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May 21, 2026

Ranking Member Lofgren Calls Out Trump Admin for Illegal Use of CHIPS and Science Funds

(Washington, DC) — Today, the Department of Commerce announced letters of intent totaling $2 billion in awards to nine U.S. companies for quantum technology. A single company will receive $1 billion. The funds were appropriated through the CHIPS and Science Act and were not intended for quantum technology.

“This announcement is illegal and troubling on so many levels,” said Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). “The administration is, once again, directly defying very clear direction from Congress. These funds were appropriated by Congress specifically for microelectronics R&D, with a focus on semiconductor technology — not quantum technology. These funds were intended to focus on cooperative public-private sector R&D and not on incentives for manufacturing. Furthermore, the Congressional record is quite clear that Congress did not want the government taking equity stakes in companies using these funds — that represents communism, not capitalism. There has also been zero transparency to Congress or the public on how these awards were selected or their terms. These were backroom deals that handed $1 billion to a company that happens to be a longtime former employer of a Department of Energy Under Secretary who was reportedly helping to make the decisions for these awards. To be clear, I do not question the legitimacy of any of these companies or our government’s need to invest in U.S. leadership in quantum. However, today’s announcement leaves me with many questions as to how this is serving the taxpayer and not just handing billions more of taxpayer dollars to cronies of the administration.”

The funds announced by DOC were appropriated under Section 102 of the CHIPS and Science Act specifically to fund microelectronics research and development activities authorized under Section 9906 of the CHIPS Act, which was authorized in the 2021 NDAA. The Department of Commerce was allocated $11 billion in appropriations for this research program. The activities authorized under Section 9906 include the establishment of a National Semiconductor Technology Center, a national advanced packaging manufacturing program, and microelectronics metrology research at NIST. Incentives to build manufacturing facilities were authorized and appropriated separately from the research and development funds.

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