Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) continue to negotiate the final terms of a conference to hash out the differences between two Democrat bills aimed at increasing competitiveness with China.
Punchbowl News reported that McConnell and Schumer are hashing out the formal details of a conference negotiation to work out the differences between two China bills. The Senate leaders hope to begin the formal conference negotiation by mid-April.
Since the Senate is split with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, McConnell and Schumer have to mutually agree to the terms of the conference.
Democrats and Republicans would have to agree to resolve the differences between the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House-passed America COMPETES Act.
Conservatives have panned both bills as a weak attempt to boost high-tech research and manufacturing in the United States to better compete with China.
House Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) has outlined the many problems with the legislation, including:
1. Invites more malign CCP actors into the country: Creates a new visa cap carveout program that would be even less secure than the existing visa programs that already riddled with fraud [sic]. Shockingly, an unlimited number of members of the Chinese Communist Party are eligible to take advantage of the new visa program to carry out their malign activity here in the States (page 1689).
2. Ties our hands behind our back: The bill urges the U.S. to abide by the dangerous and short-sighted Paris Climate Agreement which would cripple our economic output and does almost nothing to stop China’s much more rampant pollution (page 1323).
3. Provides more opportunities for China to steal our intellectual property: The bill directs the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China to work together and undertake ‘parallel initiatives’ on research, development, finance and deployment (pg. 1340).
4. Distracts our military from focusing on China: The bill would direct the U.S. Armed Forces to train to combat climate change events (pg. 1396).
5. Lets China off the hook for their role in the pandemic: The only mention of the investigation into COVID origins is a meaningless requirement that mandates Biden give a report to Congress (page 995). No independent investigation, no sanctions, no punishment.
6. Pads China’s coffers: Under this bill, China will be eligible for financial assistance from the World Banks Group and Asian Development Banks if assistance will contribute to “fighting climate change” (page 1480).
7. Wastes taxpayer dollars on issues completely unrelated to China: • $8 billion for the UN Green Climate Fund (page 1392) • $2 million a year in foreign aid to countries to combat climate change (page 1375) • $22 million to investigate a residential building collapse (page 191) • Establishes a new federal program to study plumbing (page 227) • Establishes a Coral Reef Task Force (page 1645) and gives $6 million to the NOAA to create a National Coral Reef Management Fellowship (page 1653). In fact, it’s so focused on coral reefs that “coral reefs” is mentioned more times than the word “China.” • Includes the Marine Mammal Research and Response Act that mandates financial and regulatory “support” to protect marine mammals.
8. Includes policies inspired by divisive & anti-American Critical Race Theory: Provides $5 million to create a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation (page 328) and direct the NSF to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion in the technology sector (page 318).
9. Adds fuel to inflation fire: Costs $250 billion and there’s no design to pay for the bill, so much of it will be added to our national debt.
10. Turns a blind eye to Confucius Institutes: The bill fails to ban federal funding for colleges and universities that host Confucius Institutes, a tool of the Chinese Communist Party to steal our intellectual property and censor our campuses (page 1967).
11. Allows China a global platform for their propaganda: The bill does not call for moving the International Olympic Games outside of China instead opting for a weak slap on the wrist aka a “diplomatic boycott” (page 1249).
Conservatives have also criticized the $250 billion Senate-passed USICA, contending that it would not stop Chinese government activity in the United States, it would waste money on issues unrelated to countering China, and there are few provisions to punish China.
The RSC released its own plan last week that they believe would allow the United States to better counter a rising China, as detailed by Breitbart News’s Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) noted in a long-form interview with Boyle that the bill fails to have adequate safeguards against Chinese spying:
“But imagine if you’re trying to say, ‘ok, so America is now going to spend $150 billion on research through universities that we already have our claws in. That’s great. We’ll just steal it. Go ahead and spend your money, and we’ll steal your research. We get it for free,’” Rubio said then. “It’s crazy. It’s nuts. So that’s the problem we’re having, these things of that nature. And the reason it’s happening is because universities have ins with the administration, and they’re saying, ‘hey, don’t put in a lot of restrictions or safeguards because it’s going to slow down our research.’ Well, that’s crazy. It would be faster for me to get on an airplane if I didn’t have to go through TSA too, but we have to do it.
He added, “We have to have safeguards. So what’s that they sense.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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