In the News
Richmond Times Dispatch: Under threat in Washington, an obscure fund has a big Va. impact
Mar 24 2025
Under threat in Washington, an obscure fund has a big Va. impact
By Dave Ress
In Richmond Times Dispatch
A federal program that steers private funds into projects in overlooked communities — like the $20,000 line of credit that a Richmond restaurant used to launch a frozen foods line — is on President Donald Trump’s chopping block.
The program, the Treasury Department‘s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, has helped lenders venture into places like Petersburg, South Richmond, Amherst County and Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore in order to develop housing or offer small businesses the kind of credit, and advice, that can be hard to find through traditional private sector channels.
A March 14 Trump executive order, titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” called on Treasury to justify the fund’s cost. The fund had hoped to generate billions of dollars of private sector investment this year in communities that often miss out by leveraging $348 million in grants.
The program works by backing lenders that specialize in going to lower-income communities.
These Community Development Financial Institutions operate at a different scale and at different stages in a business’s life than traditional lenders do. They can tap resources that most lenders can’t, such as grants and tax credits available for underserved communities and businesses.
In Virginia, between 2010 and 2021, CDFIs made 10,767 loans for a total of $1.8 billion, according to the Virginia CDFI Coalition’s last survey.
Those loans created 13,837 permanent jobs and 1,766 education and child care slots. Virginia CDFIs financed 1,545 microenterprises and small businesses and 14,783 affordable housing units.
Leah Fremouw, president of the Virginia CDFI Coalition, said: “We might have someone come in who’s not quite ready, won’t be for another six months — they need to file taxes or do their financial numbers — and we can help, where a lender would say ‘you’re not ready, got to move on to the next borrower.”
The $20,000 line of credit that the family operating that Richmond restaurant tapped, for instance, would be small for many banks, Fremouw said.
And a bank loan officer might not have used some of the same tests of business acumen that Fremouw did.
“I tasted their food, and I loved their cooking,” she said.
Trump’s executive order called on Treasury to cut back CDFI Fund operations, but provided no details.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says cuts to the program do not make sense. He has long believed in government and private sector partnerships as a way to bring capital to underserved communities. During his term as governor from 2002 to 2006, he set up Virginia Community Capital, a CDFI that has grown into a network of community funders, led by Locus Bank.
“What’s not to like?” Warner said in a phone interview as he finished lining up a bipartisan, 23-senator letter urging the Trump administration not to cut the program. With 10 Republicans joining 13 Democrats, Warner said he thinks it might be the biggest, most bipartisan request to slow down a potential Trump administration spending cut.
“This is really a quintessentially Republican idea: getting entrepreneurs to make things better,” he said. He recalled one typical example of a Petersburg family that secured small, short-term financing to expand their neighborhood child care center.
That family was not alone.
Petersburg-based Peoples Advantage Federal Credit Union tapped the fund to get into a kind of lending — credits for small businesses — that has not been typical for member-owned credit unions.
“It’s about preserving businesses, protecting jobs, and ensuring vital community services thrive,” said Amanda Habansky, president and CEO of Peoples Advantage.
Over the past three years, Peoples Advantage has issued more than $50 million in loans to people earning less than 80% of the area’s median income, including loans to launch small businesses or to help borrowers become first-generation homeowners.
Habansky said CDFI backing helped the credit union step in to aid an adult day care center, set up by a nurse who invested her savings in the venture. The nurse became convinced there was a big need after she searched for care for her aging mother while she was at work.
Two years of hard work turned her idea into a safe, supportive space for several families.
Then the pandemic hit, and the financial strain of getting back to normal was too much — “without immediate funding, the center faced closure, jeopardizing five full-time jobs and a crucial community resource,” Habansky said.
“Peoples Advantage stepped in, providing a loan for operating capital along with hands-on business coaching,” she said. “The results were immediate, within two months, enrollment surged by 300%, surpassing projections and securing the organization’s future.”
The Locus network that Warner’s initiative launched, meanwhile, pulled together $24 million from 27 different sources, including the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the city of Richmond, Henrico County and grants from individuals, companies and foundations for the 86-unit Cool Lane Commons supportive housing community.
Technical assistance, along with a $50,000 grant from the Virginia Fresh Food Loan Fund, which is supported by grants from the CDFI Fund and is managed by Locus, as well as a loan from Locus Bank, paid for improvements at the only grocery serving Surry and Sussex counties.
