Ways and Means Promises Scrutiny of US-Chinese Ventures in EV Batteries
The House Ways and Means Committee passed an oversight plan (see 2302270041) for the 118th Congress along party lines Feb. 28.
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Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said that the committee neglected to do robust oversight when Democrats were in charge. He also suggested some of the trade or industrial policy areas that could face scrutiny under Republican leadership, describing the Inflation Reduction Act as "Green New Deal Corporate Welfare." He said that its biggest beneficiaries are big banks on Wall Street, corporate America and the Chinese government.
"Democrats gave the administration a blank check -- and American workers, families and small businesses have paid the price," he said. "We will seek answers to the questions that the other side of the aisle refused to ask."
"We will also examine whether it is in America's best interest to shower tax benefits on companies that have shed their American identity to go into business with the Chinese Communist Party," Smith said.
That seemed to be a reference to joint ventures with Chinese companies, such as the new plan for a Ford electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a recent opinion piece that "there are huge security risks to using Chinese technology" in EV batteries, and that he would ask the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review the licensing agreement for the plant.
"We cannot afford to be so naïve. That is why I have demanded a commitment from the Biden administration that no tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act will go to Chinese companies -- directly or indirectly," Rubio wrote.
The most direct comments Smith made on trade were to say: "We will enforce trade practices and agreements that protect our workers, and work closely with our allies, to assure that American supply chains are secure against the threat of the Chinese Communist Party."
As Republicans in both chambers have done, Smith criticized the global tax agreement the Treasury Department negotiated, part of a deal to get other countries to abandon digital services taxes on American firms. He called it unconstitutional.
Ranking member Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said that he regretted how partisan the oversight plan document was, because he said oversight "has the potential to be a place where we can all agree."
Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., chairman of the oversight subcommittee, predicted that some of his panel's hearings and investigations "are going to be smashmouth and some, I believe, are going to come out and be good governing."