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House Democrats’ 2,900-page Bill on China Littered With DIE Provisions, Says RSC

Neil Campbell
Neil lives in Canada and writes about society and politics.
Published: January 26, 2022
The Republican Study Committee RSC says the America COMPETES Act anti-china bill is filled with billions of dollars in diversity, equity, inclusion spending.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), speaks during a news conference on August 24, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Republican Study Committee, chaired by Banks, has criticized the 2,912-page America COMPETES Act, proclaimed to counter the Chinese Communist Party, for having a litany of diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change riders attached. (Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A new and extensive piece of legislation championed by the Democrat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives purporting to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence operations is littered with diversity, inclusion, equity, and climate change provisions that have nothing to do with China, says a group of Republican Party House Members.

The bill, released by House Democrats on Jan. 25, is titled the America COMPETES Act. Weighing in at a heavy 2,912 pages, its authors boast the legislation will support the American semiconductor manufacturing sector and rectify the long-standing supply chain crisis.

A Jan. 25 statement issued by the White House and associated with President Joe Biden framed COMPETES as “an important step forward today in advancing legislation that will make our supply chains stronger and reinvigorate the innovation engine of our economy to outcompete China and the rest of the world for decades to come.” 

The administration claimed the Act will “help bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States,” purported it will “power our economy to create good-paying jobs for all Americans, no matter where you live or whether you have a college degree,” and alleged it will “help tackle the climate crisis.”

CNBC reported on Jan. 26 that COMPETES “is the long-awaited response to the $250 billion bill the Senate passed in June known as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act,” but noted the House version cuts out “$200 billion that the Senate included to reinforce U.S. scientific research and technological innovation.”

The Hill reported on Jan. 26 that COMPETES is already facing staunch resistance from Republicans, calling into question whether Democrats can muster enough intra-party support to avert a repeat of the recent Build Back Better and Filibuster Rule flounder torpedoed by the likes of centrist Democrats Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kristen Sinema (AZ).

“Contrary to the false statements put out by the White House and congressional Democrats, this is absolutely NOT a bipartisan bill and will likely garner no Republican support,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) in a statement.

McCaul’s opinion is that COMPETES “was hastily thrown together behind closed doors in a process with no Republican input and is being jammed through the House.”

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), a self-organized cluster of House Republicans hawkish on the issue of CCP infiltration into the United States, blasted the Act, along with several other recent bills purported to counter communist China. 

In a Jan. 26 press release. Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) stated, “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.”

Banks prominently stated that, “These bills all waste taxpayer dollars on issues completely disconnected from countering China.”

The RSC characterized COMPETES as “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.”

In Jan. 26 reporting by Breitbart, an “RSC staffer” was paraphrased as stating COMPETES “also contains other woke provisions,” such as: 

  • Collection of demographic data “appropriate for patent applications”;
  • Protection of sexual orientation and gender identity in the National Apprenticeship Act of 2022;
  • Research on diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE) in the technology sector;
  • Instructs the Secretary of Energy to augment DIE principles in recruitment for the Department’s STEM sector;
  • Outreach to “historically black colleges and universities”;
  • The creation of a Chief Diversity Officer in the National Science Foundation;
  • The expansion of Peace Corps forces in Oceania;
  • Increasing Peace Corps volunteers “in low-income Oceania communities in support of climate resilience initiatives”;
  • The creation of “Climate Change Officer” positions in the Foreign Service; and
  • $4 billion in grants “to assist developing countries” with climate change. 

In a Jan. 26 tweet, the RSC also criticized the bill for divesting more than $100 billion to “woke universities that work hand-in-hand with China.”

According to the RSC, the text of the bill also references “coral reefs” more times than “China.” An elementary search of the document shows 313 results for “coral reef” and 375 for “China.”

Notably, the Act only contains 16 results for the word “communist.”