The result has been 47 jobs and a store that offers a 50% discount on fresh produce for customers who have a debit card for their food stamp purchases.
Transforming neglected places
CDFI-supported financing can spark long-term transformations in long neglected places, said Dave McCormack, a Petersburg-based developer. He specializes in projects that bring derelict or blighted buildings back to life.
“There’s a lot of sweat equity that goes into these projects, all the more in small communities which haven’t seen development in years or decades and there isn’t a proven quote market unquote for what we’re doing,” he said.
“This creates a very challenging atmosphere for banks, for appraisers and for the local constituency, who are deeply skeptical of any type of development. This in turn makes lending extraordinarily difficult — which is where CDFIs come in,” McCormack said.
They come in by seeing possibilities in a project that traditional lenders miss, he said.
“It’s really the view about risk that’s critical, not the technical advice,” McCormack said. “We are seasoned developers, trying to fill a housing need that market studies have a hard time encapsulating in areas where there is no hard data. Oftentimes, a market study will confidently state that there is no market for what we want to do, which creates a bad cycle and lack of critical investment.”
McCormack worked with CDFIs to finance a $2.5 million project to turn the old Cape Charles High School in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore into a 17-unit apartment building, easing a financial burden the aging building was imposing on the town.
But the impact was bigger than easing a budget strain, or housing 17 families.
“In Cape Charles, that area took off after the blighted building was renovated,” he said. “In Amherst, our Phelps Road development created the market that allowed new construction to happen in Madison Heights,” across the James River from Lynchburg, where a $7 million project converted the century-old Phelps School, empty since it closed in 1991, into a 41-unit apartment complex.
Studio Two Three
Locus Impact, one of the CDFI lenders that grew out of Warner’s Virginia Community Capital group, pulled together the package of resources that got Studio Two Three, a Manchester community arts space and print shop, into its home on West 15th Street in Richmond.
Studio Two Three Winter Market
Last December, Studio Two Three’s Winter Market enabled customers to shop for artwork, clothing, housewares and jewelry from hundreds of local artists, brands and crafters all in one spot.
That package included a $1.4 million mortgage from Locus, a tax credit-based construction loan from the Virginia Community Development Fund (VCDF), and bridge funding for operational expenses during renovations and relocation from Bridging Virginia, a CDFI loan fund.
“Despite being a 13-plus-year-old organization with broad, demonstrated community impact, traditional banks were not willing to provide us a mortgage due to our size and nonprofit status,” said Ashley Hawkins, Studio Two Three’s executive director.
Since opening its doors at West 15th Street in November 2023, Studio Two Three has hosted more than 20,000 Richmonders at public events ranging from its twice-monthly square dances to film screenings, civic meetings, union organizing efforts, clothing swaps, mutual aid drives and food distribution as well as local business alliance meetings, she said.
“In 2023 and 2024, we hosted our annual monthlong Winter Market in our events space, which generated $750,000 in direct revenue for 200 local artists,” she said. “We were able to hire a fourth full-time staff person in 2024 as a result of increased programming and community impact in our new building.”
Nationwide, CDFIs provide affordable loans and investments to more than 100,000 small businesses and finance more than $100 billion of new residential housing and affordable home mortgages, the senators signing on to Warner’s letter told U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
They said that for every dollar lenders tap from the Treasury’s CDFI fund, they deploy $8 of private sector funds.
“More distressed communities are being served by CDFIs than ever before, more first-time buyers are receiving the financing they need to purchase a home, more community facilities are being built, and more commercial loans are reaching entrepreneurs,” the senators’ letter said.
By Jonathan Hunley
In Fredericksburg Free Press
Ashley Ranalli didn’t clap.
While most everyone around her applauded Tuesday night at President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress, Ranalli stood and instead held photos of her colleagues Avery Lentz, Helen Dhue and Maddie Hollis.
The 41-year-old Ranalli and her friends are among an estimated 1,000-plus National Park Service workers who were fired recently due to their “probationary” employment status. Ranalli received word Feb. 14. A happy Valentine’s Day it wasn’t.
The layoffs were part of cuts made by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner invited Ranalli, a former park ranger at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, to Washington for the president’s address to lawmakers.
Warner, a Democrat and former Virginia governor, said he wanted Trump to look into the audience at the U.S. Capitol and see someone “affected by his short-sighted and reckless choices.”
