WASHINGTON — WuXi Biologics executives have joined the lobbying fray in the lead-up to a move by Congress to add the company to a blacklist meant to prevent certain biotech firms from doing business in the United States.
Legislation proposing that blacklist, known as the BIOSECURE Act, was passed in a 40-1 bipartisan vote on Wednesday by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. That’s an important development because until now, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party had handled the bill in the House. That panel is an ad-hoc committee created to build bipartisan consensus on China policies, but it does not have the authority to pass legislation. A Senate committee also passed the BIOSECURE Act nearly unanimously earlier this year.
With the bill out of the Oversight Committee, the goal is for the House to pass it before the July 4 recess. That would set the legislation up to be included in a year-end must-pass legislative package, possibly the National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress has passed every year for decades.
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