US Commerce voids Biden's $7.4 billion semiconductor research grant deal that used tax dollars as a democrat slush fund.
WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday that one of its agencies will take over operational responsibility to oversee $7.4 billion in semiconductor research funds, saying that the private non-profit established under the Biden administration to handle that function "served as a semiconductor slush fund."
The National Institute of Standards and Technology will assume operational responsibility for the National Semiconductor Technology Center, a public-private consortium established under Democratic President Joe Biden, from the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology (Natcast).
The department said the Biden administration illegally created Natcast, and as a result the agreement granting the organization up to $7.4 billion in taxpayer money is invalid.
Natcast was an "effort to skirt clear legal restrictions prohibiting government agencies from establishing corporations," the Commerce Department said on Monday in a statement, and said that the Biden administration "stacked Natcast with former Biden officials."
“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,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in the statement.