Tom Lantos: “I fully support H.R. 556, the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007. Greater oversight is needed…”

“I fully support H.R. 556, the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007. Greater oversight is needed regarding foreign investment in the United States, and I want to commend Chairman Frank and Mrs. Maloney for the work they have done in bringing about this legislation. The Committee on Foreign Affairs has significant jurisdictional interest in this legislation, and I was very pleased at the manner in which our committees have worked on H.R. 556 as it moved through the legislative process. Mr. Speaker, I want to call attention to two critical issues. First, the treatment that the United States provides to foreign investors is often not reciprocated to United States companies who wish to invest in foreign markets, which threatens bilateral investment relations. The procedures laid out in this bill for the interagency Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, or CFIUS, allow for a responsible and fair assessment of foreign direct investment into the United States. These procedures, however, stand in stark contrast to actions taken by some foreign governments, where expropriations of assets, often in the energy sector, have occurred arbitrarily, without justification, and without full and fair compensation for United States investors.”