Risch blocks Biden's "China house"

The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is blocking the Biden administration’s plans to establish a “China House” at the State Department to counter Beijing as an apparent “bureaucratic power grab.”

State Department officials reject that characterization and are urging a speedy approval of the plans.

Sen. James Risch’s office shared the Idaho Republican’s objections with POLITICO on Thursday, several weeks after the department submitted to the House and Senate foreign affairs committees a notification of its plans for China House.

Creating the unit — essentially a departmental reorganization — to date had been largely uncontroversial. No other lawmaker has objected to the plans, a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.