The U.S. Department of Commerce building in Washington, D.C.
Arkansan and political strategy and communications specialist Adrienne Elrod has joined the Biden administration as director of external affairs for a new Commerce Department program devoting a $52 billion war chest to make the U.S. a center for semiconductor research, development and manufacturing.
Elrod, a former leader in the Biden and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns, announced the new job on social media Monday after it was first reported by Politico. She will oversee the program’s communications, legislative affairs, intergovernmental affairs and public engagement efforts.
“Today I joined the Biden-Harris administration as Director of External Affairs for for the CHIPS Program,” Elrod, a graduate of Siloam Springs High School in northwest Arkansas said on Twitter. She said she would be “working to advance one of @POTUS top priorities: implementing the bipartisan $52 billion in CHIPS funding Congress passed this year.”
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which Biden signed in August, is a coordinated program to strengthen and revitalize America’s position in semiconductor research “while also investing in American workers,” according to Commerce Department literature.
Elrod said that the president “continues to deliver for the American people,” adding that she’s eager to work with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other department leaders “to tell the story of how semiconductors will advance our economic and national security interests while making America more competitive globally.
Elrod’s announcement drew congratulations from dozens of Arkansans, including applause from 2022 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Chris Jones.
Since 2017, Elrod has been president of Elrod Strategies LLC of Washington, D.C. A journalism graduate of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, she also served as director of surrogate strategy and operations for Biden’s presidential campaign from June to November 2020, and spent more than a year and a half as director of communications and surrogates for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016. Immediately after college, she was an executive assistant in the Clinton administration White House.
The CHIPS program aims to align financial incentives to encourage large-scale private investment in semiconductor production, breakthrough technologies and America’s tech workforce. One goal is to build “new ecosystem partnerships that reduce risk, build on U.S. strengths and facilitate such investments,” the Commerce Department said.
Semiconductors are crucial in just about all modern technology, from computers to cars to space stations, and were invented in the U.S., where the technology industry led the world in research and development, chip design, and for many years, manufacturing. But America’s position in the supply chain has been faltering for more than 30 years, and the United States fabricated just 11% of semiconductors worldwide in 2019. The CHIPS act was passed to help reverse that trend.
Sign up for Daily E-news
