WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Andrew Clyde (GA-09) released the following statement after voting against H.R. 4521, the America CONCEDES Act, which ultimately passed the House this morning by a vote of 222-210: 

“As Xi Jinping attempts to distract the world from Communist China’s malign behavior with pomp and circumstance through the 2022 Winter Olympics, Speaker Pelosi is offering the Chinese Communist Party a golden opportunity to significantly undermine the United States. Instead of working with Republicans to combat the monstrous threat that China imposes to Americans’ innovation, health, and national security, House Democrats rammed through a toothless bill that enriches China, fails to hold the CCP accountable for unleashing COVID-19, and naively ignores China’s atrocious human rights abuses. Deceptively named the ‘America COMPETES Act,’ this legislation emboldens the CCP while simultaneously advancing Democrats’ Big Government Socialist agenda by enacting radical climate nonsense that further crushes our middle class.

“Furthermore, as our national debt just topped $30 trillion for the first time in history, Americans simply cannot afford to blow through $325 billion for a bill that concedes more ground to China. I refuse to support the Left’s fiscally irresponsible, immoral, and dangerous piece of legislation that fans the flames of inflation and benefits one of the greatest adversaries the free world has ever known.”

Background: 

Instead of following the Senate’s bipartisan approach to tackling China, House Democrats prioritized a fully partisan bill that advances their radical agenda and fortifies the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  

Some of the reckless policies within the America CONCEDES Act would: 

• Allow research funding to freely flow to colleges and universities that host Confucius Institutes, which the Chinese Communist Party uses to exert influence on campuses

• Create a $45 billion slush fund that can be used by labor unions and other political allies of the Biden Administration

• Provide $8 billion to the unaccountable United Nations Green Climate Fund, which has given $100 million to the CCP

• Establish a new immigration program of unlimited green cards for high-skilled foreign nationals - such as “outstanding professors and researchers,” a documented source of Chinese espionage - with no national security safeguards

• Create “Climate Change Officers” within the Foreign Service, weakening our diplomats’ focus on core U.S. national interests

• Form a Coral Reef Task Force and give $6 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create a National Coral Reef Management Fellowship 

• Provide $5 million to create a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and direct the NSF to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion in the technology sector 

• Present more opportunities for China to steal our intellectual property by directing the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China to work together to undertake “parallel initiatives” on research, development, finance and deployment 

House Democrats’ legislation fails to hold China accountable for releasing COVID-19, suppressing democracy in Hong Kong, practicing horrific human rights abuses - including genocide - against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, and stealing American intellectual property. 

In addition, this nearly 3,000 page, $325 billion piece of legislation lacks a detailed score from the Congressional Budget Office, making it impossible to know the true cost it will impose on the American people who are already struggling with record-high inflation. 

Additional provisions may be found in the bill text HERE.

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