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Semiconductors are the driving force of the information technology age and of all things electronic.
The impact of the chip in our daily lives is immeasurable, and its influence on our standard of living is enormous. The semiconductor industry is now the top value-added manufacturing industry in the United States. The semiconductor equipment manufacturing and materials industry alone employs an additional 55,000 people in the United States. In my own home State of Montana, we have a nascent semiconductor industry. Local development agencies well understand the value of the jobs created by this industry, and the need to keep these jobs in the United States.