House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Friday walked back his comment that the CHIPS and Science Act would likely be repealed if former President Donald Trump returns to the White House and Republicans win control of Congress – a slip being blamed on his hearing.
The moment happened Friday at a campaign event in Syracuse for Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY) during a question and answer session with reporters.
“If you have a Republican majority in Congress and Trump in the White House will you guys try to repeal that law?” asked a reporter for CitrusTV News, Syracuse University’s student-run TV news station.
“I expect that we probably will, but we haven’t developed that part of the agenda yet,” Johnson immediately responded.
When Williams was asked if he would “vote to repeal or keep the CHIPS Act” he took a different position.
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“Obviously, the CHIPS Act is usually impactful here, and my job is to keep lobbying on my side,” Williams said as Johnson nodded. “That’s why I crossed the aisle and supported many things, you know, against leadership, but that’s our partnership.”
“I will remind him night and day how important the CHIPS Act is,” he added about Johnson.
The act was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 and aimed at boosting the semiconductor industry in the United States.
The two Republicans quickly moved to clean up the apparent gaffe in a joint statement.
“I spoke with the Speaker immediately after the event. He apologized profusely, saying he misheard the question,” Williams said in the statement. “He clarified his comments on the spot and I trust local media to play his full comments on supporting repatriation of chip manufacturing to America.”
Johnson made no mention of mishearing the question in his own statement but said: “As I have further explained and clarified, I fully support Micron coming to NY, and the CHIPS Act 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.”
White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates responded to Johnson’s comments, writing in a social media post that Vice President Kamala Harris has “groundbreaking plans to strengthen manufacturing.”
“Repealing the IRA and CHIPS – which Trump supports – would reverse the Biden-Harris manufacturing resurgence and send a tidal wave of good jobs back overseas, devastating working people in red and blue states,” Bates told his X followers.