House Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee blocked two budget amendments late on Tuesday night that would have banned illegal aliens from receiving taxpayer-funded COBRA benefits in Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
“Mr. Chairman, this package establishes an 85% Premium reduction for individuals enrolled in COBRA, the continuation coverage, and reimburses employers for this cost through the payroll tax credit,” Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID) said. “My amendment would ensure that taxpayer dollars or tax credits for COBRA coverage in this legislation will only go to those with lawful immigration status. [Mr.] Chairman, America is a nation of laws and regardless of the previous conversations, citizenship is the basis for those laws, and rightfully so.”
“American law doesn’t apply the same outside of our borders as it does within our borders,” he continued. “And citizenship comes with privileges; it also comes with some costs. The privileges are services and protections that come with being a citizen. The cost are taxes. I’ve heard some of the previous comments and … yes, non-citizens pay some taxes. Yes, they do. But not in the same frame as citizens do. When we provide privileges without requiring costs, we dilute the value of … citizenship and we discourage those that pay the bill, and by the way, we discourage those who we represent and who vote for us.”
Democrats also blocked an amendment from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) that “would have prohibited academic institutions from funding if they have a partnership with any entity owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the government of the People’s Republic of China or organized under the laws of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Stefanik’s amendment came after Democrat Joe Biden reportedly canceled a plan put in place by the Trump administration that would have tracked the rising influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through Confucius Institutes in the U.S. education system.
“Around 500 K-12 schools and 65 colleges in the U.S. have partnerships with the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, a U.S.-based affiliate of the Beijing-based Confucius Institute Headquarters. The institute, also known as Hanban, is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education,” the Daily Caller News Foundation reported. “Many of Hanban’s directors are members of the Chinese Communist Party or have close ties to the organization.”
“We must prevent American taxpayer dollars from going to institutions that have partnerships with any entity owned, controlled, or organized under the laws of the Chinese Communist Party, which we know is censoring free speech, engaging in genocide in Xinjiang Province, and influencing American academia before our eyes,” Stefanik said in a statement.
The Chinese government has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Confucius Institutes throughout the U.S. over the last 14 years, leading former CIA Director Mike Pompeo to warn that communist China “has taken advantage of America’s openness to undertake large scale and well-funded propaganda efforts and influence operations in this country.”