Robert Pittenger: “I would like to thank the chairman for his leadership on this very important legislation, H.R. 5841, FIRRMA. I would…”

“I would like to thank the chairman for his leadership on this very important legislation, H.R. 5841, FIRRMA. I would also like to thank Chairman Royce, Congressman Barr, and Congressman Heck for the significant leadership role that they played with this bill, as well as my chief of staff, Clark Fonda, and Assistant Secretary of Treasury Heath Tarbert. They have put in countless hours, working through details and language on this bill. Mr. Speaker, I have worked on CFIUS-related issues for nearly 3 years. Prior to FIRRMA, I spent my efforts identifying problematic transactions and engaging in a public media campaign to raise awareness and stoke government action. Three years later, I am so happy to the say that we have had a robust impact on this issue. For example, we helped prevent the Chicago Stock Exchange from falling into the hands of opaque Chinese ownership. We protected our defense supply chain by helping stop Lattice Semiconductor from being purchased by a Chinese state-owned investment fund. We helped prevent the Chinese from exploiting important personal data during an attempt to purchase MoneyGram. Our successful initiatives have garnered the attention of Senator Cornyn. We began a yearlong process to draft the original version of FIRRMA. Over the past year, my staff and I have seen dozens of versions of FIRRMA, both introduced versions and redline edits, from various offices and stakeholders.…”