Mariannette Miller-Meeks: “I thank Chair Bilirakis for yielding. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1721, the Critical Infrastructure…”

“I thank Chair Bilirakis for yielding. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1721, the Critical Infrastructure Manufacturing Feasibility Act. This bipartisan legislation that I co-lead with Representative Schrier directs the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a comprehensive study examining the feasibility of manufacturing critical infrastructure products here in the United States. At a time when we have a President who is going to make good on the promise to onshore manufacturing and have a resurgence of manufacturing in the United States, there is nothing more important we can do than to reauthorize the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and pass H.R. 1721. The challenges we face regarding our supply chains and manufacturing capabilities have been brought into sharp focus in recent years. We cannot continue to allow foreign competitors, particularly China and the Chinese Communist Party, to control our supply chains and create economic vulnerabilities. Consider our infrastructure and emerging technologies. We have seen how foreign control of critical minerals needed for solar panels and battery production has created bottlenecks in our renewable energy transition and also in the manufacturing of vehicles. Similarly, the components required for data centers that power our artificial intelligence, or augmented intelligence capabilities, are largely manufactured overseas, creating significant vulnerabilities in these strategically important sectors.…”