Sixty-five Democrats in the House of Representatives voted on Tuesday against creating a committee to investigate China and find ways to counter the communist country’s growing international influence.
The House overwhelmingly voted to create the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party on a 365 to 65 margin, in one of the first votes since the Republicans took control of the chamber.
However, even though some members did not vote, all 65 lawmakers who voted against the committee’s creation were Democrats.
The new committee will be chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a foreign policy hawk, and is set to hold public hearings to ultimately “investigate and submit policy recommendations” on China’s economic, technological, and security progress in addition to its competition with the United States.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), during his remarks, urged members to vote to approve the creation of the committee and insisted that it would not be partisan. He said the committee would address bipartisan issues, such as the Chinese coronavirus, the economy, securing intellectual property, and bringing jobs back from China.
“You have my word and my commitment. This is not a partisan committee. This will be a bipartisan committee that is my hope, my desire, to speak with one voice on the challenges that we have,” McCarthy said. “It would look at all aspects, from economics to COVID, and when we fell into COVID, not knowing whether we could have medical supplies because China controlled so much.”
The complete list of Democrats who voted against establishing the committee are:
Balint
Barragán
Bonamici
Bowman
Brown
Bush
Carter (LA)
Casar
Cherfilus-McCormick
Chu
Clarke (NY)
Connolly
Crockett
Davis (IL)
DeGette
DeSaulnier
Escobar
Evans
Frankel, Lois
Frost
García (IL)
Garcia, Robert
Goldman (NY)
Gomez
Huffman
Ivey
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee
Jayapal
Johnson (GA)
Kamlager-Dove
Lee (CA)
Lee (PA)
Lieu
Lofgren
Matsui
Meeks
Meng
Moore (WI)
Mullin
Nadler
Neal
Ocasio-Cortez
Pallone
Pocan
Porter
Pressley
Quigley
Ramirez
Ross
Sánchez
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Scott (VA)
Stansbury
Takano
Titus
Tlaib
Tokuda
Tonko
Underwood
Vargas
Velázquez
Watson Coleman
Williams (GA)
