Representative Mike Garcia (CA-25), a member on the bipartisan, bicameral Conference Committee on Innovation and Competitiveness legislation, delivered remarks on the importance of ensuring American innovation thrives and that America stays ahead of China on all fronts. On the Conference Committee, Garcia serves as a representative of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. The Conference Committee will negotiate legislation to combat China and increase American competitiveness.  

REMARKS AS DELIVERED:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It’s an honor to be a part of this very important process. 

I’m going to start by saying something that may be controversial to some, but China is not our friend. These aren’t good people leading the Chinese Communist regime. They are conducting one of the largest genocides that our globe has seen.

We can’t do anything that appeases them and ultimately, we should not pass anything that enables them. If we do that, we’re doing it wrong. 

I do look forward to putting party politics aside through this process. And if we get to the right legislation, we should treat this as a must pass. 

The Chinese Communist Party is actively attempting to supplant the United States as the driving force in science and technology. To achieve this the CCP has actually targeted American basic research at our universities and our businesses, and they’ve embarked on a systemic campaign to steal American intellectual property. The economic injury of this process and this campaign to steal our IP is roughly $400 billion to $600 billion per year and they orchestrate cyber-attacks which threaten to cripple American businesses and infrastructure in parallel.

In June of 2021, the House SST committee passed multiple bipartisan measures to invest in American innovation, to counter Chinese cyber-attacks, and to improve intellectual property security throughout the research enterprise. 

Unfortunately, nearly a year was wasted in delaying conferencing the House and Senate passed bills. And to make matters worse when the House finally did act the Speaker chose to put poison pills into the good work of the SST bill by including unrelated and frankly harmful provisions that actually diminish our competitiveness with China and enable China: funneling more money into slush funds such as the UN climate change fund and adding sense of Congress language provisions which actually don’t protect us from this very existential Chinese threat.