America is Not Up for Grabs

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Madam Speaker, as a Member of Congress from one of the largest agricultural producing districts in the country, I am concerned with Communist China's impact on American agriculture.

Over the past decade, China's investment in American assets like farmland and intellectual property have grown tenfold. Kansans are rightly concerned about China's questionable ambitions, so I supported legislation that requires the Secretary of Agriculture to report on foreign transactions. No other nation allows its adversaries to go unchecked in purchasing its property, and America shouldn't either.

Since 2000, the U.S. has more than doubled the total imports of used cooking oil from China. That is equal to displacing more than 5 years of soybean harvest from my home State of Kansas. Kansans are concerned about China taking America's place in the market, so I led 40 of my colleagues in demanding that the U.S. Treasury reserve the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit for domestic fuel made from domestic feedstocks. American tax credits must be used to benefit American producers. That should be a no-brainer.

We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to adversarial behavior and put our national security at risk. We must let China know in no uncertain terms that America is not up for grabs.

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