Press Releases

WASHINGTON—Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Banks released the following statement after reviewing the text of Speaker Pelosi’s COMPETES Act, the latest version of the so-called “China competitiveness bills:”
 
“All along, conservatives have criticized the Sen. Chuck Schumer-led Endless Frontier Act and its various iterations, including the Senate-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House’s EAGLE Act, as weak and unserious. In particular, all of them fail to do enough to counter the malign Chinese Communist Party activity happening within the United States, which should be our primary concern. Moreover, these bills all waste taxpayer dollars on issues completely disconnected from countering China.
 
“Speaker Pelosi’s new bill, the COMPETES Act (which is very similar to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s USICA), is no exception. It is weak and fails to properly confront the China threat, and it throws billions at unrelated issues that have nothing to do with our national security. For example, it includes millions to study coral reefs and gives billions to the United Nations Green Climate Fund. At the same time, there is no money to enforce our sanctions laws or increase our military strength.
 
“This is why conservatives wrote our own China bill last summer that is just 0.5% the cost of the USICA and includes tough measures like sanctions that would limit the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to subvert our nation’s institutions and steal our intellectual property. If Congress really wanted to confront the China threat, we’d pass the RSC’s Countering Communist China Act.”
 
More background:
 
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is the largest caucus in Congress with 159 Members. The RSC was founded in 1973 to bring like-minded conservative House members together to promote a strong, principled legislative agenda. For more information on the Republican Study Committee, visit rsc-banks.house.gov.