U.S. Sen. Mike Braun speaks during the Aspire Legislation Matters luncheon discussion at Valle Vista Golf Club and Conference Center on Tuesday.
Emily Ketterer | Daily Journal
Semiconductors, Ukraine and a possible government shutdown were some of the many topics U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, discussed during a chamber luncheon Tuesday in Greenwood.
Braun was the featured guest at Aspire Johnson County’s Legislation Matters event, held at Valle Vista Golf Club and Conference Center in Greenwood. He is also a candidate for Indiana Governor, though he did not discuss this in much detail at the event.
During the hour-long discussion moderated by Tom Vander Luitgaren of Van Valer Law Firm, Braun answered several questions about topics local business leaders wanted to hear from him on, including supporting veterans, the semiconductor industry, the Russian-Ukraine War, regulating artificial intelligence and a possible government shutdown.
Supporting veterans
One of the first topics discussed was supporting veterans.
Luitgaren brought up the Continue VET-TEC Authorization Act of 2023, which Braun authored with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina. The bill would extend and expand the Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses, or VET-TEC, program, which provides an alternative educational opportunity for veterans interested in pursuing a career in technology.
The bill will also look into getting people to come back to work in the Veterans Affairs, he said.
“You think, ‘Well that’s common sense. Why wouldn’t you do it?’” Braun said. “Well, nobody did, and when you got something that is practical and innocuous, those are the ones that get done in a Congress.”
The bill is still active for this session but hasn’t received a vote.
Outside of legislation, Braun’s office was also able to settle 10,000 constituent cases — almost all involving veterans.
“That’s a place where both sides of the aisle have been trying to get better, but still suffer from places like, ‘where do I get my service for routine health care stuff?’” Braun said
Semiconductor industry
Braun was asked his thoughts on the emerging semiconductor industry, in which Indiana leaders seeking to find a niche. Nowadays most of the technology is made in Taiwan. In the past, the chips were all made in the U.S., he said.
“We used to make them all, Intel and when that industry started, because most of the great ideas come from here. And then in the process to get more of them for less money, we go elsewhere,” Braun said.
The industry is complicated now, however, because of the current geopolitical landscape and global economy, Braun said.
Braun voted against the CHIPS Act last year, which authorized incentives for companies to make semiconductors in the United States.
Part of the problem with providing help to a particular industry is they’re usually not interested in going backward, Braun said.
“That basic technology is something that we did have our eggs in baskets that looked precarious to me. Then you still get into well, how do we promote that? Why didn’t private enterprise do it? Why do they need governments? It’s never quite as easy as what you might think,” Braun said. “And once you give a leg up to a particular industry, and they’re not interested in generally weaning themselves from it it’s more likely Can I have more? And that’s where I have trouble. “
Ukraine war
Luitgaren asked Braun about his thoughts on the continuing conflict in Ukraine, and whether there was a limit to what support the U.S. could provide.
Calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “the worst of the worst” of what could happen to a country, Braun said it was clear he was going to push the envelope.
“He did it back in the Obama administration, and part of the country (of Ukraine) was lost,” Braun said. “We didn’t do anything then, and now you can get further entangled.”
Braun didn’t say specifically what the limit is for the U.S. but emphasized the need for European countries to step up. When the countries were asked before to pay 2% of their gross domestic product to support NATO, the fifth largest economy — Germany — was only paying 1%. Some countries also struck deals with Russia, and ended up getting caught up in the conflict, Braun said.
“Ukrainians and (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy have shown that they’re going to dig in and they do occupy the high moral ground,” he said. “I just wish our partners would pay their fair share. We can’t keep borrowing money to foot the bills, to be the policemen around the world.”
Regulating AI
With the rise of artificial intelligence technology causing concern across the world, Luitgaren asked Braun about what is being done to regulate it on the federal level. Braun has talked to some entrepreneurs about how easy it is to use technology to copy the work someone else did.
On the other hand, the government wants to tap into the benefits of AI, especially on anything that is tedious or takes a lot of time to compile, he said.
However, he said there have also been warnings about its use and how geopolitical enemies could use it to their benefit.
“Whether we can legislate that in a way to not suffocate it, but to make sure it’s not used for ill purposes,” Braun said. “I’d be surprised if we can do that and do it well because it’s more complicated than most things and we very seldom even do it well on simple stuff.”
Avoiding a shutdown
Concerns about a government shutdown are also rising. Lawmakers left Washington for their August recess with work on funding the federal government incomplete, giving themselves about a month to accomplish the task when they return in September.
Legislators have until the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1, to act on government funding. They could agree to fund the government, or they could pass a stopgap measure until lawmakers in both chambers strike a deal, according to media reports.
No one wants to have a shutdown, said Braun, who sits on the budget committee. The last time there was a shutdown, the solution was a 4,100-page omnibus bill that Braun said read more like a wish list than a budget. And lawmakers had two days to look at it before voting on it, he said.
“That’s our federal government now. Are you surprised that we’re now running close to $2 trillion deficits?” Braun said.
Right now, only the Biden Administration has released a budget. This proposal shows the country being $42 trillion in debt in five years, and $52 trillion in 10 years, Braun said.
“We’re currently paying about $650 billion a year in interest due to debt that’s currently at the highest level it’s ever been,” he said. “But the lower interest rates, we’ll start feeling the pain. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll do anything about it preemptively. That’s what leads us to these clumsy discussions of where we’re at every year and no one wants to give up anything.”
