Sen. Rick Scott: Ban Chinese-Made COVID-19 Tests

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., reintroduced a bill this week that would prohibit the use of federal funds to purchase at-home COVID-19 tests from China.

According to a press release from Scott's office, the No Taxpayer Dollars for Communist Chinese COVID Tests Act, which was reintroduced Monday, seeks to block the use of taxpayer dollars to buy COVID-19 tests that are imported from, manufactured in, or obtained from a subsidiary of a company in the communist People's Republic of China.

"There is absolutely no reason that this administration should be buying COVID tests made in Communist China instead of working with American manufacturers to support domestic production," Scott said. "I have been clear that we need to stop giving Communist China our money and buy American-made."

"Unfortunately, instead of supporting American manufacturing, the Biden administration is again bowing to a murderous communist regime and handing hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to CCP-controlled companies in Communist China," he said referring to the Chinese Communist Party. "The Biden administration's willingness to fund the Communist Chinese economy, instead of the American economy, is a disgrace."

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced in September that it would invest $600 million in 12 domestic COVID-19 test companies to strengthen U.S. manufacturing. According to Scott, some of those companies are foreign-owned and at least one is a Chinese company.

In early November, Scott and Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him and the Biden administration to stop using federal funds to purchase at-home tests that are manufactured by companies with ties to China.

"Every U.S. tax dollar spent must be carefully scrutinized, and it is our expectation that the Biden administration ensures that not a single dollar of taxpayer funding is used to purchase COVID-19 tests manufactured in Communist China or produced by a Chinese company," the letter read. "The federal government would never give a contract to an American subsidiary of Huawei, and it should not give a contract to any American subsidiary of any other Communist Chinese company."

Scott said he has not received a response from Becerra.

Scott tried to get the legislation approved by the last Congress, but Senate Democrats blocked its passage then.

The bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.

Harshbarger, who is shepherding the measure in the House, said: "Joe Biden has again betrayed Americans by sending their hard-earned tax dollars to the creators of COVID-19. The Biden administration's COVID-19 policies continue to fail our country, years after the pandemic has ended."

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