Final Defense Bill to Include Strong Bill Modernizing CFIUS

Today on the floor, I praised the inclusion of legislation to strengthen the foreign investment review process to better protect national security interests in the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Excerpts of my remarks are below, and video can be found here. 

The House and Senate conferees announced an agreement on the National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA, as we call it, and I'm glad to hear in the final version that it included legislation I sponsored called FIRRMA, the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act.

This legislation takes a carefully tailored approach to updating the review process without hamstringing our ability to meaningfully engage in trade with partners around the world.

I appreciate the support we have gotten from Secretary Mnuchin, our Treasury Secretary, Secretary Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, and many others.

This has been a bipartisan effort from day one. The message is we simply can't let China erode our national security advantage by circumventing our laws and exploiting investment opportunities for nefarious purposes. The backdoor transfer of technology, knowhow, and industrial capabilities has gone unchecked for too long, and that's why I'm glad once our bill becomes law, a newer, stronger CFIUS process will better protect us from evolving investment-driven threats to our national security.