WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick canceled an Biden administration agreement Monday to distribute billions of dollars for semiconductor research through a nonprofit set up and staffed by former political appointees, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provided for $11 billion in semiconductor research and development funding to be given out by the Commerce Department’s National Semiconductor Technology Center.
“Rather than establishing these operations within the Department, however, Biden Administration officials spent significant time, effort, and resources creating an unaccountable, outside entity–Natcast–to administer taxpayer funds,” Lutnick wrote Natcast CEO Deirdre Hanford.
Four days before Biden left office on Jan. 20, Lutnick noted, the Commerce Department agreed to set aside $7.4 billion in “advance payments” to Natcast after spending nearly two years setting it up and tapping administration officials, advisers and allies to fill out positions.
That arrangement both effectively removed the incoming Trump administration from being involved in the process and provided “virtually all” of Natcast’s funding — prompting incoming Departments of Justice and Commerce officials to take another look at the Sunnyvale, Calif., nonprofit.
The funding had been slated to be in effect until 2034.
“These actions do not just give the appearance of impropriety; they flout federal law,” Lutnick told Hanford, pointing out that no provisions in the CHIPS Act authorized an outside entity like Natcast to distribute semiconductor research funds.
“The GCCA [Government Corporation Control Act] plainly prohibits agencies from establishing a corporation to act as an agency without specific authorization, and the January 16, 2025, agreement does nothing other than set forth the terms of the Biden Administration’s attempt to do just that.”
Natcast’s selection committee included Biden White House alums like Jason Matheny, former deputy director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Kendra Wilkerson, the CEO of a nonprofit that “promotes greater equality for women and nonbinary professionals in technology fields,” according to the Biden Commerce Department.
Donna Dubinsky, another Natcast executive, worked as senior counselor to former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and signed off on the nonprofit’s 501(c)(3) status.
Susan Feindt, the Biden Commerce Department’s vice chair of its CHIPS Act advisory committee, is now the senior vice president of ecosystem development at Natcast.
Jeremy Licht, the former chief counsel on semiconductor incentives at the Biden Commerce Department, is now the general counsel at Natcast.
Hanford, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, also served on the Biden Commerce Department’s Industrial Advisory Committee.
Lutnick’s revocation of the funding comes after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin revealed appointees of the 46th president were “rushing to get billions of dollars out the door before Inauguration Day” to lefty nongovernmental organizations.
Trump’s EPA chief recently told The Post’s Miranda Devine on her “Pod Force One” podcast that he uncovered $20 billion “parked at an outside financial institution,” later revealed to be Citibank, that was meant to be sent “through eight pass-through entities … riddled with self-dealing and conflicts of interest.”
“When the money goes through the prime recipients to others — in many cases, also pass-throughs — EPA no longer is a party of the account control agreement,” Zeldin said. “EPA is losing oversight by design intentionally.”
Lutnick’s Commerce Department hopes to regain a similar level of oversight now.
“Ending this illegal relationship will ensure efficient use of taxpayer funds and continued American leadership in the semiconductor industry, and it will return responsibility–and accountability–for faithfully executing the CHIPS Act to the Department, as Congress intended,” the secretary’s letter concluded.
“The Department reserves the right to pursue all legal remedies against Natcast.”
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