GOP Bill Aims To Remove ‘Woke Regulations’ From CHIPS Act

A pair of Senate Republicans introduced legislation on Tuesday to remove “woke requirements” from a $52.7 billion bill signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 that sought to subsidize the domestic semiconductor industry, create more STEM jobs, and boost research in new technologies.

The new offering from Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) would repeal various programs and positions from the CHIPs and Science Act that embrace tenets of DEI. It also aims to place limits on mandates imposed on entities seeking federal funds related to policies on diversity, mitigating climate change, environmental justice, community investment, and others.

Called the CHIPS Improvement Act, the GOP bill is being pitched as a means to get rid of “red tape” causing delays in plans to build up the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry. The United States and China are competing over chip technology needed for artificial intelligence.

“The Biden administration has put American manufacturing, and the American worker, last on the world stage,” Tuberville said in a press release. “Our country simply cannot afford to allow China to continue to out-compete us in technology and innovation over the next generation.”

He added, “The CHIPS Act has potential, but it needs reforms to become effective. By removing the woke regulations that have nothing to do with job creation and are putting significant bureaucratic burdens on private industry, we can get government out of the way and allow this bill to do what it was designed to do: end American reliance on China.”

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Seventeen Republicans in the Senate helped Democrats pass the CHIPS and Science Act in the summer of 2022, after which it advanced through the GOP-led House with bipartisan support. When Biden signed the bill into law, he said it would benefit the economy and national security. But critics of the legislation still take issue with its expansive push in favor of leftist ideals.

“Since his first day in office, Joe Biden has used every tool at his disposal to advance his radical DEI agenda that aims to divide our country and upend our founding values,” Lee said in a statement. “I am proud to join Senator Tuberville in introducing the CHIPS Improvement Act, legislation that will prevent President Biden from using tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to strong-arm companies into adopting the misguided tenants of his dangerous, divisive DEI agenda.”