GOP lawmakers balk at Trump’s call to repeal CHIPS Act

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said President Trump’s call for Congress to “get rid of” the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which provided $52 billion for the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry, is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.

Republican senators said they’re willing to work with Trump to make some changes to the program, but they argued the money allocated to bolster microchip production in the United States is critical to national security.

They also point out the money has already been spent and there simply wouldn’t be the votes to repeal a law that passed the Senate and House with strong bipartisan majorities.

Democrats touted the law as one of the biggest legislative successes of the Biden administration, but it also received the backing of 17 Senate Republicans and 24 GOP members of the House.

“I think reconstituting domestic manufacturing of advanced semiconductors is a national security and economic imperative,” said Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who was one of 17 Senate Republicans who voted for the law.

Cornyn noted that “the whole purpose of this was national security.”

“Because if there’s a disruption between Asia or Taiwan, to be more specific, and the United States, we would plunge into a depression and we wouldn’t be able to build advanced weapons or aircraft like the F-35,” he said.

The Texas senator said “the idea” for the law came from the first Trump administration, particularly then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“I understand the president suggesting maybe there’s a better way to do this than use tax dollars as incentives … but I think the original bill was responsible [for] this trend [to bring] much greater investment here in the United States,” he added.

He said he’s open to “tweaks around the edges” but explained “the program that Congress passed, that money is essentially spent.”

Trump called the CHIPS Act “horrible” and urged lawmakers to scrap it when he spoke to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.

"Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn't mean a thing. They take our money and they don't spend it," Trump said in a speech to Congress. "You should get rid of the CHIPS Act and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt."

But GOP lawmakers said that proposal isn’t going anywhere.

“That’s not going to happen,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who voted for the law. “It was a statement at a joint address, but do you really believe we have eight or 10 votes from the Democrat side to repeal it, even if on its face we thought it was a good idea?”

Tillis noted that a repeal measure would need strong bipartisan support to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle for ending a filibuster.

And he said a move to repeal the CHIPS Act would likely not be eligible for a Senate budget reconciliation package that could pass the upper chamber with a simple-majority vote.

“I don’t believe that you can do all of it through reconciliation,” he said. “I’m not even sure of the $52 billion that was appropriated, I don’t even know what’s still unimplemented.

“It’s already been programmed,” he said. “As a practical matter, I don’t know why it would make sense.”

Sen. Todd Young (Ind.), the lead Republican on the CHIPS and Science Act, said Trump’s demand to repeal the law caught him by surprise, especially after he sought assurances from Trump’s Cabinet nominees about keeping the law and its priorities in place.

“I have to admit I was surprised,” he said, adding that he received “reassurances” privately and publicly from Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

Young said he sought those reassurances “in order to be supportive of certain nominees.”

“My expectation is that the administration will continue to support this supply chain resiliency and national security initiative,” he said. “If it needs to transform into a different model over a period of time, I’m certainly open to that. But let’s be clear, CHIPS and Science Act — at least the CHIPS portion — has mostly been implemented.”

“It’s been one of the greatest successes of our time, diplomatic successes, commercial successes and economic successes, and we’ve seen by some estimates roughly $650 billion of private sector commitments from a roughly $30 billion taxpayer investment,” he said.

Young said he’s reached out to the White House to find out more about what the president has in mind.

“We’re working with them, seeking clarity,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) also said he and other Republicans were surprised by Trump’s demand to scrap the CHIPS Act, a move that would seem to conflict with the president’s broader goal of bringing high-tech manufacturing back to the United States.

"That in the remarks last night was one of those statements I hadn't heard before," he said. "I haven't given a lot of thought to it."

"There were a lot of Republicans, I think as you know, who voted for it," he added.

Trump asserted Tuesday that he could bring high-tech manufacturing back home by threatening tariffs.

“Thanks to our America First policies we are putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks,” he told lawmakers.

He said that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the biggest semiconductor builder in the world, has announced a $165 billion investment to make chips in the United States.

“And we are not giving them any money,” Trump said. “All that was important to them was that they didn’t want to pay the tariffs, so they came and are building, and many other companies are coming.”

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