| Foreign Acquisitions and National Security |
In the spring of 2006, the American people were outraged to discover that management of our ports was sold to the government of Dubai by a secretive process, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). As Congress looked into the matter, it became clear that the Administration evaded the investigation of national security issues required by law and withheld information from Congress and the public. The Dubai port scandal highlighted the pressing need for reform of the process by which our government reviews important acquisitions by foreign interests to make sure they do not harm our national security.
In the 110th Congress I was proud to pass the National Security Foreign Investment Reform and Strengthened Transparency Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-49). This legislation strengthens and reforms the process by which the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reviews foreign direct investment for national security issues. The need for this reform was made evident in early 2006 when CFIUS failed to raise red flags about a deal that would have put commercial control of several key U.S. ports into the hands of a company owned by the government of Dubai. This Act establishes CFIUS in statute rather than as a creature of Executive Order, implements mandatory 45-day investigations for all deals involving foreign governments, requires high-level review of such transactions, gives the Director of National Intelligence a greater role in the CFIUS process, and improves congressional oversight, among other provisions.
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