Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) speaking at an event on October 30, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via Forbes Breaking News / YouTube)
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) recently celebrated the groundbreaking of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in her upstate New York district. But in posting a celebratory photo, she omitted the fact that she both denounced and voted against the funding that made the new plant possible.
In a Friday post to her X account, Rep. Tenney tweeted: "It was exciting to break ground with @MicronTech on its historic investment in New York State," tagging the official account of tech company Micron.
"This project will create 50,000 jobs and strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing across NY. I was honored to lead this effort in the House as Congress reaffirmed America’s commitment to long-term innovation & competitiveness," she wrote in text accompanying a photo of herself alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and fellow Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) holding shovels.
In response to Tenney's photo, Syracuse University student journalist Luke Radel, who tweeted: "Congresswoman Tenney voted against the CHIPS and Science Act."
As Radel noted, Tenney voted "no" in 2022 on the CHIPS and Science Act — which provided the $6.1 billion in funding for Micron to build plants in both Idaho and New York — and even issued a statement attacking the legislation. At the time, Tenney said the bill "lacks critical guardrails and includes loopholes that in the long run could benefit China."
"We should have done more to ensure tens of billions of dollars bolster American industry and not Chinese industry," Tenney said of the bill that would eventually create thousands of jobs in her state. "... This partisan stunt by Democrats once again underscores their fundamental inability to understand basic economics."
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra celebrated the Friday groundbreaking by thanking the officials who made it possible for billions of dollars in federal money to both build the factory and hire workers to make its chips.
"It shows that when it comes to restoring American manufacturing, we are clearly one team," Mehrotra said.
