It’s good to be here with you all today to hopefully make some progress on this important bill.
Unfortunately, we have a lot of work to do because instead of focusing on common-sense solutions to our problems, Speaker Pelosi championed a bill that CONCEDES to China and actually makes us less competitive with them and less protected from them.
The House CONCEDES Act lets the CCP off the hook for failing to contain COVID-19 – it fails to ban funding to CCP-tied organizations – it fails to punish the CCP for its blatant human rights abuses – and it fails to strengthen our competitive edge over China.
Instead of putting us in a strategic position to succeed, this bill allows the CCP to continue its misinformation campaign, steal our scientific technology, and bolster its economic advantages.
As the Ranking Member of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, I have a front-row seat to watch China continuously pour investments into its space program.
The U.S. still has a significant advantage over the rest of the world when it comes to space – BUT, if we fail to maintain continuity of purpose on our programs, or if we fall victim to partisan games, that leadership will erode over a short time.
Whoever leads in space sets the rules. And I, for one, don’t want the Chinese Communist Party setting the rules.
This highlights the need for us to get a NASA authorization done. However, House priorities must be reflected in that final bill. We have successfully collaborated on this in the past, and I highly encourage my colleagues here today to work toward that again.
So, with that, I want to end by emphasizing the opportunity we have here today to correct the major issues in this legislation.
Thank you and I yield back.