Being bipartisan is what moved it forward. I hope this energy continues.
A new Congress will be installed in Washington, but like the last Congress, it is unlikely to pass many bipartisan bills. In 2025, the parties disagree on many things.
But this is not the case for the House China Committee. reauthorized See you at 119th meeting. When the committee was created last Congress, it was one of the few spots on Capitol Hill where you could reliably find true bipartisan cooperation.
This can be broken down into several things. First, it is an elected committee, not a standing committee, and must be approved by each session of Congress, so it is not part of the legislative sausage-making. Rather, it conducts research and makes recommendations about what legislation Congress should pursue.
The second thing is the subject matter. The official name of the committee is the “Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Communist Party of China,” and its purpose is to train lawmakers to focus on the economic and military competition between the United States and China. And this is something both sides have been able to achieve in recent years.
Scott Paul, president of the Alliance of American Manufacturers (AAM), testified. that first public hearingthe committee has done a lot since then. Here’s how Politico described the effort in an article: recent articles:
The commission was launched in January 2023 with a two-year mandate to rapidly develop bipartisan legislative proposals on Taiwan, fentanyl, human rights, and countering China’s growing military power. The bill, which targets everything from U.S. investment in China to so-called minimum import tax loopholes, comes amid partisan gridlock elsewhere in Washington, with bipartisan support. It has gained support and is expected to pass.
Rush Doshi, who served as the National Security Council’s China policy director in the Biden administration, said the China committee is “the least partisan we’ve ever seen” on Capitol Hill.
It was by no means certain that the Chinese Commission would return. That Politico article for exampleargues that the bipartisan opinion that propelled the commission forward is at risk after Republicans won both chambers of Congress and the White House in the 2024 elections.
But I’m back. AAM stumbled on this point last month in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). And that bipartisan spirit is something we emphasized as well.
The task force is uniquely equipped to represent the shared concerns of the American people regarding the economic and security challenges posed by the policies of the Chinese Communist Party. Therefore, as the 119th Congress approaches, we hope that the Select Committee will address important issues in U.S.-China bilateral relations so that the committees with jurisdiction will be better positioned to advance legislative solutions to these challenges. We look forward to continuing our bipartisan efforts to identify and consider relevant issues and policies.
Suffice it to say that the bilateral relationship between the United States and China is extremely important and deserves Congressional attention. We will closely monitor the Committee’s agenda over the coming months.
