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American Made Advocacy: Batting .333: Great in Baseball, Not in Microelectronics

Some in Washington, D.C. have the misperception that the CHIPS Act is all we need to address serious supply chain challenges. Using a baseball analogy, investing only in semiconductors would be batting .333, a pretty good average. But this isn’t baseball. We need to bat 1.000 through legislation and policies to invest 100% of the technology stack, including printed circuit boards (PCBs) and IC substrates.

Created only three years ago, PCBAA has raised awareness in Congress, the Pentagon, the Commerce Department, the news media, and Washington think tanks. For example, working with IPC, we were successful in getting robust funding for the Defense Production Act (DPA) in the FY24 defense bill. During negotiations, the Senate wanted $393 million and the House $618 million. Fifty-four CEOs signed the joint letter from PCBAA and IPC asking Congressional leaders to select a higher number. They agreed to $587 million, which is a win for America’s printed circuit board industry.

Congress also directed the Secretary of Defense to use the DPA account to address domestic industrial base shortfalls for printed circuit boards.

Our excitement about this year’s success has been tempered by what we see in the FY25 bill. The budget for DPA was cut, and now there is zero for advanced packaging and PCBs in the DPA account for FY25. One of our key legislative priorities is to restore adequate funding. We recently sent another joint PCBAA/IPC letter to Congress signed by many of our member companies asking for $85 million to be restored for FY25. The DPA account is an important resource for our industry. Calumet and GreenSource were both beneficiaries of DPA funding, and we hope more member companies will receive funds in the years ahead.

Our legislative priorities go beyond the defense market, which is a small but important slice of our industry. PCBAA also represents the companies supporting our nation’s critical infrastructure. The Department of Defense recognizes the need for a domestic PCB industry, but we must broaden our outreach to the other agencies of government responsible for the security of critical infrastructure.

As our association grows—now approaching 60 members—our voice is stronger in Washington. We need other manufacturers, assemblers, and material providers to join PCBAA and increase our influence. This is why we spend a day on Capitol Hill during our annual meeting in June. Having face-to-face time with members of Congress and their staff helps us educate them on the importance of our industry and ask them to co-sponsor HR 3249, the Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates (PCBS) Act. By the way, the PCBS Act has a 25% tax incentive for OEMs to buy American, so we hope they will join us in supporting the bill and joining the association.

In the current political environment, I balance my optimism with patience. The CHIPS Act took more than four years to become law, driven by powerful industry associations that lobbied hard for their members. We believe our legislation deserves the same support, and we must never let up on our campaign to educate, advocate for, and support legislation that will bring PCB and substrate manufacturing back to America, leveling the global playing field and batting 1.000 for our industry.

This column originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of PCB007 Magazine.