The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board sharply rebuked a Republican bill advancing through the Senate on Sunday as "political rent-seeking under the guise of national security."
Senate Republicans have advanced a bill that would expand Commerce Department restrictions on Chinese “connected” software in cars. A new editorial argued that the move seems reasonable on the surface because of myriad internet-connected systems in new vehicles, but the bill has been hijacked by "self-serving union and corporate interests."
"While political favoritism could bias national-security reviews, the Senate bill is more problematic," the editorial reads.
One group the editorial singled out is the United Auto Workers union, which "almost exclusively backs Democrats." That led the editors to question why Republicans would bother to carry water for the union, as proponents of the bill have proven themselves willing to do.
The editorial also highlighted how the bill could create political risks for Republicans ahead of the midterms. One auto manufacturer that stands to be impacted by the bill is Mercedes, which employs over 7,500 people in two Republican states, Alabama and South Carolina, the editorial noted.
Republicans have also shown a willingness to fight Mercedes over the company's opposition to the bill. For instance, the editorial flagged a letter written by the House Select Committee on China that chided Mercedes for trying to tell U.S. lawmakers "how to set the rules for our own country."
"This being an election year, there’s a risk that Republicans who want to flaunt their anti-China bona fides insist on attaching the bill to a must-pass vehicle like the National Defense Authorization Act," the editorial added. "If American workers later lose their jobs, they’ll blame someone else."