House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is rushing to pass the so-called COMPETES Act before President Biden’s State of the Union speech, to give him something to talk about when he addresses America on March 1.
Like their “Infrastructure Bill,” Democrats’ proposed legislation is packed with liberal agenda items that do not accomplish the identified purpose, in this case, competing with China, and will likely end up hurting our businesses.
WHITE HOUSE DOES NOT MENTION ‘CHINA’ IN STATEMENT SUPPORTING DEMS’ CHINA ANTI-COMPETITION BILL
We all agree that the U.S. needs to do more to improve our position against China. Freedom and democracy must overcome communism.
Fortunately, there are bipartisan solutions available to address many of the problem we face. Funding the CHIPS for America Act, which provides money for our domestic semiconductor manufacturing sector, is a great place to start.
FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Recent investments from Intel and others confirm that the potential is real. However, we have hemorrhaged so much of our capabilities to China that we need more – especially if President Biden is going to stand by and watch China take over Taiwan (another major producer of semiconductors). Instead of choosing bipartisanship, Speaker Pelosi has crafted a package designed to meet the wish-lists of her most-liberal supporters.
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The COMPETES Act combines good, bipartisan solutions with studies on coral reefs and an $8 billion climate slush fund – this is no way to outmatch our greatest adversary.
FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to introduce members of the select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol on Thursday, July 1, 2021.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The Speaker should re-purpose that $8 billion into something that matters, like shoring up our Critical Mineral supply chain which is required for everything from electric vehicles to F-35s.
China and Russia continue to make serious investments in these minerals and we need to be doing the same. For context, China processes approximately 90% of the world’s rare earth elements, and roughly 50%- 70% of the world’s lithium and cobalt.
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These are the issue sets Congress needs to address head-on in any legislative package aiming to take on China. Specifically, the COMPETES Act could easily be improved in the following ways:
1. Repurpose the $8 billion climate slush fund with a direct loan program targeted at addressing America’s critical mineral insecurity.
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2. Add Senator Tom Cotton’s, R-Ark., bipartisan Restoring Essential Energy and Security Holdings Onshore for Rare Earths Act of 2022 to the package, which requires the Pentagon to stockpile U.S. rare earths and prohibit defense contractors from using Chinese rare earths in military equipment.
3. Remove all aspects of the bill that do not directly relate to China and U.S. competitiveness. The more votes the final proposal gets, the more it will intimidate the Chinese Communist Party – there is strength in unity. The poison pills that Speaker Pelosi has injected into this process are unnecessary and will ultimately kill her package.
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The Senate was able to pass bipartisan legislation on this topic last year, so why can’t the House do the same?
If we are serious about getting tough on China, we need to do it as one United States of America.
