Political Quotes

On the recordJune 15, 2023
the threat that China poses is widely recognized. Recent events laid bare the Chinese Communist Party's interest in spying on Americans. The Chinese military is growing more aggressive in the Indo-Pacific, especially toward Taiwan. And China is aligning itself with other adversaries like Russia, whose war against Ukraine China has helped support. We need to make the right decisions now to ensure that the United States is able to counter China from a position of strength, which brings me to the majority leader's current China proposal. Last month, the Democrat leader launched an initiative Democrats are calling China Competition bill 2.0. While this proposal has some laudable goals, a lot of Republicans are rightly skeptical of this initiative. Leader Schumer's last China initiative massively ballooned in cost, and now it is being implemented by the Biden administration as a vehicle for advancing progressive policies. I am not alone in fearing the Democrats' latest initiative will turn out to be just more of the same. If Democrats are serious about competing with China, one thing they should be doing is making passage of a robust National Defense Authorization Act a priority. Unfortunately, the NDAA has not exactly been a priority for the Democrat leader over the past 2 years. In fact, last year, Senator Schumer refused to bring the bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee-passed bill to the floor.…
Said by
John Thune
Republican · South Dakota

Share

More from John Thune

Jun 11, 2026

We need Democrat votes. And, as I've said before, I think irrespective of what you think about Bill Pulte, providing the reforms that are included in the 702 reauthorization is a safeguard, regardless of who's in that job, or which party…

foxnews.com
Jun 23, 2026

It’s fair to say that there is a consensus view around here that it is time for the ODNI to be scaled down.

rollcall.com
Jun 6, 2026

Why are we doing this bill? We are here today only because Democrats refuse to appropriate a single dollar for our border and immigration law enforcement.

cbsnews.com
Jun 15, 2026

Even though gas prices might be high today, we know they’re going to come down.

rollcall.com

Other voices in this conversation