Nashville Standard

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed two legislative measures aimed at countering the influence and supply chain dominance of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the United States. The bills, titled "Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act" (H.R. 1166) and "SHIELD Against the CCP Act" (H.R. 708), are now headed to the Senate for consideration.

H.R. 1166 was introduced by Representative Carlos Gimenez, chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, with support from several other committee chairmen including Mark E. Green, August Pfluger, and John Moolenaar. H.R. 708 was put forward by Representative Dale Strong, chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology, and is cosponsored by a group that includes Chairman Green, Chairman Moolenaar, Michael Guest, Clay Higgins, Morgan Luttrell, Gabe Evans, and Tom Suozzi.

Chairman Green commented on the passage of these bills stating: “The ever-growing malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party on U.S. soil must be treated like the urgent threat it is... I urge the Senate to swiftly send these commonsense pieces of legislation to the president’s desk to secure our homeland from every threat posed by the CCP.”

Subcommittee Chairman Gimenez emphasized: “The United States must decouple from Communist China in all facets of our lives... We were already late to recognize the PRC’s battery threat, and we cannot afford to do it again."

Subcommittee Chairman Strong added: “I am proud to see the House pass my bill... With President Trump back in the White House, I urge the Senate to take up and pass this bipartisan bill so it can be signed into law without delay.”

The "Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act" seeks to prevent DHS from purchasing batteries from six Chinese companies linked to the CCP. These companies include Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Ltd., BYD Company Ltd., Envision Energy Ltd., EVE Energy Company Ltd., Hithium Energy Storage Technology Company Ltd., and Gotion High-Tech Company Ltd.

Meanwhile, "SHIELD Against the CCP Act" mandates DHS to form a working group tasked with examining threats posed by nontraditional tactics used by CCP including identity theft and unlawful border crossings. The group will report its findings annually for five years.