This week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., brought back the “No Taxpayer Dollars for Communist Chinese COVID Tests Act.”
Scott’s bill “would prohibit the use of federal funds to purchase at-home tests for COVID-19 that are imported from, manufactured in, or a subsidiary of a company in Communist China.”
U.S. Sens. Mike Braun. R-Ind., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, are co-sponsoring the bill. U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., is championing the bill in the U.S. House.
Scott and Harshbarger have teamed up on the issue recently.
“In November, Senator Rick Scott and Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him and the Biden administration to stop using federal funds to purchase at-home tests for COVID-19 that are manufactured by companies or subsidiaries of companies headquartered in Communist China. Earlier this year, the HHS announced that it would purchase $600 million in COVID-19 tests and named 12 companies that gained the contract and implied that each was an American company. Upon further investigation, it was found that some of these companies have foreign ownership, and at least one is a Chinese company—and likely at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party. Senator Scott has yet to receive a response,” Scott’s office noted. “Last year, after the Biden administration initially announced they would purchase at-home COVID-19 tests to distribute to American households, Senator Scott sent a similar letter to Secretary Becerra urging the administration to prioritize purchasing COVID-19 tests from American manufacturers and not import tests from Communist China.”
This week, Scott offered his reasons for reintroducing the bill.
“There is absolutely no reason that this administration should be buying COVID tests made in Communist China instead of working with American manufacturers to support domestic production. I have been clear that we need to stop giving Communist China our money and buy American-made. Unfortunately, instead of supporting American manufacturing, the Biden administration is again bowing to a murderous communist regime and handing hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to CCP-controlled companies in Communist China. The Biden administration’s willingness to fund the Communist Chinese economy, instead of the American economy, is a disgrace,” said Scott.
“Instead of investing in American jobs and manufacturing, Joe Biden has again betrayed Americans by sending their hard-earned tax dollars to the creators of COVID-19. The Biden administration’s COVID-19 policies continue to fail our country, years after the pandemic has ended. Our government has a duty to support American companies, not empower our adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party. This common-sense legislation will protect the American taxpayer, promote American manufacturing, and end the Biden administration’s policy of bowing to China,” said Harshbarger.
Scott’s bill was sent to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Seven Republicans in the House have lined up behind Harshbarger’s bill including U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida. Harshbarger’s bill was sent to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.
