Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. America Competes Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the motion to instruct conferees. I welcome this opportunity to reconcile the differences between the House and the Senate bills. This is an opportunity to finally hold China accountable, and I hope we get to a strong work product that we can be proud of.

The House version of this bill, the COMPETES Act, truly is a nonstarter for House Republicans--no surprise--for both sides of the Senate as well, and actually for the American people--and that is my concern.

While it was messaged as legislation to combat the Chinese Communist Party's predatory practices, the trade provisions in the House bill did little to level the playing field with China, adding hurdles that would hurt American consumers and small businesses.

Instead, that bill actually discourages work during a workforce shortage by expanding and delinking the trade adjustment assistance from new trade opportunities. It adds red tape and narrows eligibility of trade programs like GSP and MTB. These are relief measures that we know help small businesses and manufacturers in the marketplace. The bill also exacerbates our supply chain crisis by making unvetted changes to de minimus; and it also fails to address the administration's lackluster effort to compete with China in the Indo- Pacific and around the world.

The Senate's bipartisan approach, while imperfect, addresses China, promotes small businesses of all sizes across our country, and more than anything, it empowers American consumers right here at home.

It offers a clean renewal of MTB, retroactively extends GSP, mandates a section 301 exclusion process with retroactivity, and does not include the Green New Deal wish list.

Let's work together on a final product that actually holds China accountable.

Madam Speaker, I reiterate my support and certainly urge my colleagues to do the same.

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