A group of bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate are calling for US President Joe Biden to issue an executive order that will increase the screening of investments by U.S. companies in foreign adversaries, specifically China.
In the letter wrote by eight senators on Sept. 27 to President Biden, they revealed that executive order would aim to control U.S. investment abroad and would “safeguard our national security and supply chain resiliency on outbound investments to foreign adversaries.”
In addition, the congress is also thinking of a legislative proposal that would grant new powers to the government of the U.S. with regards to the reviewing or blocking of billions of dollars in U.S. outbound investments into China.
Last June, the lawmakers revised the proposed legislation, titled as the National Critical Capabilities Defense Act.
Although the act garnered a huge support from the lawmakers, the measure was dealt a setback after it removed legislation that will subsidize U.S. semiconductor chip manufacturing and research that was approved in August.
“Although negotiations continue, American workers, businesses and our national security cannot afford to wait,” the statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), and other lawmakers, read.
“The pandemic shined a spotlight on just how exposed U.S. supply chains are and the severe cost of relying on foreign adversaries for our Nation’s critical capabilities,” they added.
The proposal, led by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) also urged the president to “move forward with executive action to protect U.S. workers and advance U.S. economic security interests.”
As of now, no final decision has been released by the Biden administration yet.
“It’s important to consider whether and how certain narrowly targeted categories of U.S. investment in foreign competitor semiconductor firms might undermine the effectiveness of these other policy tools,” National Security Council official Peter Harrell said earlier this month.
However, lawmakers highlighted in the letter that the Chinese regime “has an egregious track record of promoting intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer.”
“When we cede our manufacturing power and technological know-how to foreign adversaries, we are hurting our economy, our global competitiveness, American workers, industry, and national security. Government action on this front is long overdue to address the scope and magnitude of these serious risks we face as a country,” the lawmakers added.