The top Democrat on the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee said on Friday that Republicans in Congress were protecting Elon Musk’s Chinese investments by scrapping provisions restricting US investments.
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Representative Rosa DeLauro said in a letter that Musk, CEO of electric car maker Tesla, may have upended the government funding process to remove a provision that would regulate US investments in China given his “extensive investments in China in key sectors and his personal ties with the Chinese Communist Party leadership, and calls into question the real reason for Musk’s opposition to the original funding deal.”
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday that would avert a midnight government shutdown.
The legislation would extend government funding until March 14, provide US$100 billion for disaster-hit states and US$10 billion for farmers.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk posted a number of critical posts about DeLauro on X on Friday including one that said she “needs to be expelled from Congress!”
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Musk also said that he was happy with the spending package. “It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces,” he wrote on X.