Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – A leading U.S. Democrat in the House of Representatives said on Friday he would vote against a bill that would restrict business with China’s WuXi Biologics, BGI and other biotechnology companies on national security grounds.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, told Reuters he was trying to persuade his colleagues to join in opposition.
McGovern said there was no procedure for how companies could be included in the bill and he didn’t get a clear answer as to why Wuxi Biologics was being added, as the company is building a facility in McGovern’s district.
The BioSecure Act is set to be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday. Supporters say the bill, which would ban companies from federal contracts, is needed to protect Americans’ personal health and genetic information, as well as the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain.
“The fact that companies are providing sensitive information to the Chinese government is a real and important issue,” said McGovern, the top House Democrat on the Congressional-Executive Committee on China and a critic of China’s human rights violations.
“But at the end of the day, this is a terrible bill.”
The bill will be voted on under a procedure that limits debate, does not allow amendments and requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass.
“Biotech companies subordinate to our arch enemy, the Chinese Communist Party, pose significant national security risks,” a spokesman for the House of Representatives China Select Committee said, adding that Wuxi Biologics, BGI and Wuxi AppTech have a history of working with the Communist party.
The law also identifies WuXi AppTec, MGI and Complete Genomics as companies of concern.
The companies deny any threat to U.S. national security and say they should not be included in the bill.
The bill must be passed by both the House and the Senate before it can be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Sanders and Edwina Gibbs)
