BUFFALO, N.Y. — For some time New York's U.S. Senator and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been touting the CHIPS and Science Act which he pushed through Congress.
It is designed to encourage semiconductor makers to build up their presence and make more of those miniature marvels here in the U.S. That will address supply chain concerns during the pandemic when it was pointed out that there were not enough computer chips to equip new cars, appliances, and other devices.
That is because most of the suppliers in Asia were then affected by COVID.
There are also lingering national security concerns as the chips are used in U.S. military weapons and equipment.
2 On Your Side observed part of the Senator's upstate victory lap on Tuesday. It was formally announced by the U.S. Commerce Department that the joint bid from Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse for a Tech Hub in support of the suburban Syracuse Micron plant had been selected for a 40 Million dollar award in taxpayer funding.
Schumer proudly told the assembled crowd of politicians, business, and education leaders on Tuesday "The I-90 Corridor to become America's Semiconductor Superhighway."
That is a new Thruway designation from Senator Schumer. He again proclaimed the taxpayer-supported federal funding to develop a regional upstate New York effort to blend the Buffalo, Rochester, and of course, Syracuse area colleges and businesses to augment the massive Micron project.
There were some talkin' proud comments once again.
Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Dottie Gallagher helped spearhead the regional effort in collaboration with her counterparts from Rochester and Syracuse. She said "Together we are better and together we are stronger and this proves it. And upstate matters."
Schumer once again pointed out "We all know that we lost manufacturing years ago. This award is to make sure that Buffalo and upstate New York build America's future."
To do that though, as President Biden previously announced in April, the U.S. had to commit 6.1 Billion dollars and the state of New York another $5 Billion to get Micron to come to Central New York. Micron is also expanding in its Boise, Idaho home base.
Now a projected 20,000 members and perhaps more upstate workforce are to be trained to work at Micron.CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told CNBC in an April interview that the educational institutions were a drawing card for his company. "The region has - New York state has a strong university eco-system as well. Junior colleges, SUNY, and prestigious institutions as well."
Schumer picked up that point noting "Give these workers with tremendous skills just the knowledge they need to know to work in all these new industries - the tech industries and supplier industries."
An industry supplier would be for example the SoPark Corporation in Lackawanna which makes electronic components. The SoPark CEO and President Rupa Shanmugam said of her firm "It's a small company. SoPark. We do have a lot of talent and this will not only help us grow the talent internally but also help create more jobs for companies like SoPark."
Schumer says about 400 communities across the U.S. competed for these CHIPS Act awards and that upstate New York including Buffalo was one of only 12 to snag one. Of course, it does not hurt to have the U.S. Senate Majority Leader on your team.