A long career path
Ranalli, a Fredericksburg resident, was living her dream as a national park ranger.
It had taken her five years to get there. She had previously worked as public school English teacher who spent her summers working as a seasonal employee for the Park Service to gain valuable experience. But then, in the fall, she was hired as a full-time volunteer and youth program coordinator at the Fredericksburg operation.
“It genuinely was like a perfect job for me,” Ranalli said Wednesday.
She was good at her work, too. A recent performance review described her efforts as “excellent” and “outstanding,” and noted that she “goes the extra mile.”
However, that didn’t prevent a layoff notice from the Department of the Interior.
Now, Ranalli is a survivor of thyroid cancer who has no health insurance.
Warner’s office noted Monday that, while the Trump administration has declined to make public the scope of the Park Service cuts, the National Parks Conservation Association estimates that in a period of just weeks, 9 percent of NPS staff have been lost to mass firings and resignations, adding to hundreds of vacant positions that can’t be filled due to a hiring freeze.
So, Ranalli’s immediate task was to represent her fired peers in D.C. at Trump’s speech.
That ended up being not so simple. She and her partner, Ryan, had to wait through two and a half hours of Interstate 95 traffic after an OmniRide commuter bus caught on fire.
Once they arrived in the capital, Ranalli had to race to appear at a press conference with Senate Democrats. She said her cheeks turned red because she had to sprint there.
She was dressed to make a statement, however. She wanted her appearance to symbolize being a ranger because, well, she couldn’t wear her uniform.
Her outfit took a bit of work to put together. She had gone to downtown Fredericksburg and told her story to small business owners, who gave her recommendations on how to look the best while shopping with local companies.
Her clothes came from Blue Hour Vintage in downtown Fredericksburg. Her makeup was applied by Spotsylvania County artist Heather Thitsone, and her hair was done by BobbyPins & Blush in Central Park.
“I wanted just to be a representative of my town,” Ranalli said. “It is not just me that’s affected by this. The community’s affected by these job losses.”
Looking good wasn’t easy to pay for, though. She had to use money borrowed from Ryan’s family because funds are hard to come by these days.
A capital affair
Ranalli was nervous speaking at the press conference, too, which was an experience she wasn’t used to.
“I mostly talk about people from 1864,” she said.
Some help from political veterans got her through her short oration. Warner held the ranger’s hat she brought, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former presidential candidate, moved the microphone for her so it would be positioned correctly.
Later, when Ranalli got to the House of Representatives gallery, she ended up sitting not far from Elon Musk, the billionaire behind DOGE.
She watched Trump’s speech, faithfully clutching her friends’ pictures while seemingly surrounded by the president’s supporters.
Then she and Ryan went home late Tuesday night. I-95 traffic was light on the way back.
What’s next for Ranalli? She’s hoping to work as a long-term substitute teacher in Louisa County, where she was employed in the past. But that would be only a temporary gig.
The federal worker layoffs just seem dystopian to her. She wants to know: Where is the adult in the room?
“I did the American dream, right?” she said of landing her former job. “I worked really hard. And I got noticed — among very young candidates who are all like pedigreed people. I worked for this. I earned this.”
And now it’s gone.
###
CBS19 News: Warner criticizes Trump’s tariffs
Feb 02 2025
Warner criticizes Trump's tariffs
On CBS19 News
Thirteen days into President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, U.S. Senator Mark Warner is raising concerns about the impact of the administration’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada, particularly on grocery prices.
Warner emphasized that these tariffs will ultimately burden consumers and affect industries across Virginia, including local wineries.
“The wine industry, where we are growing rapidly in Virginia, those folks are going to get socked as well. So remember, Donald Trump got hired saying he was going to lower grocery prices, right? Two weeks in, he's doing something that's going to do the absolute opposite,” Warner said.
With the Super Bowl just days away, Warner pointed out that the cost of game-day staples like avocados, tomatoes, and beer imported from Mexico is already rising. He called it “the Donald Trump Super Bowl tax.”
By: Kaia Hubbard
On CBS Face the Nation
Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Sunday that President Trump's decision to remove security protection for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley is "all about retribution."
"This is all about retribution, and he's putting people's lives in danger, which is just unbelievable," Warner said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."
Since Mr. Trump took office last month, his administration has revoked the federal security details of Pompeo and Milley, along with former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, former Trump special envoy on Iran Brian Hook and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who formerly served alongside Warner on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said when asked about Pompeo on Megyn Kelly's podcast last week that Mr. Trump has the authority to make the decisions, noting that there's a "process that exists for assessing threat versus cost."
