House Republicans kicked off a week packed with legislation targeting China and its dominance over clean energy supply chains by passing a bill to prevent the Department of Homeland Security from purchasing batteries from certain companies connected to the Asian giant.
H.R. 8631, or the “Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act,” would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from buying batteries from six companies with China ties. It passed by voice vote under suspension of the rules, an expedited process on typically uncontroversial bills.
“Our government should not be spending tax dollars to procure batteries from companies that profit from slave labor, or provide another avenue for the CCP to expand their surveillance apparatus here in the United States homeland,” said Republican Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), the bill’s sponsor.
The vote follows allegations from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) — chair of the House’s select committee on China — that Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has deep ties to the Chinese government’s military apparatus. The battery manufacturing giant provides services to Ford and is the world’s largest electric vehicle battery-maker.
