Barbara Lee: “First, let me take a minute on the many partisan riders included in the bill being considered today and raise a couple…”

“First, let me take a minute on the many partisan riders included in the bill being considered today and raise a couple of points. The number of prohibitions seems to be really enormous. They have proliferated, often with little concern for what the actual ramifications might be. It appears to be the approach of: If an organization has ever done something that you have not liked or a wild theory has circulated about it, we will just prohibit it. We will pick up our ball and take it home. {time} 1000 This is not just ineffective; it is really immature. The bill prohibits funds for the Chinese Communist Party. This sounds tough. I was the previous chairwoman of the subcommittee, and this bill has not provided funding to the Chinese Communist Party. It is a red herring. It prohibits scientific cooperation with countries we do not like, not stopping to consider that while there may or may not be active collaboration currently, there may come a time when it is in the United States' best interest to partner, not with the government, but with the people, with scientists, to pursue common goals. Indeed, we carried on scientific cooperation with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, not because we agree with their government, but it was in our own interest. The bill prohibits gain-of-function research. That sounds good but consider that this same prohibited research is producing new therapies for cancer and cystic fibrosis.…”