Bipartisan PCBs Act to Revitalize the Microelectronics Ecosystem

Washington, May 27, 2025 – The bipartisan Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates Act of 2025 introduced by Representatives Blake Moore (R-UT) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) addresses a long-standing weakness in our nation’s capacity to produce trusted and secure microelectronics. Chips need a printed circuit board and an integrated circuit substrate to connect to an electronic device.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are found in all national defense and critical infrastructure systems that run our country.

We once made 30 percent of the world’s PCBs but now make only 4 percent and less than 1 percent of the substrates. We rely on Asia for 90 percent of the PCBs: over 50 percent from China.

Being at the end of a long and vulnerable supply chain in a region where the risk of supply chain disruption is high, and the geopolitical situation uncertain, the U.S. needs to have domestic capacity to match the output from American semiconductor fabs.

“Without a concurrent investment in PCBs and substrates, the American-made chips are being shipped to Asia to be packaged with Asian-made PCBs and substrates,” said Shane Whiteside, Chairman of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America and CEO of Summit Interconnect. “If we don’t reverse the drastic offshoring that we’ve experienced, we will continue to be reliant on sources whose provenance and security are not always clear. Our national defense and critical infrastructure systems are full of PCBs from China. This legislation will reverse the trend so the U.S. can produce secure and trusted microelectronics for our most sensitive national defense and economic systems.”

Major provisions of the bill:

• Provides a 25% tax credit for the purchase or acquisition of American-made PCBs
• Establishes a financial assistance program, modeled on the CHIPS for America Act, for American facilities manufacturing or researching PCBs
• Requires a Presidential determination for single financial awards over $150 million
• Authorizes appropriations of $3 billion to carry out the program.

PCBAA Executive Director David Schild said, “From F-35s to F-150s, the modern world is built on printed circuit boards, and we need to make more of them in America. This bill will lead to new factories, high paying jobs and an ecosystem to support the work being done by our colleagues in the semiconductor industry.”

H.R. 3249: Text – H.R.3249 – 118th Congress (2023-2024): Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Representatives Blake Moore and Raja Krishnamoorthi Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Bring Electronics Manufacturing to America and Strengthen Supply Chains: Representatives Blake Moore and Raja Krishnamoorthi Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Bring Electronics Manufacturing to America and Strengthen Supply Chains | U.S. Congressman Blake Moore

Reposted from PCBAA.org: Bipartisan PCBS Act to Revitalize a Long Neglected Part of the Microelectronics Ecosystem | Printed Circuit Board Association of America