Emergency Justification

Dr. Dominic J. Mancini, Ph.D.
Deputy Administrator
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, DC 20503
Dear Dr. Mancini,
I am requesting emergency approval of a new information collection needed for implementation
of the CHIPS Act of 2022 (Division A of P.L. 117-167) (the Act). The Act tasks the Secretary of
Commerce with carrying out sections 9902, 9904 and 9906 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4652, 4654, and 4656).
This statute aims to catalyze long-term growth in the domestic semiconductor industry in support
of U.S. economic resilience and national security. This collection is needed with the publication
of the first Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) which will be released on February 28th. The
NOFO discusses the application process for projects for the construction, expansion, or
modernization of commercial facilities for the front- and back-end fabrication of leading-edge,
current-generation and mature-node semiconductors and can provide direct funding (via grants,
cooperative agreements, or other transactions), loans, and loan guarantees for eligible projects.
The CHIPS Program must fund a variety of projects to achieve its economic resilience and
national security objectives. Projects will vary in technology, scale, cost, location, risk, and other
factors. Over the last six months the Department has been working diligently to determine the
best way to incentivize manufacturing through a series of requests for information. Input from
these activities has helped design a program that will provide financial assistance awards to
incentivize investment in facilities and equipment in the United States for semiconductor
fabrication, assembly, testing, advanced packaging, and research and development, thereby
increasing U.S. economic and national security by supporting a sustainable, competitive
domestic semiconductor industry. Because both Congress and the Administration have
identified the current low U.S. production of semiconductor chips as a matter of national security
and defense, the Secretary of Commerce is implementing this program on an expedited timeline
to meet the identified U.S. economic and national security needs.
The Department is requesting emergency approval of the “Ask CHIPS” Customer Relationship
Management system by February 24, 2023, in order for it to be available for industry use when
the CHIPS NOFO is released on February 28th. Implementing this CRM and associated
engagement request form is a critical tool to ease the burden of customers interested in
participating in the program. Educating customers on the incentive types available, as well as
the associated processes and deadlines to apply for these incentives will be instrumental to the

success of the program while making the customer experience as burdenless as possible. This
collection is crucial for customer engagement purposes as Commerce begins to roll out this
program.
A Federal Register notice was published on February 8th for a 5 day public comment period
which ended on February 13th. Commerce understands OMB clearance would be for 6 months
only and would publish a 60 day notice very quickly after OMB approves the emergency
collection.
Please contact Elizabeth.Reinhart@nist.gov should you or your staff have any questions about
this request.
Digitally signed by
LAURIE
LAURIE LOCASCIO
2023.02.24
LOCASCIO Date:
19:15:04 -05'00'