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WASHINGTON – The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), responsible for reviewing national security implications of foreign takeovers of U.S. businesses, has not been substantially updated since the 1970s.

Today, Congressman Robert Pittenger (NC-09), joined by 15 key Congressional colleagues, wrote the Government Accountability Office requesting a report on whether CFIUS statutory and administrative authorities have kept pace with the growing scope of foreign acquisitions in strategically important sectors in the United States.

“There have not been substantial structural updates to CFIUS composition or authority since its inception, despite a rapidly changing foreign investment climate, the rise of technology and information warfare, and new state-owned or controlled companies that are structured as independent entities but are largely directed by foreign governments,” wrote Congressman Pittenger. “This evolving nature of possible national security threats requires that both the Executive Branch and the Congress revisit the CFIUS process to determine whether it is fully empowered to address these concerns.

“Several recent examples of concern involve the telecommunications, media, and agriculture sector, which raise questions of the degree to which foreign ownership – especially from Chinese companies designated as “state champions” that often benefit from illegal subsidies to gain strategic access to markets like the U.S. – may pose a strategic rather than overt national security threat.”

Congressman Pittenger’s bipartisan letter to the GAO was co-signed by Representatives Mike Rogers (R-AL, Chair, House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces), John Culberson (R-TX, Chair, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science), Chris Smith (R-NJ, Co-Chair, Congressional-Executive Commission on China), Bradley Byrne (R-AL), Walter Jones (R-NC), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Paul Cook (R-CA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Bill Posey (R-FL), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA, Chair, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats), Robert Aderholt (R-AL, Chair, House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT, Ranking Member, House Labor, Education, and HHS Appropriations Subcommittee), Ralph Abraham (R-LA), Peter Defazio (D-OR, Ranking Member, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee), and Sam Johnson (R-TX, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and Health).

Congressman Pittenger serves as Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, and as Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Committee Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing.

Read Congressman Pittenger’s Letter to the GAO here.