OMB Approves CHIPS Act Improper Use Final Rule

On Friday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule from the Department of Commerce on “Preventing the Improper Use of CHIPS Act Funding”. The rulemaking had been sent to OIRA on August 8^th, 2023. The final rule could be published in the Federal Register later this week.

According to the Spring 2023 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“The CHIPS Act established an incentives program to sustain and reestablish U.S. leadership across the semiconductor supply chain. To ensure that funding provided through this program does not directly or indirectly benefit foreign countries of concern, the Act includes certain limitations on funding recipients, such as restricting engagement in any significant transaction involving the material expansion of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in foreign countries of concern and prohibiting certain joint research or technology licensing efforts with foreign entities of concern. The Department of Commerce is issuing, and requesting public comments on, a proposed rule to set forth terms related to these limitations and procedures for funding recipients to notify the Secretary of any planned significant transactions that may be prohibited.”

NIST Sends Improper CHIPS Use Final Rule to OMB

On Tuesday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final from the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) on “Preventing the Improper Use of CHIPS Act Funding”. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rulemaking was published on March 23^rd, 2023.

According to the Spring 2023 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“The CHIPS Act established an incentives program to sustain and reestablish U.S. leadership across the semiconductor supply chain. To ensure that funding provided through this program does not directly or indirectly benefit foreign countries of concern, the Act includes certain limitations on funding recipients, such as restricting engagement in any significant transaction involving the material expansion of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in foreign countries of concern and prohibiting certain joint research or technology licensing efforts with foreign entities of concern. The Department of Commerce is issuing, and requesting public comments on, a proposed rule to set forth terms related to these limitations and procedures for funding recipients to notify the Secretary of any planned significant transactions that may be prohibited.”

OMB Approves CHIPS Funding Limitation NPRM

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approve a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the  DOC’s National Institute for Science and Technology on “Preventing the Improper Use of CHIPS Act Funding”. This rulemaking was not listed in the Fall 2022 Unified Agenda, so an official description of the purpose and scope of the rulemaking is not publicly available. This NPRM could be published later this week.

NIST Sends CHIPS Act NPRM to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking from the DOC’s National Institute of Standards and Technology for “Preventing the Improper Use of CHIPS Act Funding”. This rulemaking was not listed in the Fall 2022 Unified Agenda, so it is hard to determine what will actually be included in this rulemaking.

NOTE: OIRA has been having problems with their Reginfo.gov web site for the last couple of weeks. The display of new rulemakings is frequently ‘hidden’ behind the footer of the web page. Probably some simple HTML coding issue, but it indicates that the web site manager is not reviewing the actual display of the page when updating the page.