Lawmakers Propose Adding Coast Guard Bases to CFIUS Oversight

House Select Committee on China Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., urged the Treasury Department this week to expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to include land purchases near Coast Guard facilities, Energy Department national laboratories, maritime ports and critical energy and telecommunications infrastructure.

“Allowing our adversaries to have potential access to these sites poses risks to both our economic and national security, especially as we see companies with ties to hostile nations continue to increase their investments in the U.S.,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Moolenaar and Murphy also called for allowing CFIUS to retroactively review land purchases when a location is designated as a sensitive site. “Lack of such an authority only encourages our adversaries to escalate their purchases of land near national security sites, knowing such transactions will be exempt from any future regulations,” the lawmakers wrote.

While Moolenaar and Murphy welcomed Treasury’s proposed rule that would add 59 military bases across 30 states to CFIUS’s jurisdiction (see 2407090003), they argued it should go further by including the additional sites they propose, as well as the retroactive review authority. “These loopholes must be closed, and closed quickly,” the lawmakers wrote.

Treasury didn’t respond to a request for comment.