Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and other conservatives urged Republican and Democrat leadership on Monday to strip provisions from an anti-China bill that would grant amnesty, promote woke values, and boost climate change regulations, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Reps. Gohmert, Greg Steube (R-FL), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), and Doug Lamborn (R-CO) sent the letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), as the House and Senate are in conference hashing out the differences between the House-passed America COMPETES Act and the Senate-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) Act.
The two bills, which were supported by many Republicans and Democrats, are aimed at increasing American competitiveness with China, especially in the areas of high-tech manufacturing, such as semiconductors, and artificial intelligence (AI). However, conservatives have derided the bill as a threat to national security and believe it would, ironically, “harm innovation.”
The conservatives called on congressional leaders currently involved in the conference to strip different provisions from the bill, including:
- Any additional funding to the United Nations (UN)
- Any immigration provision that provides amnesty, allows for refugee resettlement, or otherwise increases the number of green cards for foreigners in the United States
- Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity (SOGI) language
- Language that would advance climate change goals
- Provisions without proper oversight
The conservatives explained why the bill should not additionally fund the UN:
Any bill that is serious about combating China cannot cede American sovereignty to the United Nations. Despite being the largest donor country to the UN, the United States has gotten very little to show for our heavy investment. The UN repeatedly wastes American taxpayer money, provides a pass for the most oppressive regimes, and has proved time and time again to be ineffective in solving problems. Additionally, the UN has routinely been shown to collaborate with the CCP, most notably when the World Health Organization (WHO) repeated CCP propaganda about COVID-19.
A photo taken in the late hours of August 17, 2020, shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) written in Chinese at the entrance of their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
As for immigration, the conservatives believe that the provision adding more foreign workers will drive down wages:
Just as egregious, immigration provisions under consideration make the American homeland less safe. Additionally, flooding the labor market with foreign workers will further drive down wages for Americans, who have already seen their wages decline dramatically because of historic inflation caused by the Biden Administration’s reckless spending.
“Taking a divisive social issue and inserting it into national security legislation shows a clear lack of seriousness. Any additional woke language must be removed,” the Republican lawmakers said regarding woke issues in the bill.
The Republicans also railed against efforts to include climate change provisions in the bill:
The legislation should not have any language that promotes the Green New Deal. Our constituents are already facing record-high gas prices. The Biden Administration is exacerbating the crisis by refusing to take the shackles off American energy producers. Moreover, the Generalized System of Preferences should not be expanded to include partisan environmental factors. The Generalized System of Preferences must continue to be based on helping American small businesses and allied, developing countries. There also should not be any money sent to the Green Climate Fund that has repeatedly given funds it receives to the Chinese Communist Party. Additionally, wasting money on unreliable renewable energy sources is counterproductive as it benefits China due to its dominance in critical minerals.
USICA and the COMPETES Act both contain provisions that would add new environmental criteria which would bar a country from the Generalized System of Preferences trading program if it “fails to effectively enforce its environmental laws, regulations, or other measures, or to fulfill its international environmental obligations.”
House Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) broke down the many problems with the America COMPETES Act.
Undergraduate student Moe Lewis, left, shows her watercolor painting of peony leaves at a traditional Chinese painting class at the Confucius Institute at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 2, 2018. U.S. lawmakers are pushing for tighter regulation or even closure of the more than a hundred Chinese Confucius Institutes set up on campuses across America. (Matthew Pennington/AP)
The House Republicans also called for provisions that would expose and crack down on Chinese influence operations in the United States, and ensure that there would not be any “slush funds that enrich the allies or family of the Biden Administration:”
We have already seen the Biden Administration use the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the most recent Ukraine supplemental package to create slush funds that benefit their friends. Using taxpayer money to enrich political allies of the Biden Administration is an egregious affront to basic decency and common sense. Appropriating money to this Administration without proper safeguards in place is unacceptable.
With each passing day, the Biden Administration weakens our standing in the world and makes it more difficult for our country to compete with China. Congress must get serious about combating China now.
We believe that both bills are half-hearted measures to deal with the CCP threat in name only. We would like to consider measures that will truly recalibrate the U.S. relationship with China, as President Trump earnestly sought to do with his visionary and bold policies.
The House Republican concluded, “However, at the minimum, we would ask that you do not agree to the aforementioned provisions, which will only serve to harm Americans.”
Read the letter urging changes in the bill.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.