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Hensarling Participates in White House Roundtable on Foreign Investment

Washington, Aug 23 -

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) issued the following statement upon attending a roundtable discussion at the White House on the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA). The bill, which was signed into law by President Trump as a part of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, represents the first legislative update to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) since 2007.

"I want to commend the President for working hand-in-hand with Congress to enact these much needed reforms that will focus CFIUS even more effectively on confronting national security risks, especially those emanating from countries like China. His leadership is responsible for this important law. I also want to thank my House colleagues, Congressman Robert Pittenger (R-NC) and Chairman Andy Barr (R-KY) for their leadership in drafting the House bill, and my Senate colleagues, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) for shepherding FIRRMA across the finish line.”

The provisions in the final CFIUS agreement taken from the House bill include:

• Elimination of concepts such as “non-passive investment,” “critical infrastructure companies,” and “critical technology companies,” thereby sparing thousands of U.S. businesses with no nexus to national security from potential CFIUS reviews;
• Elimination of ownership and dollar amount thresholds as triggers for CFIUS jurisdiction;
• Elimination of “catch-all” and “parallel business partnership” triggers for expanded CFIUS jurisdiction;
• Elimination of CFIUS discretion to name critical technologies by bypassing export controls;
• Elimination of blanket CFIUS discretion to mandate declarations for any covered transaction;
• Elimination of CFIUS certification authorities for Deputy Assistant Secretary-level individuals, which would have eroded political accountability;
• Inclusion of jurisdiction for certain investments involving the release of U.S. citizens’ sensitive personal data;
• Inclusion of a permanent statutory authority for the administration of export controls;
• Restriction on CFIUS’s use of the term “critical infrastructure,” which will focus resources on specific systems and assets that are likely to be of importance to national security;
• Restriction on regulators’ discretion over the term “material nonpublic technical information;”
• Restriction on how “involvement in substantive decision-making” is applied for minority investments;
• Restriction on filing fee amounts that may be charged by CFIUS.