U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), in remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, asked House Speaker Mike Johnson to ensure legislation is brought up for a vote before the end of January that, at a minimum, would require U.S. firms to report foreign investments that could pose a threat to American national security.
The request comes after House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) blocked inclusion of the Senate-passed Outbound Investment Transparency Act amendment in the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) during conference negotiations. In the House, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has introduced similar legislation, however McCaul’s legislation would also restrict certain investments.
On November 20, Senator Sullivan and Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) led a bipartisan letter with 41 of their colleagues in the House and Senate urging congressional leaders to ensure “that robust language addressing the threat posed by outbound investments in countries like the PRC is included in the 2024 NDAA.”
“We have American financial companies that are investing in Chinese Communist Party companies and are producing things like advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and hypersonics– all technologies that are critical to dominating the 21st century battlefield,” Senator Sullivan said on the Senate floor Thursday. “This is a giant American national security issue. . . Right now, we have Republican House Members—hopefully not the Speaker, but certainly the chairman of the Financial Services Committee—who are saying: No, I want to keep it in the dark, what Americans [firms] are doing to make [Chairman Xi Jinping] stronger. That is wrong. Mr. President, 99.9 percent of Americans would think that is wrong. So we need to fix it. The House needs to take leadership on this issue. My Republican colleagues keep talking tough on China. It is time to act.”
