House Speaker Johnson says GOP may try to repeal CHIPS Act, then walks it back

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that Republicans “probably will” try to repeal legislation that spurred U.S. production of semiconductor chips, a statement he quickly tried to walk back by saying he would like to instead “streamline” it.

Johnson made the initial comment while campaigning for a vulnerable New York GOP congressman in a district that is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant.

A reporter asked Johnson whether he would try to repeal the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had disparaged last week. “I expect that we probably will, but we haven’t developed that part of the agenda yet,” Johnson replied.

Democrats quickly jumped on the Republican speaker’s comments, warning that it showed how Johnson and Trump are pursuing an aggressive conservative agenda bent on dismantling even popular government programs. The White House has credited the CHIPS Act for spurring hundreds of billions of dollars of investments as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs. Vice President Kamala Harris has pointed to the legislation on the campaign trail as proof that Democrats can be entrusted with the U.S. economy.

Johnson, who voted against the legislation, later said in a statement that the CHIPS Act, which poured $54 billion into the semiconductor manufacturing industry, “is not on the agenda for repeal.”

“To the contrary, there could be legislation to further streamline and improve the primary purpose of the bill—to eliminate its costly regulations and Green New Deal requirements,” the speaker’s statement said.

It wasn’t the first recent comment Johnson has had to walk back. Earlier this week he had to clean up comments he made saying he wanted to “take a blow torch to the regulatory state” and make “massive” changes to the Affordable Care Act. After facing political blowback, he said that repealing the health care law was “not on the table.”

The incident was emblematic of Johnson’s struggle working closely with Trump and at the same time campaigning for his House colleagues, especially those locked in tough reelection battles that are crucial to Republicans holding a narrow majority. The speaker was campaigning for Rep. Brandon Williams, a New York Republican who worked in the tech industry before running for Congress and supported the CHIPS Act.

Williams said in a statement that he spoke privately with Johnson after he suggested that the act could be repealed.

“He apologized profusely, saying he misheard the question,” Williams said.

Williams’ district is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant. The company has said it received grants of $6.1 billion from the CHIPS Act to support its plans.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday, “Anyone threatening to repeal the CHIPS & Science Act is threatening more than 50,000 good-paying jobs in Upstate New York and $231 billion worth of economic growth nationwide.”

Democrats are hoping that the comments give them a late boost as they try to court working class voters in regions that depend on factory jobs. Harris, during a campaign stop in Saginaw, Michigan earlier this week, toured another semiconductor factory to bring attention to the 2022 law.

In response to Johnson’s comments Friday, a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, Ammar Moussa, said, “Harris is running to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and make us competitive globally. The only way to guarantee these Republicans never get a chance to repeal these laws that are creating jobs and saving Americans money is to elect her president.”

As of August, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided $30 billion in support for 23 projects in 15 states that would add 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department. That funding helped to draw in private capital and would enable the United States to produce 30% of the world’s most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration succeeded Trump’s presidency.

Viet Shelton, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “Most politicians usually go to a community promising to create jobs in the town they’re visiting… Mike Johnson, ever the trendsetter, decided to visit a town and promise to kill jobs in that town.”