Senate Democrats Block Amendment to Massive Spending Bill to Prevent US Oil Sales to China

Forty-six Senate Democrats recently rejected a GOP legislative amendment to block the Biden administration from selling oil from the United States’ strategic reserve to the Chinese regime.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) offered the amendment during a “vote-a-rama” process, which lasted nearly 16 hours from Saturday evening until Sunday afternoon, when senators voted on many amendments and motions for a Democrat-led bill known as the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”

The legislation, a mammoth spending bill totaling $740 billion on climate and energy, health care, and taxes, passed on Aug. 7 by a party-line vote of 51 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. The House could give the legislation final approval on Aug. 12, when lawmakers reconvene briefly from summer recess.

Before the passage of the legislation, Cruz urged his Democrat colleagues to support his amendment, reminding them that the Biden administration has sold millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China.

“That oil was paid for by U.S. taxpayers,” Cruz said on the Senate floor. “My bill would block the president from selling our oil to the Chinese communists.”

Cruz continued, “I would note also that it was sold to a Chinese company owned by the communist government, in which a significant stake was owned by a private equity firm, owned in significant part by the president’s own son, Hunter Biden.”

“If the Democrats don’t want to see millions of barrels of U.S. oil sold to the Chinese communists, they should support my amendment,” Cruz added.

Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House in Washington on May 22, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sold nearly 6 million barrels of oil from the SPR from September 2021 to