Washington Lawmakers Pushing Forward Bill To Ban Oil Sales To China

Republican leaders in Congress are pushing forward a bill meant to ban the sale of American oil and gas to China.

Last week, the House passed a bill to ban future sales of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.

This comes after Republicans slammed President Biden for his decision to sell 180 million barrels of oil from the reserve last year, with a couple million barrels going to Unipec, the U.S. subsidiary of the Chinese state-run oil and gas company.

Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice (R) said China already has a large strategic reserve.

"Why are we selling our own oil and gas reserves to them," Bice said. "Doesn't really make a lot of sense to most Americans."

House Republicans are also looking to pass legislation that would condition any future release of oil from the reserve to have a plan in place increased more energy development.