A group of 32 House and Senate Republicans have rubber-stamped provisions in Democrats’ and President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill that provide giant carve-outs for industries to outsource and offshore American jobs.
A total of 13 House Republicans and 19 Senate Republicans put Democrats over the line to pass Biden’s infrastructure bill, which includes waivers for industries to bypass “Buy American” rules.
As Breitbart News reported, the bill allows the heads of federal agencies to issue waivers to corporations to work around Buy American requirements if they consider the requirement “inconsistent with the public interest,” or does not meet “satisfactory quality,” or if they believe buying American will increase costs for the projects.
The bill reads:
The head of a Federal agency that applies a domestic content procurement preference under this section may waive the application of that preference in any case in which the head of the Federal agency finds that:
- applying the domestic content procurement preference would be inconsistent with the public interest;
- types of iron, steel, manufactured products, or construction materials are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities or of a satisfactory quality; or
- the inclusion of iron, steel, manufactured products, or construction materials produced in the United States will increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent.
The waivers will only be reviewed every five years and will have to be justified in the Federal Register with a public comment period of no fewer than 30 days. The waivers are likely to be a massive benefit for corporations that produce materials and products, often linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
The 13 House Republicans who voted for the bill include:
- John Katko (R-NY)
- Don Bacon (R-NE)
- Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ)
- Fred Upton (R-MI)
- Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)
- Don Young (R-AK)
- Tom Reed (R-NY)
- Chris Smith (R-NJ)
- Andrew Garbarino (R-NY)
- Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)
- Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
- Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)
- David McKinley (R-WV)
The 19 Senate Republicans who voted for the bill include:
- Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
- Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
- Mike Crapo (R-ID)
- Roy Blunt (R-MO)
- Richard Burr (R-NC)
- Deb Fischer (R-NE)
- Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
- Rob Portman (R-OH)
- Thom Tillis (R-NC)
- Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
- Jim Risch (R-ID)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
- Roger Wicker (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- John Hoeven (R-ND)
- Susan Collins (R-ME)
- Mitt Romney (R-UT)
Twice, in the House and Senate, Republican lawmakers sought to include strict Buy American requirements to ensure that industries would not be allowed to simply secure waivers through well-connected federal agency heads.
Each time, the amendments were crushed and the Republicans who proposed them ultimately voted against the bill.
Though the language of the bill seeks to boost Buy American standards, the waivers are a vehicle to continue economic globalism that has lifted tariffs at the expense of U.S. jobs and wages over the last six decades in favor of importing cheap materials and products via free trade.
From 2001 to 2018, U.S. free trade with China has eliminated at least 3.7 million American jobs. In 1985, before China entered the WTO, the U.S. trade deficit with China totaled $6 billion. In 2019, the U.S. trade deficit with China totaled more than $345 billion.
American manufacturing is vital to the U.S. economy, as every one manufacturing job supports an additional 7.4 American jobs in other industries.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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