Bioeconomy Research and Development Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore).

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack).

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I stand in strong opposition to what should be called the concedes act. Once again, we are voting on a bill that was forced through this Chamber in a partisan fashion, and one that lacks the policies needed to bolster our competitiveness and combat the threats from our foreign adversaries.

The hard work and the bipartisan collaboration of the Space, Science, and Technology Committee has, once again, been obliterated so that the left can pass partisan policies.

Once again, in a sincere and goodwill attempt to work across the aisle on important policy, I introduced an amendment that would have reauthorized NASA's enhanced-use leasing program for 1 year, a timeline supported by both parties. But to no surprise, the Democrats put messaging over good governance and refused to make that noncontroversial amendment in order.

And just a few weeks ago, we had a bipartisan EUL bill that had already passed this House. It was stolen from us, gutted, and turned into a Federal election takeover bill.

Instead of focusing on commonsense solutions to our China problems, H.R. 4521 hurts the American people. It lets China off the hook for failing to contain COVID-19. It fails to ban funding to CCP-tied organizations. It fails to punish the CCP for its blatant human rights abuses, and it fails to stop China's theft of America's intellectual property.

Today, we had another opportunity to pass important legislation to support American technology and to hold foreign adversaries accountable. Instead, we are, once again, wasting the American people's time, and I urge every single one of my colleagues to vote ``no''.
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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I take great offense at what I just heard, that we are supposedly Asian bashing. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is typical Democrat accusations, politics, and identity politics; I should say this. We have never bashed anybody for their heritage whatsoever. Our argument is totally 100 percent countering the Chinese Communist Party. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the heritage of any people whatsoever.

Our greatest adversary in the world today is the Chinese Communist Party. If we can't push back on the Communist Chinese without being accused of racial accusations and racism, which is so typical of this other side, I feel like this country is not being well served at all.

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Mr. BABIN.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

During the past 2 hours of debate, you have heard my colleagues mention dozens and dozens of flaws in this bill, and they haven't even covered all of them.

There is an excessive transfer of taxpayer dollars to international climate slush funds, with no guardrails preventing that money from going to China, our greatest adversary today.

There is a dramatic expansion of the Treasury's authority, giving them unchecked power to block Americans' digital currency payments worldwide. There is the permanent extension of the healthcare tax credit for trade adjustment assistance beneficiaries with no justification. There are Solyndra-style loan guarantees.

It seems like this bill has everything in it except for the one thing that it desperately needs: a focus on countering the growing danger we face from the Chinese Communist Party.

There is no question in my mind that the Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat that we face as a nation today. I was proud to work on bipartisan House Science, Space, and Technology Committee legislation to make America more competitive and more secure. I had high hopes that we could take our proposals, which passed the House with broad bipartisan support, and conference them with the Senate to create a strong, strategic approach for America's continued technological growth and global competitiveness.

Unfortunately, the Speaker had other priorities. Instead of moving forward on a true China bill, she created a massive Christmas tree with unrelated liberal priorities hung from every branch like ornaments.

We cannot afford this partisan gamesmanship. The threat is too real for the American people and our national security.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, this bloc of amendments includes nearly every single Democrat amendment that was made in order by the Rules Committee. I can't pretend to know why these particular amendments were made in order because that decision was made behind closed doors rather than in a bipartisan manner.

I will say that the sheer number of amendments being considered en bloc shows that even Members of the Speaker's own party didn't have the chance to contribute to the underlying bill until now.

I will also say that, unfortunately, most of these provisions take a bad bill and simply make it worse. These amendments add studies on declining salmon populations, direct USDA to research fake meat, and establish an entirely new institute to focus on zero-emission locomotives.

Whether or not any of these are worthy policies, I think we can all agree that they do not belong in a legislative package meant to address the threat of the Chinese Communist Party and to make America more competitive globally.

America's economic success for generations has been driven by our investment in transformational basic research. The Chinese Communist Party wants to copy that success and take over as the global leader in science and technology. They are investing more money in R&D than we are and graduating many more STEM professionals than we are as well.

They have a laser focus on surpassing the United States and reaping the economic and national defense benefits that come with technological superiority.

They aren't wasting time on fake meat and trains, and we should not be either.

I urge my colleagues to oppose these amendments, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This bloc of amendments we are now considering includes 51 bipartisan provisions that were handpicked by the Rules Committee and Democrat leadership out of more than 600 amendments that Members submitted for consideration.

I appreciate these Members taking a page out of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee's playbook and working across the aisle to try to move these provisions forward.

If the entire bill had been done in this way, we would certainly have a more focused and effective legislation that could have garnered bipartisan support.

This block of amendments includes several provisions that have gone through the proper channels of being marked up and reported out of the committee.

Unfortunately, it also includes provisions that have not gone through regular order. Members weren't given the opportunity to review, improve, and vote on these policies in committee. Having a Democrat and Republican cosponsor an amendment does not mean they are fully vetted or bipartisan either.

But by tossing together a massive partisan package, the Speaker has made it clear that she does not value regular order. And by ignoring regular order, she has limited Member input. So Members feel the need to take advantage of any opportunity to move their priorities, even if they have nothing to do with increasing our competitiveness with China.

Much like the expansive jurisdictional reach of this legislation, this block of amendments is simply a smorgasbord of policies, and they would best be considered individually rather than en bloc.

I will leave it to the amendment sponsors to explain why Members should support this en bloc.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, this block of amendments includes nearly every single Republican amendment that was made in order by the Committee on Rules.

Out of more than 600 amendments submitted to the Committee on Rules, only 37 Republican amendments were made in order. There is no rhyme or reason to which amendments were accepted and which were rejected. I want to be very, very clear, that I do not support the underlying legislation here. But that said, the amendments being considered in this block were the only chance that most Republican Members have had to have any impact at all on this massive, nearly 3,000-page bill.

Because so few committees held markup or bipartisan discussions in their provisions in this bill, there have been very few opportunities to review or revise this legislation. Among this block of amendments were safeguards, improvements, and cost-saving measures.

My colleagues, Representatives Garcia and Burgess, offered an amendment that would prohibit the massive climate change provisions in this bill from taking effect until the Secretary of Energy can certify that they will not reduce our energy independence.

Representative Grothman's amendment that would strike the $8 billion in taxpayer funds from being given to a U.N. climate fund--a slush fund, if you will--the same fund that has given the Chinese Communist Party already $100 million. And Representative Bice's amendment would demand accountability from the administration before allocating any funding to this fund.

Representatives Gimenez and Burgess would require the Secretary of Energy to ensure that no provisions in this bill will raise energy costs for Americans.

Madam Speaker, unfortunately, these amendments improve on the underlying legislation but cannot ultimately fix this legislation. So while I urge my colleagues to vote for these amendments, I remain opposed to this sprawling partisan bill.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Speaker, we have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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