Senate Republicans who supported a 2022 law designed to spur domestic semiconductor manufacturing are resisting President Trump’s call to repeal it but told The Washington Times they’re open to making adjustments.
The CHIPS and Science Act provided $54 billion in grants for companies to manufacture and design semiconductors in the U.S. and $24 billion for a 25% tax credit for new semiconductor manufacturing facilities.
Commonly called chips, semiconductors are used in a wide array of consumer products such as computers, cellphones and cars. They also help power defense systems and tools used in the national security arena.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said the law has been important in addressing the vulnerability of the U.S. relying on advanced semiconductors that are manufactured primarily abroad in Taiwan and South Korea.
“If the president and his administration have ideas about how it could be improved, or the administration of that law be improved, obviously they have a right to weigh in, and I’d be happy to work with them,” he said.
Repealing the law, as the president called for in his address to Congress, appears to be off the table.
“My belief is that we will continue to optimize the implementation of the CHIPS Act, which is something I’ve always thought we should do, but that the program will still continue to exist and keep producing good results,” Indiana Sen. Todd Young, the lead Republican on the bipartisan legislation, said of the more than half a trillion dollars in private investment the law has spurred.
President Biden frequently touted the chips law as one of his major achievements. It passed in 2022 with 17 Senate Republicans and 24 House Republicans voting with all Democrats in support. While only nine of those House Republicans are still serving, 12 of the senators remain in Congress.
Mr. Young and other CHIPS Act supporters like Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, said they were surprised Mr. Trump urged Congress to get rid of the law, which he called “horrible.”
“We give hundreds of billions of dollars, and it doesn’t mean a thing,” the president said. “They take our money, and they don’t spend it.”
Mr. Trump said companies will decide to build chips in America to avoid his threatened 100% tariffs on semiconductor imports without needing incentives from the CHIPS Act. Any leftover money could be used to reduce the deficit or fund other priorities, he said.
The president referenced a commitment from the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), to invest another $100 billion to build more plants in Arizona. It has already invested over $65 billion to build three facilities in the state, the first of which started producing 4-nanometer chips late last year.
“We’re giving them no money,” Mr. Trump said. “All that was important to them was they didn’t want to pay the tariffs, so they came and they’re building. And many other companies are coming. We don’t have to give them money.”
Two days after the president’s address, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te and TSMC CEO C.C. Wei held a press conference explaining the decision to invest more in U.S. semiconductor plants was about customer demand, not pressure from Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cornyn said the chips law helped TSMC build its initial plants in Arizona. He gave Mr. Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik “a lot of credit” for negotiating the $100 billion expansion, but said, “It’s things like the tax credit that was part of that bill that laid the foundation.”
In addition to TSMC’s facilities, the senator said the chips law has spurred Intel to build semiconductor plants in Ohio, Micron in New York and Samsung in Texas.
“It’s been responsible for a whole lot of new jobs,” Mr. Cornyn said.
Still, he would prefer to find a way to incentivize more private investment, as opposed to government grants.
Other Republicans who voted for the bill like Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jerry Moran of Kansas stood by their decisions but were also willing to entertain adjustments to the law.
“As a practical matter, I think that most of the $52 billion … in the bill is probably already allocated,” Mr Tillis said. “So if somebody wants to build a case to sweep back the remaining, I’m okay with that.”
As for the tax credits, he said businesses make long-term plans around those so any move to roll them back would need to be gradual or risk a chilling effect.
“You can have a reasonable ramp down, but you just can’t cold turkey it,” Mr. Tillis said. “To businesses, it’s unfair, it creates uncertainty, and they’ll go find another jurisdiction to set up shop.”
Of the chips law supporters whom The Times interviewed, Sen. Bill Hagerty, Tennessee Republican, was the only one to say he’d be fine with repealing it.
“I had a great number of problems with the CHIPS Act, but there was something very important to me to pass alongside it; that was the permitting fix that we needed,” he said. “So I won’t be sorry to see a lot of this go away.”
