Inside the CHIPS Act: National Security, Semiconductors and Washington Strategy

A conversation with Katherine Mitchell, DLA Piper

If you want to understand one of the most consequential policy stories in Washington right now, you need to understand semiconductors — and you need to talk to someone who has worked on this issue from nearly every angle: Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the Department of Commerce, and now the private sector.

Katherine Mitchell is a policy expert at DLA Piper who spent a decade in government at the intersection of national security and emerging technology. She served as chief of staff to the CHIPS R&D office at the Department of Commerce — helping stand up the $50 billion CHIPS for America program from scratch — and before that worked at the Department of Defense and on Capitol Hill. She joined me on The Friday Reporter to talk about semiconductors, influence, reputation and what building a career in Washington actually looks like.

Why semiconductors are a national security issue

Most people think of chips as something inside their phone. Katherine helped me understand why they're much more than that.

"Chips — semiconductors — are these little tiny technologies that live in everything we use. Inside your smartphone, inside your car, inside your refrigerator, but also inside our nation's defense systems. Tanks. Fighter jets. They're everywhere."

The vulnerability became impossible to ignore during the pandemic, when supply chain restrictions in Asia made semiconductors nearly impossible to get. Car production slowed. Consumer electronics backed up. And the national security implications became clear: if you can't manufacture your own chips, you can't guarantee your own defense capabilities.

Congress responded with the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 — a bipartisan law designed to revitalize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and fund the next generation of advanced chip research and development. Katherine was on Capitol Hill when it passed, then moved to Commerce to help implement it.

"Getting to see the legislation pass and then go implement it — that's the process working the way it's supposed to."

What success looks like — and why it takes time

I asked Katherine how we'll know if the CHIPS program worked. Her answer was honest and instructive.

"It will take a decade or two to know if we've done it right. There are still a lot of real-world negotiations, building of foundries and fabs that have to take place to realize the benefits. AI can certainly help make that go faster — the two are linked — but it doesn't solve the problem on its own."

What she's watching in the meantime: how Congress responds to implementation changes between the Biden and Trump administrations, how the White House's AI framework connects to the semiconductor ecosystem, and whether the companies making these bets can bring their technologies from lab to production.

Relationship building is the foundation — full stop

No matter the industry or the issue, Katherine kept coming back to the same first principle for navigating Washington: relationships before policy.

"The first thing you have to do is build relationships with the people who are best poised to work with you and to help you. You can only get to procurement and policy development after you've built those really strong relationships."

This was especially true, she said, for the startups she works with — innovators working on genuinely important problems who simply don't know how to connect with the right people inside government.

"Some of my favorite clients are the ones starting up and wanting to get running because they've got good ideas. They just don't know how to execute them."

Technology, she noted, no longer wears the halo it once did. The window to build credibility early — before narratives harden — is narrow. Getting the relationship strategy right from the start matters more than it ever has.

"Wear your honors lightly"

When I asked Katherine for the best career advice she'd received, she reached back to something an administrative dean said to her in graduate school — not framed as career advice at the time, but internalized as exactly that.

Wear your honors lightly.

"I heard that as: approach everything with humility. Be willing to learn. Be willing to lean in. If you always endeavor to be the smartest person in the room, you'll never learn anything new."

It's a principle she's carried through every role — from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill to helping build a $50 billion federal program from the ground up.

The risk that paid off

Leaving a chief of staff role on Capitol Hill to go stand up an entirely new office at Commerce was, by Katherine's own description, a risk.

"Moving away from Capitol Hill to help stand up a $50 billion program at the Department of Commerce — I was nervous to do that. But man, I'm so glad I did."

She built it while making it happen. And it put her in exactly the position she's in now: someone who understands both the policy intent and the implementation reality of one of the most consequential technology investments in American history.

What Washington takes

In the lightning round, I asked Katherine what one thing people should understand about Washington that they don't already.

"It is both a marathon and a sprint every day."

And for anyone building a career here — in lobbying, policy, communications or government relations — her advice was equally clear: focus on the people who have something to teach you, get to know the people you meet along the way, and surround yourself with really smart, talented women.

"The women in this town are brilliant and hardworking. Surround yourself with them."

The Friday Reporter is hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller. Listen wherever you get your podcasts — and subscribe so you don't miss a conversation. Production by Two River Pictures.