U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today lauded passage in the House of Representatives of the landmark America COMPETES Act, legislation to counter the rising negative influence of the Chinese Communist Party. On February 2, Pascrell spoke on the floor of the House in favor of the bill.

The COMPETES Act includes Rep. Pascrell’s bipartisan “National Critical Capabilities Defense Act,”, which is written to repair America’s frayed supply chains and stanch the bleeding of American industrial might to foreign adversaries. This Pascrell led provision would create a whole-of-government screening process for outbound investments and the offshoring of critical capacities and supply chains to ensure that the United States can quickly detect supply chain vulnerabilities. In the House, the bill’s lead sponsors are Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01). In the Senate the lead sponsors are Senator’s Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX).

“The Chinese Communist Party government climbed America’s back to economic power. They are abusing that power to commit genocide, crush democratic norms, bully our allies, and undermine workers. Now is the moment where we must stop our adversaries from leaching off America’s economic might to sow discord,” said Rep. Pascrell, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight. “This watershed bill will strengthen our frayed national supply chains while stopping the bleeding of our industrial might being shipped to foreign adversaries. I will fight to protect our bipartisan, bicameral bill as Congress begins conference negotiations to hopefully send a final bill to the President quickly.”

The comprehensive package includes several trade related pieces of legislation focused on supporting U.S. workers, holding China accountable for trade abuses, improving trade remedies for domestic industries, and investing in domestic manufacturing to support good paying jobs. The bill includes robust improvements to the lapsed Trade Adjustment Assistance program to ensure workers obtain federal assistance after their jobs are impacted by trade, including the Pascrell authored “Improved Access to Trade Adjustment Assistance Act” (H.R.5258) that was inspired by Mondelez closing its cookie factory in North Jersey, terminating approximately 600 jobs. The bill also includes legislation to crack down on abuses in De Minimis shipments from China and update our antidumping and countervailing duty laws.

Pascrell concluded, “The Republican caucus’ overwhelming opposition to our plan that bolsters domestic manufacturing, increases our competitiveness and shows international leadership is shameful. After the prior administration spent four years kowtowing to Beijing, House Democrats have been consistent in trying to halt the Chinese Communist Party’s nefarious growth.”

On January 20, 2022, Chairmen Pascrell and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03), the Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, wrote to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, calling out the carmaker for opening a showroom in Xinjiang Province, the heart of the CCP’s atrocities against the Uyghur peoples. Their letter further implored Tesla to set a better example against the CCP’s crimes.

Chairman Pascrell is one of the leading critics in Congress of the Chinese Community Party and for decades has sounded the alarm of the offshoring of American jobs overseas. Pascrell is the sponsor of the bipartisan American PPE Supply Chain Integrity Act to help end America’s over-reliance on personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies from China and other foreign nations.