Congresswoman Tenney Leads Charge Against Pelosi’s America CONCEDES Act

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22), member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today led the charge against Speaker Pelosi’s so-called America COMPETES Act. After joining House Republican leadership for a press conference to discuss this disastrous bill, Tenney introduced 10 amendments to fix some of the bill’s most egregious provisions. The amendments range from eliminating wasteful spending and partisan climate programs to adding in Tenney’s American Innovation and Manufacturing Act and the Make It in America to Sell It in America Act to restore domestic manufacturing.

In her remarks, Tenney criticized the U.S.’ dependence on China for critical materials like personal protective equipment (PPE) and emphasized how the bill would make the U.S. more dependent on China in the future. Tenney also highlighted her amendments to fix these and other shortcomings within the bill.

“As written, the America COMPETES Act, which would be more accurately titled the America CONCEDES Act, fails to address the full range of threats the Chinese Government and Communist Party (CCP) pose to our national and industrial security. House Democrats are once again using an urgent national need as leverage to cynically push forth unrelated liberal priorities and poison pills. Furthermore, the weak bill omits core national security tools in the House Foreign Affairs’ Committee jurisdiction, including security assistance, export controls, and abandoning U.S. allies facing CCP aggression. Without these and other important amendments, I am strongly opposed to this legislation,” said Congresswoman Tenney.

A clip of Tenney’s remarks is available here.

Tenney’s amendments provide commonsense solutions to some of the bill’s most wasteful and partisan provisions and introduce policies necessary for the United States to counter Communist China’s influence and boost American competitiveness and innovation. The full list of Tenney’s amendments is available below.

Tenney’s amendments to strengthen and improve the America CONCEDES Act:

1. Amendment #81: Removes title VI of division D, Investing in a Sustainable Future. This amendment eliminates unnecessary and wasteful findings, programs, and reports related to environmental issues and climate change, which do nothing to further advance neither national nor economic security priorities with regard to China.
    
2. Amendment #82: Requires the Permanent Representative of the U.S. to the United Nations (UN) to withdraw the U.S. as a Member State of the UN Human Rights Council, which is a haven for dictators and is extremely biased against our ally Israel.
    
3. Amendment #83: Adds the Make It in America to Sell It in America Act to secure critical supply chains by requiring multi-national corporations to make more critical goods in America by instituting local content requirements.
    
4. Amendment #84: Prohibits federal research funds from being used for developing advanced biomass resources for the sole purpose of creation biofuels and bioenergy.
    
5. Amendment #85: Requires any federal research grant recipients to disclose any foreign funding they have received over the previous 10 years and any financial or in-kind support received from entities owned or controlled by China.
    
6. Amendment #86: Requires multinational companies to disclose exposure and connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
    
7. Amendment #88: Adds the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, which will expand the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program to provide capital to America’s small manufacturers.
    
8. Amendment #89: Removes section 30299c, climate resilient development in the Pacific Islands, which directs an excess of resources and weakens U.S. national security in the region by failing to promote peace and security in the region.
    
9. Amendment #90: Requires a review of Chinese companies in and outside Hong Kong, in addition to the PRC, on United States capital markets, which identifies risks to the United States national security posed by the capital raising activities of these companies in both the PRC and Hong Kong.
    
10. Amendment #92: Removes language authorizing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to begin requesting and collecting the demographic information of patent and trademark applicants.

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