U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer unveiled a plan late Tuesday for the inclusion of $52 billion to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing in a broader bill to enhance U.S. competitiveness with China.

"American manufacturing has suffered rather dramatically from a chip shortage," Schumer said. "We simply cannot rely on foreign processors for chips. This amendment will make sure that we don't have to."

The proposal includes $49.5 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to fund the chip provisions that were included in this year's National Defense Authorization Act, but which require a separate process to garner funding.

President Joe Biden has also called for $50 billion to boost semiconductor production and research.

Supporters of funding note the U.S. had a 37 percent share of semiconductors and microelectronics production in 1990; today just 12 percent of semiconductors are manufactured in the United States.

The measure would "support the rapid implementation of the semiconductor provisions" in the defense bill.

As reported by Reuters, the bill includes $39 billion in production and R&D incentives and $10.5 billion to implement programs including the National Semiconductor Technology Center, National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program and other R&D programs.

Last month, Ford Motor Company warned the chip shortage might slash its second-quarter production by half, costing it about $2.5 billion and about 1.1 million units of lost production in 2021, while General Motors has extended production halts at several North American factories because of the shortage.

The bill also includes $1.5 billion in emergency funding to help boost Western-based alternatives to Chinese equipment providers Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp. aiming to accelerate development of an open-architecture model (known as OpenRAN) backed by U.S. carriers.

Another provision prohibits the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from being downloaded to government devices "to better safeguard the privacy and security of Americans."

(With input from Reuters)