Diplomatic security protection for a number of former officials were repeatedly renewed during the Biden administration amid ongoing threats from the Iranian regime against officials who had served during Mr. Trump's first administration, CBS News has previously reported.
Asked Sunday whether the Iranian threat to assassinate former U.S. officials had gone away, Warner, now the Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman, said he has "seen no intelligence that would indicate that that threat has been diminished." And he stressed that he and his now-partner on the committee, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have "seen nothing to indicate less threat."
"I wish more people would stand up," Warner added.
POLITICO: Sen. Mark Warner warns of ramifications for Trump’s FBI and Justice Department firings
Feb 02 2025
Sen. Mark Warner warns of ramifications for Trump’s FBI and Justice Department firings
By Amanda Friedman
In POLITICO
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on Sunday that the Trump administration’s recent firings and probes into the Department of Justice and the FBI could have serious consequences.
“Well, if you were suddenly taking out the most experienced folks at Justice or at the FBI, how does that make us stronger?” Warner said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Over the last week, the Trump administration has launched probes into the FBI and the Department of Justice — which President Donald Trump pledged to do if elected. The targeting has resulted in the ousting of dozens of officials.
The Justice Department fired more than a dozen prosecutors last week who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump. On Friday, the Justice Department fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on cases related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Also on Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the dismissal of eight senior FBI executives and directed the FBI to provide a list of all current and former FBI employees who worked Jan. 6 cases by noon Tuesday.
Warner said he’s been told that “almost half of all the FBI agents” had some involvement in the cases. He expressed concern about implications the major shake-ups could have on the country’s cybersecurity, the fentanyl crisis and crime investigations with the loss of long-standing officials within both agencies.
“This would be devastating,” he said.
Warner: ‘I will definitely be voting against’ Gabbard
By Rebecca Beitsch
In The Hill
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said late Thursday he would not support Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence after she refused to condemn National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
Speaking with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, Warner expressed concern that Gabbard during her Thursday hearing repeatedly refused to label Snowden a traitor after he leaked thousands of classified documents and fled to Russia.
“We get about half our intelligence from our allies around the world. There’s no requirement that they share that with us. They share that on trust. If this individual can’t say Edward Snowden, who shared our secrets and other secrets, is a traitor, will these other countries, our Five Eye partners, partners around the world — will Israel’s Mossad share that information with us on an ongoing basis? That will make us weaker if they don’t share that,” Warner said, referencing the Israeli intelligence unit and the intelligence alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.
“If you’re not willing to stand up for them, if you’re not willing to send out a signal — this role of director of national intelligence, you’ve got 18 agencies, $100 billion. If you’re not willing to call out Edward Snowden as a traitor, you shouldn’t have that job.”
Warner said he was “happy to tell you and your audience tonight that I will definitely be voting against Ms. Gabbard.”
Her refusal was also viewed as a fumble by those in the GOP, casting doubt on whether her nomination will advance.
Privately, Gabbard had sought to assuage senators about her views on Snowden.
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But a key moment during Gabbard’s hearing came when Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked whether she views Snowden as a “traitor,” advising her that members of the Intelligence panel would feel a lot better about her nomination if she would do so.
Instead, Gabbard sidestepped two questions about whether Snowden betrayed the nation, telling lawmakers she is “focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,” referring to Snowden’s theft of secret documents.
At another point in the hearing, Gabbard said Snowden “broke the law,” a phrase she repeated throughout Thursday’s hearing, but then quickly pivoted to talk about “my focus on the future.”
Lankford said it should have been an “easy question” to say it’s “universally accepted when you steal a million pages of top-secret documents and you hand it to the Russians, that’s a traitorous act.”
FOX News: Top Senate Intelligence Dem grills Gabbard if Edward Snowden is 'brave': 'Very troubling'
Jan 30 2025
Top Senate Intelligence Dem grills Gabbard if Edward Snowden is 'brave': 'Very troubling'
By: Emma Colton
On Fox News
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, grilled President Donald Trump's DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard over her previous remarks praising whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"Until you are nominated by the president to be the DNI, you consistently praised the actions of Edward Snowden, someone, I believe, jeopardized the security of our nation and then, to flaunt that, fled to Russia," Warner asked of Gabbard on Thursday morning.
