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BOISE, Idaho — Editor's note: Story updated to reflect that the Senate voted Tuesday to proceed to a final vote on CHIPS Act funding and tax credits. The communications director for Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said Wednesday that "significant" provisions of the bill are still being negotiated.

The U.S. Senate is expected to take its final vote soon on legislation that would provide tax credits and other incentives for companies to produce semiconductors in the U.S. -- legislation that figures to play a pivotal role in whether Boise-based Micron Technology expands fabrication in Idaho or instead looks to other countries.

Wednesday, the day after the Senate voted 64-34 to proceed on a bill that includes what's known as the CHIPS Act of 2022, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra called that vote "very positive momentum," but said before the company makes any decisions on where it will expand, the legislation still needs to get to the finish line in the Senate and the House. It includes more than $50 billion in tax credits and other spending aimed at boosting semiconductor production in the U.S.

"This is really important to secure economic stability and prosperity here in the U.S. as well as, of course, national security," Mehrotra said in an interview on CNBC. "Micron, as the only U.S. company in semiconductor memory and storage, is absolutely going to do its part to make investments here in the U.S. with the support of the CHIPS Act -- the federal support -- as well as state support."

Mehrotra said he knows the 7,000 Micron team members who work in Idaho want CHIPS to pass and be implemented. When asked Wednesday about reports that Micron is looking at building a new fabrication plant in Boise, Mehrotra didn't commit.

"We are evaluating multiple states across the U.S. in terms of site selection. First things first. We need to get CHIPS passed. Then, of course, we will be then making our decision around the site," Mehrotra said, speaking from Manassas, Virginia, where Micron also has a manufacturing facility.

If CHIPS crosses the finish line in Congress, President Joe Biden will likely sign it. A member of his cabinet spoke about its importance earlier this week in a videoconference with reporters in Idaho and Texas.

"If the U.S. doesn't act now, we will fall further behind in our global semiconductor production and jeopardize our technological and military advantage," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Monday.  "Semiconductors are unique in their importance. They underpin every single technology. They're necessary to make every single piece of advanced military equipment, and the reality is the United States is overly dependent on foreign countries for our supply of chips, which makes us incredibly vulnerable."

The Commerce secretary pointed to Russia as an example of why access to advanced semiconductor chips is of strategic importance.

"The United States has denied Russia access to semiconductor chips and, as a result, you're literally seeing military equipment, Russian military equipment, falling out of the sky because it doesn't work, because it has chips in that equipment that Russians have taken from dishwashers and refrigerators and put in the military equipment," Raimondo said. "That could be us. If senators vote no this week, that could be the United States, because we are entirely dependent on Taiwan for our most sophisticated chips."

Raimondo said Idaho and Texas are "at the forefront of the American effort to build more semiconductors," and she said Republican Senators Mike Crapo of Idaho and John Cornyn of Texas are leading the charge on what's been called CHIPS for America legislation.

In October 2021, Micron announced the company's intention to invest more than $150 billion over the next decade on memory manufacturing and research and development, including "potential" expansion in the U.S. At the time, Mehrotra said the company looked forward to "working with governments around the world, including in the U.S." Micron called incentives and funding to support semiconductor manufacturing capacity "critical to potential expansion of U.S. manufacturing."

Raimondo on Monday said she could confirm reports Micron is looking at expansion of its fabrication plant in Boise -- something Mehrotra is not calling a done deal, as mentioned earlier in this story.

Executives at Micron and other companies such as Global Wafer and Intel, Raimondo said, have told her "they need to expand because they won't be able to fulfill their customers' orders if they don't expand. They need to move on this this year."

If Congress "doesn't do its job this week" and pass the CHIPS Act, Raimondo said, U.S. companies like Micron will take offers already on the table from other countries.

Sen. Crapo and Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) are among the Senate-appointed conferees who have been working to resolve differences between House and Senate legislation in order to pass what the White House calls the Bipartisan Innovation Act. A White House communications staffer said President Biden is looking to secure about $52 billion worth of semiconductor manufacturing incentives and grants in congressional votes this week, then have Congress work on other related elements over the next month or two.

The CHIPS Act legislation proceeding in the Senate is an amendment to House Resolution 4346, an appropriations bill for the legislative branch and for Supreme Court security funding. While Senators Crapo and Risch have backed CHIPS legislation, they were not among the 64 senators who voted for Tuesday's motion to proceed. KTVB on Wednesday afternoon contacted the senators' offices for more information on what led to those votes.

Senator Risch's communications director, Marty Boughton, said Risch voted against advancing the legislation because significant provisions of the bill are still being negotiated.

"The senator wanted to know what he was voting on before the Senate advanced it," Boughton said.

Reports in other media outlets indicate some of Crapo's and Risch's fellow Republicans also were reluctant to advance something they hadn't looked over.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, criticizes CHIPS as "corporate welfare." While government incentives may run counter to free-market principles such as competition, Raimondo said the way things are now, the playing field isn't level.

South Korea, Japan, Germany and France are already courting companies -- including those based in the U.S. -- with offers of incentives to build semiconductors, and the jobs that come with them, overseas.

"There's a window that's closing," Raimondo said. "And we're going to lose out to other countries if we don't move now."

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