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http://ourfuture.org/20140724/house-republicans-block-critical-make-it-in-america-bill
This week one more example of Republican obstruction occurred – blockage of an important “Make It In America” bill – and one more time not a single corporate media outlet reported it.
The House Republican leadership on Tuesday blocked a bill to secure for American companies critical minerals used in the production of energy-efficient products, renewable energy systems, electronics and other technologies. The result is companies – and the Defense Department – continue to be forced to turn to China to make or obtain critical electronics components.
The China Problem
Put simply, China undermined most of the world’s other sources of these strategic minerals by such practices as underpricing, putting them out of business. Once an industry leaves a country it becomes enormously difficult to start it up again. The supply chain is gone. The expertise is gone. The educators are gone – and so on. And, of course, with the industry goes the jobs and the ability for a country to make a living in the world. A huge investment is required to rebuild all of this.
Now China is the main source (90 percent) for many critical minerals used in electronics manufacturing. China is using that 90 percent advantage to force other industries to come to China. China has been using export controls and other restrictions to drive up the price of manufacturing outside of China. If you simply cannot make or obtain certain critical electronics products anywhere else you either get them from China or go out of business. And yes, that includes our military.
The Bill
The Securing Energy Critical Elements and American Jobs Act of 2014 (H.R. 1022) from Rep. Eric Swalwell, (D-Calif.) was written “to assure the long-term, secure, and sustainable supply of energy-critical elements to satisfy the national security, economic well-being, and industrial production needs of the United States.” It would have increased exploration, research and development, and other national means to secure these critical minerals by coordinating the actions of federal agencies to:
promote an adequate and stable supply of energy critical elements,
identify energy-critical elements and establish early warning systems for supply problems,
establish a mechanism for the coordination and evaluation of federal programs with energy-critical element needs, and
encourage private enterprise in the development of an economically sound and stable domestic energy-critical elements supply chain.
This bill is one part of the overall Make It In America series of bills from House and Senate Democrats.
The Vote
A majority of the House voted for the bill, but House leadership set it up for failure by requiring a two-thirds vote to pass. It was voted on “under suspension of the rules” requiring the two-thirds instead of the normal majority.
The reason? Heritage Foundation and Club for Growth objected to our government helping American companies compete with China. They said that the American government securing necessary materials for American companies to manufacture is “interference with the free market.”
To some there apparently is no national interest, only “market” interests.
Of course, it is not a “free market” because China subsidizes its companies and uses strategic chokepoints like this to take over entire industries. China sees itself as a country with a national interest. Conservatives say we should not.
Heritage argued that government “interference in a functioning market is self-defeating.” In other words, let China have the business.
It really is time to find out if Heritage Action and Club for Growth receive funding from China as part of China’s national strategy to capture the world’s strategic industries. China would be foolish not to. But, on the other hand, maybe China doesn’t have to.
This is important stuff. Really important. You should help spread the word that this happened.
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