Speaker Pelosi announced on Friday that the House, “will soon introduce its competitiveness bill to counter China.”
Her announcement failed to acknowledge that the U.S. House already passed competitiveness bills – with broad bipartisan support – last June. H.R. 2225 and H.R. 3593 were developed thanks to bipartisan work by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee members, including myself. The U.S. Senate also passed a competitiveness bill and Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer promised us there would be a conference committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate bills.
This is absolutely critical legislation that must be resolved and signed into law as soon as possible to help stop the bleeding when it comes to our ability to compete with China and hold them accountable for Human Rights Abuses and malign activity
While I applaud the Speaker’s renewed focus on the issue, her implication in announcing new legislation is that she plans to bypass Committees and write a partisan bill in her office with industry lobbyists. This is unacceptable and is the latest disappointment in a pattern of rule by Speaker’s fiat in the House of Representatives.
Congress must return to a member-driven process, which I have advocated for so we can have real, thoughtful debate on each other’s ideas and advance policy that is in the best interest of our constituents.
Congressman Daniel Webster represents The Villages in the U.S. House of Representatives.