Manufacturing is difficult. Manufacturing certainty about what the government meant is apparently a separate industry.

On Thursday, the FCC gave Intel a one-year waiver for foreign-made factory vehicles and maintenance changes. Intel sought it despite uncertainty about whether the robot restrictions applied, saying suitable US substitutes weren’t available.

Perhaps the next patriotic ribbon-cutting could feature a small pair of imported scissors. They shouldn’t actually cut anything until legal has established whether cutting counts as cutting.

A machine has a job. Ambiguity has tenure. You can tell when a robot has failed to deliver a tray. Nobody seems to have installed the equivalent warning light for a regulation that requires its subjects to guess.

Make powerful people uncomfortable.
Subscribe to Democrawonk.

The government also holds an $8.9 billion stake in Intel. So Washington is on both sides of this clipboard: invested in the factory’s success and responsible for the rule that made the factory ask for reassurance. At least when it calls to complain, it can transfer itself.

There is also a difference between investing in American suppliers and behaving as though American suppliers appear whenever an official says the word American loudly enough. One requires equipment, expertise and time. The other requires a microphone, which itself may present an awkward country-of-origin discussion.

No shutdown is reported, and this isn’t a ban on every foreign robot. The target here is a policy process that makes certainty about routine production feel like a special favor.

The robots already know where they’re going. It’s the policy that needs supervision.