Select Committee Addresses CCP Biosecurity Threat with U.S. Firms in Boston & Headlines Harvard JFK Jr. Forum
BOSTON, MA — Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Reps. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Neal Dunn (R-FL), and Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were in Boston yesterday, where they met with leaders of the U.S. biotechnology industry to discuss the Chinese Communist Party threat to U.S. biosecurity and how U.S. companies can better compete on the global stage.
WATCH: Chairman Gallagher and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi discuss the CCP's threat to America and the Select Committee's work at the Harvard Institute of Politics' JFK Jr. Forum with moderators Graham Allison and Megan O'Sullivan. (Click HERE for pictures from the event)
Continue reading below to follow along with a recap of the Select Committee's day.
TECH FAIR: To start the day, the Select Committee welcomed nine Boston-area biotechnology companies in a 'science fair' to highlight local innovation. Leadership from Ntx Bio, Freenome, Napigen, Resilience, Dyno Therapeutics, Digitbio, Ampersand Biomedicines, and Generate:Biomedicine joined the event. Companies shared visuals of their products with members and discussed challenges posed by China's biotech industry.
Chairman Gallagher said following the tech fair, “I always go back to this moment which was in the early months of the pandemic. China threatened to cut off the export of advanced pharmaceutical ingredients to plunge us into a sea of Coronavirus. I think we have to assume they would do something like that. If there was a crisis, that should motivate us to onshore or near shore the production of biotechnology more broadly, so that we can reduce that dependency.”
(Click HERE for pictures from the event)
IN THE FIELD: Members received a tour of the Foundry at Ginkgo Bioworks. Ginkgo's CEO, Jason Kelly, showed lawmakers the 300,000+ sq. ft. lab space and discussed the company's cutting-edge work in genetic engineering, as well as the need to accelerate the US bioeconomy and strengthen biosecurity.
“Boston is one of the epicenters for biotech innovation in America. Given that this is a critical technology with national security, economic, and ethical implications, we came here to talk to the experts and figure out the right strategy, so that we, and not the Chinese Communist Party, can dominate this technology and set the ethical rules of the road,” said Chairman Gallagher following the facility tour.
(Click HERE for pictures from the event)
DISCUSSING THE CHINA THREAT, AT HARVARD: Chairman Gallagher and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi headlined a conversation at the Institute of Politics JFK Forum with moderators Graham Allison and Megan O'Sullivan, where they discussed "The China Threat and America's Future."
Chairman Gallagher told the audience, “Let me put it even more provocatively: [we can] actually wage cold war with the creativity and alacrity of which we waged against the Soviet Union, recognizing that there are much worse things than cold war. There is hot war. And there is surrender.”
(Click HERE for pictures from the event)