Exclusive — Rep. Michael Waltz: 'Swamp Is Lighting up' to Protect Defense Department Contracts that 'Pour Billions' into China's 'Military Buildup'

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that the “swamp is lighting up” to defeat legislation he introduced to implement a four-year ban on federal government contracting with business sponsors of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

“I made an attempt this year on the defense bill,” Waltz said on Wednesday’s edition of the Breitbart News Daily podcast with special guest host Jerome Hudson. “As we were creating the defense bill, I put an amendment in that said if you’re going to sponsor these Olympics and give our greatest adversary this global propaganda platform and turn a blind eye to all of these atrocities and, oh, by the way, pour billions in that’s funding their military buildup, then you can’t have Defense Department contracts and you can’t sell to the United States military.”

He continued, “The lobbying disclosures were just released, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that these companies spent on lobbying firms to kill my amendment was just jaw-dropping and truly incredible. So we’re going after it, but the swamp is lighting up.”

In May, Waltz introduced the Beijing Winter Olympics Sponsor Accountability Act with Reps. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA).

In a statement, he said the bill “would impose a 4-year ban on the Federal Government from contracting with businesses sponsoring the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Furthermore, the legislation also bans the sale of their products in federal buildings and military bases. The ban would only be lifted if the company withdraws its sponsorship or the games are relocated from China.”

Waltz remarked, “It was Republicans and Democrats that voted against our voted to kill it.”

The Florida congressman called for removal of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) tax-exempt status with the IRS. He introduced legislation towards this end on Wednesday.

“We’ll introduce measures to strip the IOC — the International Olympic Committee — of its tax-exempt status,” he stated. “The IOC has poured about $800 million into Beijing’s infrastructure to support these games. … We’re going to go after their tax-exempt status.”

The status quo of U.S.-China trade and globalization has created a national security liability in the form of U.S. dependence on Chinese production of medicines, rare earth minerals, and semiconductors, Waltz warned.

“Where is corporate patriotism?” he asked. “We didn’t see them behaving this way with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and we really need a wake up call when it comes to Wall Street. The other pieces are supply chains. We cannot continue with 90 percent of our pharmaceuticals being made and controlled by China, 90 percent of our rare earth and critical minerals, our computer chips, and a whole list of other key elements. Masks, gloves, and gowns — we just figured out — can very quickly be a national security issue, and China is playing geopolitics with things that Americans need for their everyday lives.”

He added, “My call to action is, ‘When you see, ‘Made in China,’ folks, put it down. It needs to say, ‘Made in America.’ That’s not just a jobs issue. It’s a national security issue.”

Waltz identified the Chinese Communist Party as a primary geopolitical threat to the U.S.

He said, “This isn’t going to won or lost with ships and planes and tanks. It’s going to be won or lost on dollars, and who has the economic might to compete, and we are fueling it. It is American money fueling their buildup.”

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