"You even called Edward Snowden and I quote here, ‘a brave whistleblower.’ Every member of this committee supports the rights of legal whistleblowers. But Edward Snowden isn't a whistleblower, and in this case, I'm a lot closer to the chairman's words where he said Snowden is, quote, ‘an egotistical serial liar and traitor' who, quote, ‘deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life.’ Ms. Gabbard is simple, yes or no question. Do you still think Edward Snowden is brave?"
Gabbard pushed back that Snowden "broke the law" and does not agree with his leak of intelligence.
"Mr. Vice Chairman, Edward Snowden broke the law. I do not agree with or support with all of the information and intelligence that he released, nor the way in which he did it. There would have been opportunities for him to come to you on this committee, or seek out the IG to release that information. The fact is, he also, even as he broke the law, released information that exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government," Gabbard responded.
In 2013, Snowden was working as an IT contractor for the National Security Agency when he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with three journalists and transferred to them thousands of pages of classified documents about the U.S. government’s surveillance of its citizens.
"I'm making myself very clear. Edward Snowden broke the law. He released information about the United States government," Gabbard continued as she defended her position.
"If I may just finish my thoughts, Senator," Gabbard continued, as Warner spoke over her. "In this role that I've been nominated for, if confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will be responsible for protecting our nation's secrets. And I have four immediate steps that I would take to prevent another Snowden-like leak."
Gabbard has previously lauded Snowden, including during an appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast in 2019.
"If it wasn’t for Snowden, the American people would never have learned the NSA was collecting phone records and spying on Americans," she said on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast at the time.
Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning as part of her confirmation process to serve as the second Trump administration's director of national intelligence.
Washington Examiner: Sen. Mark Warner says fed workers shouldn’t trust Trump to live up to buyout offer
Jan 29 2025
Sen. Mark Warner says fed workers shouldn’t trust Trump to live up to buyout offer
By Tom Howell Jr.
Washington Times
Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia warned federal employees on Wednesday to “think twice” before accepting an unprecedented White House buyout offer that allows workers who resign by Feb. 6 to receive severance paid through Sept. 30.
Mr. Warner, a Democrat, said President Trump has a poor track record of paying people and living up to promises.
“Think twice. Has this individual in his business world ever fulfilled his contracts or obligations to any workers in the past?” he said during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee that featured Health Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mr. Trump is offering all 2 million federal workers eight months’ salary in exchange for resigning from their positions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said American taxpayers deserve federal employees “who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers.”
Mr. Warner, during an exchange with Mr. Kennedy over plans to eliminate over 2,000 jobs from HHS, urged federal workers to be skeptical. The senator struggled to get Mr. Kennedy to pinpoint who, exactly, would be fired and from which agencies within the department.
“I will commit to not firing anybody who is doing their job,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“Based on your opinion, or your political agenda or Mr. Trump’s political agenda?” Mr. Warner asked.
“Based upon my opinion,” Mr. Kennedy replied.
“I guess that means any folks who’ve had any type of views on vaccines will be out of work,” Mr. Warner said.
Mr. Warner is echoing his fellow Democratic senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, who said Mr. Trump does not have the authority to offer a buyout.
“Don’t be fooled by this guy,” Mr. Kaine said on the Senate floor late Tuesday. “He’s tricked hundreds of people with that offer. If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you.”
Mr. Warner and Mr. Kaine represent a state with many federal workers who live in the Beltway region.
13NewsNow: Virginia Sen. Warner grills RFK Jr. on mass firings and lack of healthcare plan
Jan 29 2025
Virginia Sen. Warner grills RFK Jr. on mass firings and lack of healthcare plan
By Kathleen Lundy
In 13NewsNow
In a tense Senate confirmation hearing, Virginia Senator Mark Warner confronted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his stance on Medicaid and proposed mass layoffs as the nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
Throughout the exchange, Warner repeatedly challenged RFK Jr. on his preparedness for the role, accusing him of offering vague responses and refusing to commit to protecting key federal healthcare programs.
One of Warner’s sharpest critiques centered on Kennedy’s proposal to eliminate thousands of positions at HHS and the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. Pressing the nominee on his plans, Warner asked, "You've said publicly you want to immediately get rid of 600 NIH workers. When we had our meeting, you said you actually would like to get rid of 2,200 people from HHS. Which offices are you going to start cutting from?"
