U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) a member of the Ways and Means Subcommittees on Trade and Oversight praised House passage of the National Security Foreign Investment Reform and Strengthening Transparency (FIRST) Act.  Pascrell is an original cosponsor of the bipartisan bill designed to strengthen national security by applying stronger federal oversight to the process by which the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approves foreign investments.

“The National Security FIRST Act takes a very secretive federal process for approving foreign investment and puts it under glass for Congress to see,” stated Pascrell.  “This reform provides is the type of oversight that the newly led Congress pledged, and I am proud to help to deliver it to the American people.  Accountability over foreign investment is particularly crucial to security in New Jersey where bridges, tunnels, chemical plants ports, and other critical infrastructure peppers our landscape.”   

By reforming CFIUS and providing a statutory basis, the National Security FIRST Act addresses the key failures identified most recently in the aftermath of the Dubai Ports World case.  It also provides necessary clarity to the CFIUS process so that the United States is able to continue to attract investment from other countries.  The legislation includes provisions to accomplish the following eight reforms.

• Ensure senior level accountability for CFIUS decisions
• Improve CFIUS accountability to Congress
• Increase scrutiny of foreign government transactions
• Improve coordination within CFIUS
•  Create a system for creating, monitoring, and enforcing mitigation agreements
• Create a system for monitoring transactions that have been withdrawn from CFIUS
• Establish a formal role for intelligence assessments for every transaction
• Create statutory basis for CFIUS and its membership

“CFIUS was established over thirty years ago and has not been adequately reformed to meet the global threats and worldwide economy of the 21st century.  Today the House of Representatives acted on the urgent need for reform and moved forward to protect America’s economic and national security.”

 
 

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