House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), and Congresswoman Young Kim (R-Calif.) at today’s leadership press conference to discuss how Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats’ America Concedes to China Act is a $325 billion liberal wishlist that will cause Bidenflation to skyrocket and surrenders America’s competitive edge to the Chinese Communist Party.

In addition, Whip Scalise noted that President Biden’s self-made crises are hurting American families and called out Democrats for not following their own mask mandates. Whip Scalise also highlighted Republican-led efforts to get answers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about its harmful and inconsistent guidelines for children in schools across the country. Whip Scalise emphasized that Republicans will work to undo Democrats’ inflationary policies and hold the Biden Administration accountable when they take back control of the House of Representatives.  
Highlights from Whip Scalise’s remarks: 

On Speaker Pelosi’s soft-on-China legislation:
 
“Good morning. It’s incredibly disappointing that after months of bipartisan negotiations on legislation to try to confront some of the problems that we’re facing from China – and to try to bring legislation that would get tough on China – Speaker Pelosi jettisoned much of that negotiation to instead try to bring a back-door Build Back Better bill to the floor. If you look at this bill and it’s probably, appropriately called the America Concedes to China Act. When you look at the provisions and the gifts they give to China. It misses the mark on so many fronts.

“And [Ranking Member] McCaul talked about some of the things that we wanted to do. You know, you can look at things like the CHIPS for America Act, but then you look at so many of the other things we wanted to do to get tough on China that Speaker Pelosi backed away from. And what did she replace it with? $54 billion in new mandatory spending.”

On Democrats’ reckless spending fueling inflation:

“At a time when inflation is through the roof – families are pleading with Washington to stop the spending, to get control over inflation that is tied to Washington spending. Speaker Pelosi’s answer is to double down and try to add $54 billion in new automatic, mandatory spending. They create slush funds all throughout this bill that we’re whipping against, including an $8 billion fund that has been used to give taxpayer money to China.

“Imagine this: I haven’t gotten a single call from a constituent asking to give more money – their hard-earned money – to China. Yet, China has gotten $100 million already from this slush fund, and Speaker Pelosi wants to add another $8 billion of American taxpayer money to a slush fund that’s given over $100 million of our hard-earned tax dollars to China? This is lunacy. There [are] so many other things in this bill that are going to make things worse.”

On Democrat-led efforts to defund the police but create a climate corps:

“But, look at what they’re doing. The same party that has embraced the defund the police movement – that will not stand up against district attorneys in America, who won’t prosecute criminals here when we’ve got a crime wave. They’re creating – they call it like a global warming police force. I think they call them Climate Change Officers paid for by taxpayers here in America to send Climate Change Officers all around the globe. We need more police here in America. Not people going around the globe shutting down manufacturing and giving gifts to China. So, this is such a misguided bill. [It’s] no surprise that there’s not a single mention of China in President Biden’s Statement of Administrative Policy.”

On Democrats’ self-made crises:

“But it shows you where their focus is at a time when we should be bringing bills to the floor this week, last week, next week, to focus on the challenges Americans are facing, which [are] inflation, high gas prices, an out of control border, crime that’s out of control in most American cities. You look at foreign policy debacles from Afghanistan to the weaknesses that have now led us to where we are with Russia and Ukraine. That’s where the focus should be, and unfortunately, it’s not.”

On Democrat mask hypocrisy:

“It’s why as we work to get the majority back, we will be confronting these challenges, and we’re going continue to lay out alternatives that would actually get our country back on track [and] face the challenges that we have today that the Democrats won’t deal with, including the COVID mismanagement. You look at, right now, school kids that are – if they’re even able to go into the classroom – [facing mask] mandates.

“We’ve been asking for guidance from [the] CDC to look at some of the studies that are out there that show the harm that’s being done to kids, keeping them out of school. Putting mandates in place on kids when the leaders that are putting the mandates in place don’t even wear the masks that they’re forcing the kids to [wear]. And I think it’s those double standards that are infuriating parents all across the country who want and deserve control over their kids’ education.”