The White House released a statement of administration policy Tuesday endorsing House Democrats’ recently introduced bill explicitly seeking to confront China’s economic strength on the global stage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled the measure, the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022, in response to legislation the Senate passed in 2021.
“This legislation is an important step to strengthen our supply chains, revitalize domestic manufacturing, and reinvigorate the innovation engine of our economy to ensure that the United States remains globally competitive in the 21st century,” the White House wrote. “H.R. 4521 is aligned with the President’s vision to enhance American economic and scientific competitiveness; build a stronger, more diverse, and more inclusive innovation ecosystem; and invest in strengthening critical supply chains, our domestic industrial base, and regional economic growth and development.”
GOP BLASTS PELOSI’S ‘WEAK’ AND OUTDATED CHINA COMPETITION BILL
Like its Senate counterpart, the COMPETES Act would put billions toward incentivizing domestic production of semiconductors, which the White House claims will “strengthen our economic competitiveness, supply chain resilience, equity and inclusivity, and leadership in science and technology.”
President Joe Biden had previously stated that the legislation would provide “an opportunity to show China and the rest of the world that the 21st century will be the American century — forged by the ingenuity and hard work of our innovators, workers, and businesses.”
Still, House Republican Study Group Chairman Jim Banks of Indiana claims the bill would “help China.”
“The name of Speaker Pelosi’s America COMPETES Act must be ironic or a joke, because after looking through the text, no sensible person would ever say this will help Americans confront the China threat much less compete with China, as this legislation is being advertised,” he claimed in a memo sent to other members of the study group.
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He further tweeted Tuesday that the bill “mentions ‘equity’ 4X more than it mentions the ‘Chinese Communist Party.'”
.@SpeakerPelosi‘s America CONCEDES Act mentions “equity” 4X more than it mentions the “Chinese Communist Party”
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) February 1, 2022
