He told reporters on Wednesday that Cabinet nominees gave him assurances the law, which provided some $53 billion in subsidies to semiconductor manufacturers, would remain intact.

“I have to admit I was surprised,” Young said. “It seemed in tension with the reassurances I had received privately and publicly from his now-Cabinet nominees, reassurances which I sought in order to be supportive of certain nominees.”

The law is unlikely to be repealed given it passed Congress by comfortable margins in 2022. Seventeen Republicans in the Senate and 24 in the House crossed party lines to support the Biden-era measure.

But Trump’s remark could force Congress into a conversation about changes to the law. Days before the November election, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said a GOP-led Congress would “probably” try to undo the legislation before walking back his comments.

Instead, Johnson said he wanted to “streamline” its language to “eliminate its costly regulations and Green New Deal requirements.” The speaker’s office did not respond to a request for comment on proposed updates.

The Senate Republicans who voted for its passage expressed openness to reforming the law on Wednesday. The semiconductor funding was one element of a larger, $250 billion investment in science and technology that Republicans opposed, in part, over concerns it would drive inflation.

“I’d like to see what he’d want to replace it with, so we’ll see what he’s got in mind,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “Generally speaking, I want to bring chip manufacturing here, but if he’s got a different way to do it, I’m open-minded.”

“If it needs to transform into a different model over a period of time, I’m certainly open to that,” added Young.

Its supporters generally don’t expect a rollback of the program, however, given the funding has largely been committed. Any attempt to withdraw funding would also prompt blowback from Republicans whose districts and states have benefitted from the law.

“We’re working with them,” Young told the Washington Examiner. “I remain hopeful, and frankly, my expectation remains that we will be actively working on them to improve the program, and that’s how I’m looking to the future.”

“I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said of the law’s repeal.

For now, Senate GOP leadership is preoccupied with impending deadlines over government funding and how to pass Trump’s tax and border agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner he had not given a “lot of thought” to Trump’s call to repeal the CHIPS Act.

“There were a lot of Republicans, I think, as you know, who voted for it,” he said. “So, we’ll see if there’s actually something that comes forth in the form of a proposal. But, yeah, it was a part of a speech, but there were a lot of things in that speech.”

Trump has repeatedly called for the law’s repeal, suggesting the U.S. could have brought the same investment with his tariffs. He levied new 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico Tuesday, plus an additional 10% levy on imports from China.

“You didn’t have to put up 10 cents,” Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan in October. “You tariff it so high that they will come and build their chip companies for nothing.”

He made the same case on Tuesday night, calling the CHIPS Act a “horrible, horrible thing.”

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Young defended the law as “one of the greatest successes of our time” due to its economic effect. Trump touted one such investment at the White House on Monday: $100 billion committed by TSMC, a Taiwanese semiconductor giant.

“My expectation is that the administration will continue to support this supply chain resiliency and national security initiative,” Young said.