Paul Gosar, Ken Calvert, And Betty McCollum Bicker On House Floor Over Bioindustrial Manufacturing

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In House floor remarks on Thursday, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Ken Calvert (D-CA), and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) debated an amendment about bioindustrial manufacturing.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My amendment, number 106, prohibits funds for the DOD's

00:05Bio-Industrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem, or Bio-MADE, that funds lab-grown meat and

00:12protein projects for the military for feeding our men and women. I know, how disgusting does that

00:19sound? With a national debt of over $37 trillion, we can't afford a little sensible appropriation

00:24bills without wasteful spending. On October 2020, press releases revealed Bio-MADE received

00:31$87 million in federal dollars under the Biden-Harris administration to produce lab-grown

00:38meat to reduce carbon emissions on military bases. In March of 2023, Bio-MADE received an

00:45additional $450 million from the MANTEC program. Let me just name a few of these projects these

00:52taxpayer dollars funded. One called Potential Benefit of Superbrewed Foods Sustainable

00:57Postbiotic Protein or Warfighter Health that produces lab-grown protein in shortened recover

01:04times and improves the concentration of service members. Another, development of a sustainable

01:09low-cost oil process for heart-healthy DOD rations or producing oil from microalgae for service members

01:17or alternative protein bars, a lab-grown protein derived from a microbiological agent similar to

01:26fungus. Yummy. This is the food that built America? I think not. Why do Marines, sailors, soldiers,

01:34guardsmen, and coasties need to have lab-grown meat when the U.S. is full of delicious beef? In fiscal year of 2022

01:41alone, the DOD awarded more than $369 million in the U.S. for contracts for beef, 2.3 million of which

01:50was supplied by Phoenix, Arizona. Serving lab-grown meat over domestic beef or poultry rewards the

01:56government-funded bio-industry and punishes the American cattle ranchers, who have a far smaller

02:03so-called carbon footprint than these big corporations. In 2024, Florida and Alabama banned lab-grown meat to

02:10protect farmers and the cattle industry. This year, Mississippi, Montana, and Indiana followed suit.

02:18I ask my colleagues to end this experiment on our armed forces and support my amendment number 106.

02:22With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

02:25The gentleman reserves. For what purpose does the gentleman for California seek recognition?

02:30I rise in opposition to the amendment. The gentleman is recognized for five minutes.

02:35I think there may be a misunderstanding about bio-industrial manufacturing. What it is and what

02:41it's not. Bio-industrial manufacturing is not for cultivating meat. However, bio-industrial manufacturing

02:48is critical to energetics. And what are energetics? Such as hypersonic fuels, critical chemicals for

02:55munitions and missiles, and materials that literally increase the bang for the buck. In the 1980s,

03:01the United States developed what we called CL-20, one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosion

03:09chemicals ever created, but did not produce it at scale. China, unfortunately, found our research and

03:19then scaled production, and now the Chinese and Russian arsenals have this very powerful ingredient.

03:27We cannot allow China to be the world innovation leader in any field, including bio-industrial

03:32manufacturing. We must continue tried and true practices to adopt new technologies to fortify

03:38American defense industrial base. American lethality is degraded without bio-industrial manufacturing,

03:45and meanwhile, China and Russia benefit from American research, and that's got to stop.

03:49I may make a point here. Bio-MADE is a product, is not a manufacturer, does not manufacture lab-grown

03:58meat. Bio-MADE has never funded research projects for lab-grown meat, has no current research projects

04:04on lab-grown meat, and has no plans to fund projects on land-grown meat in the future. So,

04:11I think we have a misunderstanding. We need this technology for our energetics, which we use in

04:19our explosion devices very effectively. And with that, I yield two and a half minutes to the ranking

04:25member, the gentlelady from Minnesota. Generallady is recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I rise in strong

04:32opposition to this amendment. Let me be clear, as the chairman was, Bio-MADE has never funded any efforts

04:38to develop or produce lab-grown meat for any purpose. The Rules Committee should not have

04:43made this amendment in order because it's just not germane to this bill. But let me tell you a little

04:49bit more about why this is important that this amendment be defeated. By preventing funding to the

04:54Biomanufacturing Design and Ecosystem Partnership, or Bio-MADE, this amendment would be a clear win for

05:01China. The Bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology recently completed its

05:07comprehensive review on biotechnology's impact on national security, and it concluded, China recognizes

05:13the immense military and commercial potential of biotechnology and biomanufacturing. They've made it,

05:21China's made it a strategic priority, and they're quickly starting to ascend into dominance. To preserve

05:27our lead, we must take swift action to commercialize and scale back biomanufacturing here at home.

05:33These new technologies use the power of biological cells and systems to form complete

05:39chemistry. Complex issues. It will enable us to onshore the production of critical chemicals,

05:45including those used in munitions and high-performance aviation fuels, as the chair mentioned. To develop

05:50new medical cures and treatments, and to produce them on demand near the front lines. To engineer

05:55biological sensors that could detect pathogens and chemical threats on the battlefield in real time,

06:01and then to better extract critical materials from domestic mining deposits to reduce our dependence on

06:09China for rare-earth mining. And that, again, Mr. Chair, is why the National Security Commission

06:14report recommended that Congress support a network of manufacturing facilities to scale up

06:20bio-industrial production, including for defense needs. So Bio-MADE is a private-public partnership with

06:26nearly 300 members across 37 states. Its mission is to partner with industry to enable innovators to pilot

06:34new bio-industrial products and facilities across the country that are linked to regional supply change

06:40and agricultural feedstocks and train the future workers in this industry. To be clear, we should be

06:46accelerating Bio-MADE's efforts, not senselessly blocking them. Last year, the Chinese government invested over

06:53four billion dollars in bio-manufacturing. We must take action. Now, we must not succeed to China,

07:00and we must win the biotech competition. And for that reason, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the

07:05aisle to join me in strongly opposing this amendment. I yield back.

07:09The gentleman from California is recognized. How much time do I have remaining?

07:12The gentleman has 30 seconds remaining. I yield to the gentleman for a quick question.

07:17I'll reserve.

07:20General reserves. General from Arizona is recognized.

07:24Yes, I'm a little bit confused here. So I want to ask a question. If we're doing good faith

07:30advertising to the American people, because that's what our job is, tell me why we would actually say

07:37potential benefit of super brewed foods, sustainable post-biotic protein and warfighter health.

07:44That's awfully not what you're talking about. And then we're talking about the sustainable low-cost

07:49oil process for heart-healthy DOD rations. And then the other side's a moniker to do low-carbon,

07:57getting rid of cattle. Now you wonder why the cattle industry has problems in understanding why you're

08:02doing this. So I accept what the gentleman said in regards to what Bio-MADE is, but your truth in

08:08in advertising fails, fails dismally to the American public, because that's what it says here.

08:15I yield to the gentleman from a very quickly. Our interests are energetics that goes into explosion

08:22devices, which is primarily a big part of that is the Bio-MADE industry. Well, I'd love to see that

08:28all the money go to that aspect, but not to the substitutes for meat. Okay? I'm not interested in

08:33the substitute for meat. Yeah, I am interested in substitutes, because I don't think our warfighters

08:38should have to have that. And I would like people to make that distinction, even if it costs me

08:44the amendment. I yield back. Chairman yields back. Chairman from California.

08:50Yield back. Chairman yields.

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