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Risch on Biden’s Speech to Congress: Biden Needs to Get Serious about China, NS2

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on President Biden’s address to the joint session of Congress tonight:

“It is clear to me tonight that President Biden and I agree on at least one thing – our greatest international challenge now, and for decades to come, is our relationship with China. I have good news for him: the Senate has a plan to meet the challenge. Our committee’s bill is a true piece of bipartisan work. It is a strong start to the long marathon ahead. If President Biden and Senate Democrats want to do more than just talk about the virtues of bipartisanship, they should support taking up our committee’s bill as a standalone item next month, allow a robust debate, and get it signed into law as quickly as possible.

“Unfortunately, what was missing from the speech tonight was any mention of Vladimir Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. This Russian pipeline, that the president seems unwilling to shut down (even though he has shut down America’s Keystone XL pipeline) poses a serious threat to our national security, and that of our allies in Europe. Congress has repeatedly acted on a bipartisan basis, as recently as just last week, to prompt the administration to move quickly to keep this Russian project from being completed. Time is running out, President Biden and his administration must follow the law.”

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