Cruz, Other Republicans Urge Withdrawal of NIST's Race-Based Chips Grant Guidance
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and two other panel Republicans pressed the Commerce Department Friday to withdraw the National Institute of Standards and Technology's August guidance to applicants for Chips and Science Act semiconductor manufacturing facility…
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incentives that the lawmakers believe is racist and violates federal law. NIST's August guidance says it's "looking for applications with a supplier diversity plan that features a plan to track supplier diversity, sets targets, and conducts outreach in coordination with community partners." Cruz and the other Republicans, Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and J.D. Vance of Ohio, told Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo they view the guidance as making clear the department "will consider the race of an applicant’s suppliers when awarding CHIPS funding." That appears to violate the Fifth Amendment's due process clause, 1868 Civil Rights Act Section 1981 and 1964 Civil Rights Act Title VI, the Republicans said in a letter to Raimondo. NIST's "use of racial classifications, as set forth in the Guidance, does not serve a compelling governmental interest." Commerce "provides no evidence of disparities minority-owned suppliers face generally, let alone specific instances of discrimination that the Department is seeking to address," the senators said: "And it does not attempt to make any claim that this discrimination is necessary to avoid a prison race riot." Those are the two instances the Supreme Court had found justify race-based government actions. The guidance "intentionally treats certain applicants worse than others on the ground of the race of their suppliers," the senators said: "Title VI forbids such discrimination.” Section 1981, meanwhile, "makes it illegal for private companies to discriminate on the basis of race when making and enforcing contracts." Commerce "has not yet finalized a grant for any CHIPS funding to any applicants," the senators said: "Therefore, the Department still has time to reverse course before it breaks the law." They want Raimondo to respond by Feb. 29 that she's rescinded the guidance or detail "the reasons you believe the Guidance does not violate" the Fifth Amendment and civil rights laws. Commerce didn't immediately comment.