding
Washington D.C. (September 19th, 2023) - Today during the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing entitled Chips on the Table: A one year review of the CHIPS and Science Act, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) questioned U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on the strength of taxpayer protections in disbursement of CHIPS funds.
Watch the full questioning here.
??“CHIPS funds should not create windfalls for companies that receive them,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “I have long urged the Department of Commerce to use its full authority to prevent CHIPS recipients from misusing taxpayer dollars by directly or indirectly funding buybacks and other shareholder distributions. I’m concerned that there is not a prerequisite for companies to make a no-buybacks commitment. This raises the possibility that these companies are getting money through CHIPS that don’t need it, displacing private capital and creating wealth transfers from taxpayers to shareholders.”
“Companies need to prove to us that they actually need their money,” said Secretary Raimondo. “My number one job is to hit national security goals, also to protect taxpayer money, and most importantly to do what the statute says. It is true that we have a preference for companies that won’t do buybacks.”
Casten has led the call for ensuring that strong guardrails are in place to protect taxpayers’ investment in strengthening our domestic semiconductor and technology manufacturing and that these funds are not used to enrich corporations and their executives. In June 2022, Casten and Senators Warren and Sanders sent a letter to congressional conferees stressing the importance of strong guardrails to ensure that funding for the CHIPS Act is invested in workers and communities as intended, instead of enriching corporate executives. Casten and Warren followed this with letters urging the Department of Commerce to prevent stock buybacks in October 2022 and February 2023.
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