On Friday, the House passed the Democrats’ America COMPETES Act, which is supposed to help the United States compete with China in technology and manufacturing.
The bill would grant $52 billion to increase semiconductor chip production in the United States and another $45 billion to support supply chains.
The bill passed 222-210 with one Democrat, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) voting against it, and one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) voting for it.
House Republicans released a memo calling the bill the America CONCEDES Act, arguing that the bill will end up helping China.
Republicans wrote that the bill “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 are already riddled with fraud. 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.”
“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,” the memo added.
“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,” the memo said. “Distracts our military from focusing on China: The bill would direct the U.S. Armed Forces to train to combat climate change events.”
“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. No independent investigation, no sanctions, no punishment,” the memo said. “Pads China’s coffers: Under this bill, China will be eligible for financial assistance from the World Bank Group and Asian Development Bank if assistance will contribute to ‘fighting climate change.’”
The memo also pointed out how the bill addresses issues “completely unrelated to China.” Like providing billions of taxpayer dollars to fight climate change, and it includes “policies inspired by divisive & anti-American Critical Race Theory.”
