End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act of 2024

Floor Speech

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Mrs. DINGELL. Madam Speaker, I thank my dear friend from Michigan, who has been a partner on all of these issues.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in very strong opposition to H.R. 7980, the so-called End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act. This bill will not end Chinese electric vehicle dominance. In reality, it will ensure it.

The Inflation Reduction Act's 30D tax credit was designed to level the playing field for American autoworkers who faced fierce competition from very heavily subsidized Chinese competitors. However, what this bill would effectively do is eliminate this vital tool, making it harder for American companies to compete.

Instead of promoting American innovation and creating jobs in this country, this bill would push companies to import more batteries from Chinese suppliers.

H.R. 7980 would lead to American job losses, and it would have a ripple effect throughout the economy. It would impact suppliers, manufacturers, and our domestic autoworkers throughout communities that rely on our domestic auto industry.

I will read a tweet from United Auto Workers this morning: ``The House GOP is going after nearly 2,000 battery manufacturing jobs in Michigan''--Mr. Kildee is in my home State--``that we negotiated under our master agreement. We urge a no vote on H.R. 7980. Don't get distracted by their rhetoric and don't take the bait. This bill is an attack on good union jobs in the United States, and we're not going to stand for it.''

That is the UAW, who wants those jobs here in the United States of America, not China.

If this bill passes, it will kill good-paying union auto manufacturing and building trade jobs here. This bill would undermine the United States' ability to compete in the global EV market, and it blatantly ignores the fact that American automakers are already diversifying their supply chains and reducing their reliance on China.

I remind my colleagues: I am not old, but I am seasoned. I was a child in the 1970s, but I remember when the domestic auto industry was caught flatfooted. The key to the American auto industry being competitive is we are competing in a global marketplace, not just here.

The global marketplace is demanding EVs. In the 1970s, the domestic auto industry wasn't ready for small-car vehicles when gasoline prices went up, and we lost a decade. We closed small towns in our State. We have never recovered. Those jobs have never come back.

Madam Speaker, I am committed with my colleagues in Michigan to keeping our industry competitive in a global marketplace. We cannot make that mistake again. This time, we must be ready to innovate and do so in a competitive way.

Republicans want to ship our jobs overseas. I want them home, here in this country. Democrats fight every day to ensure our jobs stay in our communities and invest in America.

At the end of the day, the bill hurts everyday Americans who support and have benefited the most from the IRA's historic domestic investments.

For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, which it did not, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.

My amendment assures that certain investments made in reliance upon the rules and regulations promulgated under the Inflation Reduction Act are not undercut by Congress changing the rules.

This amendment ensures that these crucial projects that made significant investments upon the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act will continue to operate to produce EV batteries and electric vehicles here in this country and that the jobs that these investments have brought to the districts in which they are located won't be lost to foreign manufacturers.

We want them here. I want them built by American autoworkers; not subsidized by China, who wants to dominate us.

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for this motion to recommit.

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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