With bipartisan support, Republicans aim to expedite the passage of 30 bills focused on safeguarding farmland, trade secrets, and critical infrastructure.
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| House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks at the Hudson Institute in Washington on July 8, 2024. |
(NEWS UPDTE USA FAST)-- The House of Representatives is poised to commence the fall session with a slew of China-related legislation in the pipeline for a "China Week" when members return to Washington on Monday.
Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) office published more than 30 bills, including those protecting U.S. farmland, trade secrets, critical infrastructure, and advanced technology from predatory practices by the Chinese regime.
Republican leaders have been working on such legislation for some time. Speaking at Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, before this summer recess, Johnson said: "I hope to have a significant package of China-related legislation signed into law by the end of this year."
China is the gravest threat to world peace, and Congress needs to continue to focus on counterbalancing China with every tool in our arsenal," he further added.
The Republicans are determined to get through a few bills on China without controversy, as they have only a four-seat majority, 220–211, with the November presidential looming large. Therefore, the legislation in the package deals with issues where there is agreement between the parties and has less far-reaching procedural changes.
Republicans plan to fast-track most of those bills, using a fast-tracking procedure on the House floor requiring two-thirds of the vote, allowing a total of 40 minutes of debate. But how such a package of legislation may get through the Democratic-majority Senate, one can only speculate.
Sponsors of some of those bills provided emailed statements to The Epoch Times on how their legislation addresses areas in which China presents threats to the United States, including aggressions over Taiwan; buying farmlands, especially near sensitive military installments; enabling Russia in the Ukraine War; interfering with the U.S. elections; and exploiting U.S. tax credits and export control loopholes.
Deterring Chinese aggression on the global stage is crucial to maintaining stability in America and in our allied nations," Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., told The Epoch Times regarding next week. His bill in consideration requires the Department of Treasury to map out the financial assets of the leading Chinese communist aggressors toward Taiwan.
The security threat that China presents spans beyond the Indo-Pacific. During its annual summit in Washington in July, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization identified China as a "decisive enabler" of Russia in the Ukraine war because of its "large-scale support for Russia's defense industrial base."
Rep. Rich McCormick's, R-Ga., bill would partly help fix that problem by mandating a State Department report on China's sanction evasions. He told The Epoch Times his bill is an "important step" in "making sure that dual-use technologies that we produce aren't used against our allies and partners.
In April, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., proposed legislation that would prohibit foreigners from remote access via a device or cloud computing service based in the United States to an item under export control. He said his aim was to ensure China had "absolutely no way to access and steal American tech for their own nefarious purposes."
This is chief among lawmakers' and state leaders' top concerns on the issue of China's ownership of U.S. farmland. It's also the signature issue of Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington.
As he faces an uphill battle for reelection in November, he introduced a bill on Aug. 30 to include the Secretary of Agriculture on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency committee for national security reviews. Food security is national security, and for too long, the federal government has allowed the CCP to put our security at risk by turning a blind eye to their steadily increasing purchases of American farmland," he told The Epoch Times.
Federal agencies do not have accurate information regarding how much farmland China has bought from the U.S. because the collection and reporting of data through "flawed" processes prevents them from getting a good picture. Chinese interference in the US elections has been identified as a looming threat for years.
On his visit last month, national security adviser Jake Sullivan delivered a message to Beijing that interfering in U.S. elections is "unacceptable" for any nation, and he discussed the issue at every meeting with Chinese officials. Chinese communist regime's misinformation networks on social media are impersonating Americans with fake user accounts, decrying U.S. candidates, and peddling divisive messaging leading to the Nov. presidential election in the United States, a Sept. 3 report said by Graphika, an intelligence company based in New York.
U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas wants to ban colleges receiving money from China from getting DHS grants. He said he is alarmed that the CCP has "infiltrated America's campuses" to engage in espionage, steal our intellectual property, intimidate Chinese dissidents, promote communist propaganda, and funnel sensitive information back to the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, New York Republican, wants to ban tax-exempt organizations taking money or gifts from China from providing funding for political activities. She told The Epoch Times that America's foreign adversaries "will find any loophole possible to wreak havoc on and influence our political system" and they shouldn't be allowed to "exploit our electoral process off the backs of taxpayers."
A bill by Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) also involves tax benefits. It bars Chinese companies from claiming manufacturing tax credits for renewable-energy-related production on U.S. soil under the Inflation Reduction Act. The lawmaker's office has told The Epoch Times that the bill is likely to pass the House when it's voted on next week.