RFK Jr. largely avoided specifics, instead pointing to broader staffing changes under previous administrations. Warner pushed further, demanding a direct answer on whether Kennedy would fire federal employees responsible for food safety. "Will you pledge that you will not fire federal employees who work on food safety, work on trying to prevent things like salmonella?"
Kennedy responded, "Senator, there’s 91,000 employees."
Warner shot back, "I'm gonna take that as a no. We actually talked about protecting Americans from cyber criminals, something we need to do a lot more on. Will you commit not to fire anyone in the health arena who currently works on protecting Americans from cyberattacks in their healthcare files?"
Kennedy stated, "I will commit to not firing anybody who's doing their job."
Warner also raised concerns about the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to shrink the federal government, specifically addressing an offer for voluntary buyouts for federal employees.
He cautioned workers to think carefully before accepting such offers, questioning Trump's track record.
"I would say to any federal employees, think twice," Warner said. "Has this individual in his business world ever fulfilled his contracts or obligations to any workers in the past?"
The exchange underscored a fundamental divide over the future of healthcare policy and federal oversight, with Warner portraying Kennedy as unprepared for the role and unwilling to guarantee protections for critical public health initiatives.
Mark Warner Prevails Over Partisanship with Computer Chips
by Daily Progress Staff
in The Daily Progress
Congratulations to Virginia U.S. Sen. Mark Warner for stubbornly pushing a computer chip manufacturing bill through the Senate. It provides $52 billion to promote U.S. chip making facilities and set up tax credits to help the industry, as well as providing for future spending on science and research and development.
After more than a year of wrangling, the legislation finally won approval last Wednesday on a 64-33 vote. As this editorial went to press, the bill was expected to pass the House and be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
That 32 Republican senators and erstwhile Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders voted against the chips bill and dozens of Republican House members and a handful of Democrats were expected to vote against it boggles the mind.
This country faces a computer chip shortage that leaves otherwise finished new cars sitting idle in lots unavailable for sale. The lack of U.S. chip manufacturing facilities leaves U.S. national security in the hands of Taiwanese chip makers. U.S. defense weapons and technology depend on chips to operate. Ceding such a critical component to a foreign country—even a friendly one – is a recipe for disaster. If China takes over Taiwan, our greatest military and economic rival stands to cook our technological goose.
As Warner pointed out in a stump speech that he offered hundreds of times in the past 12 months, “semiconductor chips are involved in anything that has an on and off switch, from cars, to fighter jets, to cell phones to televisions.” But while the U.S. built just 15 manufacturing plants in recent years, other countries around the world, including China, built 120. The U.S. share of the chip market shrank from 37% to 12%, Warner said.
In the face of this news, Congress hemmed and hawed for months. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pulled the plug on a conference committee looking at earlier legislation that included chip making. That left Warner and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas hunting for nine Republican colleagues to join Warner, Cornyn and other Democrats to find 60 votes to end debate on the chips bill and bring it to a floor vote.
Members of Congress are too often spared the hard decisions of floor votes for political reasons. Good sense bills that legislators would look stupid voting against simply never get to a roll call.
With the chips bill, the process tested Warner’s bipartisan tenacity. A couple of weeks ago, he tweeted out an offer to strip the bill of almost anything that Republicans and Democrats could not agree on simply to get an up or down vote. The thing is, this bill was never what Washington insiders sarcastically call a “Christmas tree.” The term refers to bills on which politicians hang pet projects in exchange for their votes.
Recently in this space we visited the subject of dysfunctional partisanship. Even in a self-evident victory for the American people like chip manufacturing, progress crawls along so slowly that it seems participants might grind their teeth to the gums before they act, leaving no bite to what they do. Fortunately, Warner understood the bigger picture in the chip crisis. He started talking about it two years ago. In part, this is because of his history as a risk-taking tech entrepreneur. In part, it is because his chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee gives him a very sophisticated and sobering understanding of U.S. security risks.
Given its military and economic implications, Warner thinks history may judge the chips bill “as one of the most significant pieces of legislation that the Congress has gotten to the president in years, if not decades.”
In Washington, they joke that lawmaking is like sausage making. Senate and House members pick and choose what to stuff into a sleeve of political skin. This chips bill took long enough to breed the animals, raise them, slaughter them and then argue about how much meat from each to put in.
These domestic political games gave the rest of the world a year’s head start solving the chip crisis. For America, that is no laughing matter.
