Yesterday, the conservative leaders of the Conservative Action Project released an open letter decrying the shortcomings of the Democrats’ legislation that purports to confront the Red Chinese for their economic war against the United States and its allies.
The letter points out that instead of crafting sensible legislation designed to address these threats, however, Congress is currently conferencing the House-passed COMPETES Act and the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. Together, these two bills make up $325 billion in spending which represents largely special interest handouts masquerading as anti-China legislation.
Full text of the letter and the list of signers follows:
March 31, 2022
Washington, DC
Conservatives strongly support the need to confront the Chinese Communist Party and hold it accountable for aggression against American allies and friends in the Indo-Pacific, its theft of intellectual property, human rights violations, and COVID-19 coverup.
Instead of crafting sensible legislation designed to address these threats, however, Congress is currently conferencing the House-passed COMPETES Act and the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. Together, these two bills make up $325 billion in spending which represents largely special interest handouts masquerading as anti-China legislation.
Both bills are filled with wasteful spending proposals that do little to confront the China challenge, hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable, or enhance American competitiveness. In fact, some of the provisions would undermine America’s ability to compete effectively with China – that is, if they even address China at all.
In legislation purportedly about addressing the threat from China, there are provisions to send $8 billion to the United Nations climate slush fund, $2 billion to foreign countries to help them fight climate change, provisions of the PRO Act, which would remove the secret ballot in union organizing elections, and billions in spending for solar energy projects, among other unrelated issues. The House-passed COMPETES Act even contains a sense of Congress to implement Biden’s commitments under the Paris climate treaty – which would cost the already precarious economy tens of trillions of dollars.
Moreover, while the bill provides billions to support America’s domestic semiconductor production capacity, it includes no requirements that these companies alter their business relationship with China – raising the possibility that taxpayer funds in a bill meant to out-compete China could end up with U.S. companies sharing technology with the CCP.
Congress needs to directly address the threats China poses to the American homeland and our global leadership. This includes ensuring a robust business climate at home, creating a permanent, China-resistant economy through strategic economic disentanglement, addressing China’s manipulation and use of our university system for espionage purposes, preventing Chinese theft of American intellectual property, and fully investigating the COVID-19 cover-up.
Rather than address the legitimate issues raised by China, the House and Senate proposals currently on the table are stuffed with unrelated spending and parochial priorities. We urge conservatives to reject these proposals in favor of ones that seriously meet the growing threat of the CCP.
The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Attorney General
President Ronald Reagan (1985-1988)
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Chairman, Conservative Action Project
Chairman, CNP Action, Inc.
Kevin Roberts, Ph.D.
President
The Heritage Foundation
Kelly J. Shackelford, Esq.
President and CEO
First Liberty Institute
The Honorable Russ Vought
Director, Office of Management and Budget (2020-2021)
Thomas E. McClusky
Principal
Greenlight Strategies, LLC
Alfred S. Regnery
President
Republic Book Publishers
The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Chief Domestic Advisor
President Ronald Reagan (1987-1988)
Myron Ebell
Director, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Honorable Bob McEwen
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Ohio
David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United
William L. Walton
The Bill Walton Show
Resolute Protector Foundation
Ed Corrigan
Vice Chairman, Conservative Action Project and President & CEO, Conservative Partnership Institute
The Honorable Brooke Rollins
President and CEO
America First Policy Institute (AFPI)
The Honorable James C. Miller III
Budget Director for President Reagan, 1985-1988
Charles J. Cooper
Assistant Attorney General, President Ronald Reagan (1985-88)
Cooper& Kirk, PLLC
Elaine Donnelly
President
Center for Military Readiness
Rod D. Martin
Founder & CEO
The Martin Organization, Inc.
Christina Murphy Lusk
President
The Martin Foundation
Sherri R. Martin
Executive Vice President
The Martin Organization, Inc.
Craig Shirley
Reagan Biographer
Presidential Historian
Jay Mount
President
MDS Communications Corporation
Matthew Tyrmand
Principal
Matthew Tyrmand LLC
Carey Woodruff
Executive Vice President, Foundation for American Christian Education
Ron Pearson
Executive Director
Young America's Foundation
Sheryl Kaufman
Board Member
Americans for Limited Government
Susan Carleson
Chairman/CEO
Carleson Center for Welfare Reform
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
The Honorable George K. Rasley Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
Gerard Kassar
State Chairman
NYS Conservative Party
Sean Noble
President
American Encore
Tom DeWeese
President
American Policy Center
Floyd Brown
Founder
The Western Journal
Jack Park
Conservative Activist and Donor
Law Offices of Jack Park
The Honorable Peter Jon Thomas
Chairman
The Conservative Caucus
Allen Hebert
Chairman
American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston
Richard Rounsavelle
Trustee
MRC
Jeremy Cerone
Member
Council for National Policy
Saulius "Saul" Anuzis
President
60 Plus Association
The Honorable Diana Denman
Chairman/President
The Reagan Legacy Forum
Jenny Beth Martin
Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund
Lisa B. Nelson
Chief Executive Officer
American Legislative Exchange Council
Terry Schilling
President
American Principles Project
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder and President
Media Research Center
Lori Roman
President
ACRU Action Fund
The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell
President
The Leadership Institute
Rachel A. Bovard
Senior Director of Policy
Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI)
Chad Connelly
Founder and President
Faith Wins
The Honorable Tony Perkins
President
Family Research Council
The Honorable Jim DeMint
Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute
Member, US Senate (SC 2005-2013)
The Honorable Paul S. Teller, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Advancing American Freedom
Nancy Schulze
Founder, President
RCW Speakers
Kevin Freeman
Founder
NSIC Institute
The Honorable Matthew Buckham
Former Special Assistant to President Trump and Founder of American Accountability Foundation
American Accountability Foundation
Frank Gaffney
Executive Chairman
Center for Security Policy
Guillermo J. Aragon
Chief Strategy Officer
Martin Capital
Lourdes Cosio
Campaign for the American Future
Shawn A. Mitchell
Former National Chaplain, National Federation of Republican Assemblies
Tim Throckmorton
President
Lifepointe Ministry
Judson Phillips
Founder
Tea Party Nation
Joan Holt Lindsey
President
Lindsey Communications
Willes K. Lee
Immediate Past President, National Federation of Republican Assemblies
Gary Marx
President
The Concord Fund
Robert K. Fischer
Meeting Coordinator
Conservatives of Faith
The Honorable Gary L. Bauer
President
American Values
C. Preston Noell III
President
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Robert Chambers
Executive Vice President
AFA Action
Richard G. Scurry
Co-Founder
Bible Literacy Project
Richard D. Hayes
Partner
Hayes, Berry, White & Vanzant, LLP
Paavo Ensio
Chairman
Universal Minerals Group
Kay R. Daly
President
Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
William P. Mills, III
Executive Committee Member
Council for National Policy
Kathleen Patten
President & CEO
American Target Advertising
The Honorable Mike Hill
Former Member
Florida State Representative
Lee Beaman
CEO
Beaman Ventures
Rick Scarborough
President
Recover America
James L. Martin
Founder/Chairman
60 Plus Association
Democrats
Joe Biden administration
China
Biden foreign policy
COMPETES Act
U.S. Innovation and Competition Act
Government spending
national debt
federal budget deficit
COVID-19 coverup
climate change spending
Chinese Communist Party