The China Select Committee is Back in the 119th Congress

The 119^th Congress is now in session and a welcome return from last year is the renewal of the House’s Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

With the new Congress, there is unlikely to be a lot of bipartisan legislation passed since Republicans and Democrats just don’t see eye to eye on many of the issues of 2025.

But this is not the case when it comes to the House’s China committee, which has been reauthorized for another session. During the last Congress, when it was founded, the committee was one of the few spots on Capitol Hill where you could reliably find genuine bipartisan collaboration.

There are two main reasons for the success of the China Select Committee.

First, it’s a select committee, not a standing one meaning it must be authorized in each session of Congress, and as such it’s not part of the legislative sausage-making; rather it’s investigative and makes recommendations about what kind of legislation Congress should pursue.

Secondly, the committee is meant to train lawmakers’ focus on the United States’ economic and military rivalry with China. And in recent years, this is something that both parties have been able to get behind.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing in a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) stumped for a return of the committee in 119^th Congress:

“The Select Committee is uniquely equipped to represent the shared concern among Americans regarding the economic and security challenges presented by the policies of the CCP. Thus, as the 119^th Congress approaches, we hope that the Select Committee will continue its bipartisan work on identifying and examining key issues and policies in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship so that committees of jurisdiction are better positioned to advance legislative solutions to those challenges.”

Jeff Bonior is a staff writer at the Alliance for American Manufacturing