Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., reintroduced a bill that would require a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. for all “greenfield” investments made by certain Chinese businesses on U.S. soil. The bill, introduced last week, would specifically require CFIUS to look at any foreign investment that “involves the acquisition of real estate in the U.S. and the establishment of a U.S. business on such real estate” and that “results in China’s direct or indirect control of that U.S. business.” These investments would trigger a mandatory declaration with CFIUS if China’s government has a “substantial interest” in the deal.

Lawmakers introduced a bill last week that would seek to further protect the U.S. agriculture industry from “improper” foreign investment and add the agriculture secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act, introduced in the Senate by Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and in the House by Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Filemon Vela, D-Texas, would address that CFIUS “does not directly consider the needs of the agriculture industry when reviewing foreign investment and ownership in domestic businesses,” the lawmakers said.

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Measures this year by the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada to boost their foreign investment screening regimes will likely improve their standing with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and could catapult Germany into CFIUS’s group of excepted foreign states, observers said. Although Germany could become an excepted state, each country has tightened its screening tools to further scrutinize certain foreign direct investments, which will likely lead to more investment hurdles for their respective industries.

The House’s Republican Study Committee released a counterproposal to the Senate’s Endless Frontier Act that would call for a host of new sanctions against China, continue U.S. export control authorities and make some changes to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The committee’s Countering Communist China Act, released July 29, calls for broad U.S. sanctions actions, including designations against Chinese technology applications, various senior government officials, foreign people that steal U.S. intellectual property and “foreign persons that knowingly spread malign disinformation … for purposes of political warfare.” The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control would also be authorized to hire 10 new employees to “carry out activities of the Office associated with the People’s Republic of China.”

A House lawmaker recently introduced a bill that would add the U.S. agriculture secretary as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The Agricultural Security Risk Review Act, which has been previously introduced both in the House and Senate, would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have input in investment transaction reviews, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said May 20. The bill comes during a time when foregn ownership of U.S. agricultural businesses is “steadily” increasing, Lucas said. He called the move “long overdue.” “I know firsthand just how important our agriculture industry is, which is why Congress must remove the hurdles that keep USDA from having a permanent seat at the table with CFIUS’ review of foreign transactions," Lucas said.

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and John Cornyn of Texas introduced a bill to bolster the ability of U.S. foreign investment reviews to cover genetic information. The Genomics Expenditures and National Security Enhancement Act would require mandatory filings to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. for “any deal” that involves a company working with genetic information, Rubio said May 20. Under the bill, CFIUS would be required to consult with the Department of Health and Human Services on any deal that involves a “genetic data transaction,” which would increase “cross-agency awareness” of these transactions. The bill would also require CFIUS to include the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Relations Committee in its briefings.

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The Biden administration will likely build on the U.S.’s recently revised investment screening regulations by expanding the list of countries that qualify as excepted foreign states, trade lawyers said. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. currently only recognizes Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom as excepted states (see 2002270049) -- a designation that reduces the likelihood that CFIUS will heavily intervene in deals from those countries -- but could soon also recognize Japan, said Richard Sofield, a Wiley Rein trade lawyer.

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