Brian Babin: “This bloc of amendments includes nearly every single Democrat amendment that was made in order by the Rules Committee. I…”

“This bloc of amendments includes nearly every single Democrat amendment that was made in order by the Rules Committee. I can't pretend to know why these particular amendments were made in order because that decision was made behind closed doors rather than in a bipartisan manner. I will say that the sheer number of amendments being considered en bloc shows that even Members of the Speaker's own party didn't have the chance to contribute to the underlying bill until now. I will also say that, unfortunately, most of these provisions take a bad bill and simply make it worse. These amendments add studies on declining salmon populations, direct USDA to research fake meat, and establish an entirely new institute to focus on zero-emission locomotives. Whether or not any of these are worthy policies, I think we can all agree that they do not belong in a legislative package meant to address the threat of the Chinese Communist Party and to make America more competitive globally. America's economic success for generations has been driven by our investment in transformational basic research. The Chinese Communist Party wants to copy that success and take over as the global leader in science and technology. They are investing more money in R&D than we are and graduating many more STEM professionals than we are as well. They have a laser focus on surpassing the United States and reaping the economic and national defense benefits that come with technological superiority.…”