What does President Trump’s budget proposal mean for the domestic semiconductor industry? Proposal is the key word. Like any research grant proposal, the budget coming from the White House is subject to Congressional approval. It represents the President’s ideas, upon which he or she builds their campaign platform. In reality, Congress will break into committees to review different aspects of the budget. They will vote to increase or decrease funding for government and government-supported agencies, and any bills concerning the national budget must be signed into law by the end of September in order to avert a government shutdown.
Nevertheless, the proposal represents a starting point for debate and advocacy. The GOP has been praised for being pro-business and accused of being anti-science, yet reality is not that simple. Besides, semiconductor research stands at the intersection of business and science.
Trump’s budget plan calls for:
- Increased DARPA funding. Defense research projects often support technological growth outside of the defense industry, due both to investments in private firms and adoption of military findings into other technologies, such as clean energy and health care.
- Decreased funding for NSF, NIST, DOE and NIH.