Democrats Attempting to Pack Defense Bill with ‘Grab Bag’ of Unrelated Policies

Democrats are trying to load up a defense bill with unrelated items, jeopardizing the passage of legislation that has passed for more than 60 years on a bipartisan basis.

“The real inside story here is what Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are doing to try to hold this defense bill hostage. We pass it every year,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Fox News on Tuesday.

“We pass it every year for 60 years. It’s vital for our national security and for our troops. They want to add on all kinds of extraneous non defense measures like a payoff for liberal media companies to form a cartel to work with Big Tech that’ll hurt center-right media outlets, or allowing marijuana distributors to engage in the banking system, or paying off Joe Manchin for his vote for their trillion dollar bill spending bill this summer,” he added.

“None of these have anything to do with our troops in it. The Democrats insist on adding these extraneous measures to the defense bill,” he added.

The National Defense Authorization Act — known as the NDAA — is a yearly bill that Congress passes to authorize the activities, policies, and spending by the Department of Defense.

It is seen has yearly “must-pass” legislation, since it authorizes the DOD to conduct its day-to-day business, including everything from paying troops, beginning new weapons programs, and carrying out policy.

It has passed for 62 years without fail — one of the rare pieces of legislation to do so. However, this year, Democrats see the bill as a last-ditch vehicle to push through policies and reforms it will not be able to once Republicans take the House beginning January 3, 2023.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also blasted Democrats for their attempt to fill the bill with unrelated items in what is known as a “Christmas tree” bill.

“House and Senate Democrats are still obstructing efforts to close out the NDAA by trying to jam in unrelated items with no relationship whatsoever to defense, we’re talking about a grab bag of miscellaneous pet priorities,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

“My colleagues across the aisle need to cut their unrelated hostage taking and put a bipartisan bill on the floor,” he said.

Democrats are trying to include the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which would allow mainstream media outlets to form a cartel to negotiate with Big Tech, to the detriment of independent and conservative media outlets.

Another item is the SAFE Banking Act, pushed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), backed by some Republicans. The bill would let cannabis companies access banking institutions and create grants for state expungement of past marijuana convictions, according to Axios.

Another is the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), which seeks to “eliminate discrimination and promote women’s health and economic security” for workers limited by “pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition; and for other purposes.”

Democrats are also trying to attach a permitting bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that would change the permitting process for energy infrastructure and transport natural gas from his home state to Virginia.

Cotton urged his fellow Republican senators to filibuster the bill if the unrelated items are not stripped.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/06/democrats-attempting-to-pack-defense-bill-with-grab-bag-of-unrelated-policies/

Tucker exposes past interactions with Hunter Biden: ‘I knew him really well’

https://youtu.be/03DQt0le8Qs

DOE Touts $200M Grant to Lithium Battery Company as Boon to American-Made Clean Energy. The Company Operates Primarily From China.

Microvast also under scrutiny for shielding its books from auditors

President Joe Biden's Department of Energy is touting a grant to a lithium battery company as a move that would help herald the shift to green energy and ensure the United States is cultivating domestic sources of energy. It did not say, however, that the Texas company receiving the grant operates primarily from China and is under scrutiny from American financial regulators.

The DOE announced in October that it would give the $200 million award to Microvast Holdings to build a battery separator facility in Tennessee, using funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. At the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the grant would "supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made."

While the DOE described Microvast as a "majority U.S.-owned company, traded on NASDAQ" and "headquartered in Stafford, Texas," financial records show the company operates primarily out of China. Microvast itself says the Chinese government "exerts substantial influence over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities and may intervene, at any time and with no notice." The company was also recently added to a Securities and Exchange Commission watchlist of Chinese companies that are on track to be delisted from NASDAQ for failing to comply with U.S. auditing requirements.

The DOE award demonstrates the challenges posed by the green energy transition sought by Democrats and the Biden administration and raises questions about the vaunted $1.2 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. That bill was meant to boost U.S. battery companies and strengthen the domestic clean energy supply chain, which has been highly dependent on China. The grant is also drawing calls for additional oversight from Congress. The infrastructure law, as written by lawmakers, states that the DOE should avoid funding projects that "use battery material supplied by or originating from a foreign entity of concern," which includes companies "subject to the jurisdiction or direction" of China.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) told the Washington Free Beacon that the Biden administration "has a lot of explaining to do."

"Giving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to a company whose operations are based in China that refuses to comply with American securities rules is crazy," said Rubio. "What's more, any new technology developed in this partnership is almost certainly going to benefit China given Microvast's operations there. It is just another example of the Biden administration not understanding the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party."

Former DOE officials said the funding was highly concerning and is likely to set off alarms with legislators.

"The Biden appointees knew from the outset that because of China's aggressiveness in infiltrating U.S. energy and high-tech companies they were going to need to be extra vigilant about where these [infrastructure] funds went," one former DOE official told the Free Beacon. "A simple Google search shows enough of a relationship between China and the shell company they're using to access U.S. taxpayer funds to raise questions."

"Now Congress, [the Government Accountability Office], or someone needs to be asking what information did the applicant provide about their relationship with China, how far up does that relationship go," the official said.

The DOE did not respond to a request for comment.

In its 2021 annual SEC report, Microvast describes itself as a "holding company" that conducts its business "principally through our subsidiary in China."

"A substantial portion of our operations and manufacturing and most of our current customers are in the [People's Republic of China]," said Microvast, adding that it has received subsidies from the Chinese government and that most of its customers are associated with "state-owned companies in the PRC."

In May, the SEC added Microvast to a list of Chinese companies that aren't in compliance with U.S. auditing requirements under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. The law, which went into effect last spring, is designed to prevent Chinese companies listed on the U.S. stock exchanges from using non-approved China-based auditors to obscure their finances.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/doe-touts-200m-grant-to-lithium-battery-company-as-boon-to-american-made-clean-energy-the-company-operates-primarily-from-china/