A private entity constructed by the Biden administration to perform semiconductor research and chock full of Biden administration members is being terminated.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Monday that that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will operate the National Semiconductor Technology Center, booting the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology Center, known as Natcast.
As noted by the New York Post, the CHIPS Act called for the Commerce Department’s NSRTC to dole out $11 billion in semiconductor research funding. But what was not required was the way in which Natcast was created to provide soft landings for Biden administration employees, Lutnick said.
“From the very beginning Natcast served as a semiconductor slush fund that did nothing but line the pockets of Biden loyalists with American tax dollars,” he said, according to a news release on the Commerce Department’s website.
“The Biden Administration had no authority to manipulate legislation in a way that would allow them to establish, staff, and govern a corporation to act as a government agency. Ending this illegal relationship between Natcast and the NSTC will ensure that the Commerce Department keeps control of taxpayer funds and delivers investments and benefits for all Americans,” he said.
Lutnick said the deal Biden’s team cut to ship $7.4 billion to Natcast is illegal and is that the spigot is being turned off.
The release said that from the start, the venture was polluted by politics: “In an effort to skirt clear legal restrictions prohibiting government agencies from establishing corporations, the Biden-era Commerce Department officials handpicked individuals friendly to the Biden Administration to serve on a ‘Selection Committee’ that, in turn, chose who would form the entity that the Department anticipated would serve as the operator of the NSTC.”
“The Selection Committee included Jason Matheny (who held several roles in the Biden White House), Don Rosenberg (a partner at a venture capital firm whose portfolio companies received at least $117 million in federal grants), and Brenda Wilkerson (a self-described advocate for ‘social justice for underrepresented communities in technology’),” the release said.
The release said the connection continued after Natcast was formed.
“The Biden Administration then stacked Natcast with former Biden officials. The majority of Natcast’s executives, and a few of its trustees, previously held formal positions either within the Commerce Department itself or as members of the Industrial Advisory Committee, which advised the Commerce Department on CHIPS Act implementation,” the release said, and walked officials of the new entity through the incorporation process.
“Rather than establishing these operations within the Department, however, Biden Administration officials spent significant time, effort, and resources creating an unaccountable, outside entity — Natcast — to administer taxpayer funds,” Lutnick’s letter to Natcast informing it of the decision said
“Then, on January 16, 2025 — just days before President Trump’s inauguration — Natcast and the Biden Administration executed an agreement in an attempt to sever democratic accountability for Natcast,” Lutnick wrote.
The letter noted that at that time, the Biden administration handed Natcast $7.4 billion in advance payments.
“The agreement further attempts to remove any discretion the Department has in disbursing this funding. Instead, it requires the Department to issue payments annually and whenever Natcast meets certain milestones. And rather than allowing the government to terminate for convenience, as is standard in government contracts, the agreement limits the government’ s authority to terminate for certain reasons and under certain procedures — purporting to tie future administrations’ hands,” the letter explained.
“These actions do not just give the appearance of impropriety; they flout federal law.”
“The Department under the Biden Administration had no specific legal authorization to establish Natcast as it did — the CHIPS Act does not contain a provision specifically permitting the creation of a corporation to serve as the operator of the NSTC. In sum, the Biden Administration’s creation of Natcast for the purpose of operating the NSTC violated the lawful limits on the federal government’s authority,” the letter continued.
Lutnick wrote that “Ending this illegal relationship will ensure efficient use of taxpayer funds and continued American leadership in the semiconductor industry, and it will return responsibility — and accountability — for faithfully executing the CHIPS Act to the Department, as Congress intended.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
