National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, I rise to speak about title XVII of the NDAA, which reforms the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, and export controls.

The last time CFIUS underwent reform was in 2007.

Recognizing that the foreign investment and national security landscape has changed significantly over the past decade, Senators Cornyn and Feinstein led the charge by introducing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, FIRRMA, last November.

They and others deserve a tremendous amount of credit for their critical leadership on this issue.

As the Banking Committee examined this issue, it became clear that the appropriate outlet for addressing the national security concerns highlighted by Senator Cornyn and others would involve not only CFIUS reform, but export control modernization as well.

With the help of Senator Brown and all of my colleagues on the Banking Committee, we were able to craft a bipartisan product which passed out of committee in May with a unanimous 25-0 vote.

I thank Senator Brown and all of my colleagues on the committee for their efforts and contributions to the bill.

Additionally, the bill would not have been possible without the technical expertise and leadership of the team at the Department of Treasury, as well as the Commerce and Defense Departments, and the other interagency stakeholders who provided input. I thank them as well.

Throughout the entire process, we received strong support from the Armed Services Committee, who allowed us to include FIRRMA in this year's NDAA and maintained the integrity of the bill in that process. For that, I thank Chairman McCain, Senators Reed and Inhofe, and other members of the Armed Services Committee.

Our counterparts on House Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, and Armed Services Committees were equally instrumental in developing the final bill and seeing it across the finish line in the House.

I thank Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters for their leadership on the concurrent House efforts and their work to improve the bill in conference.

I also thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for their work in repealing and replacing parts of the Export Administration Act, which was needed since the statute lapsed more than two decades ago.

The final bill that appears in NDAA is the result of months of bipartisan, bicameral, and cross-government efforts to appropriately tailor and modernize CFIUS and export control authorities to ensure the continued protection of U.S. national security, while promoting foreign investments in the U.S.

Notably, CFIUS's jurisdiction is expanded to cover four new areas of investments, namely certain minority, noncontrolling investments pertaining to critical technology, critical infrastructure, and exposure of sensitive personal data; changes in a foreigner's rights regarding a US business; the purchase, lease, or concession by or to a foreign person of certain real estate in close proximity to sensitive facilities; and any other vehicle designed to evade CFIUS.

Additionally, the bill creates a concept of declarations, or ``light filings,'' which may be submitted voluntarily or are required for certain transactions where a foreign government has a substantial interest and may be required for transactions where critical technology is involved.

The bill also makes critical improvements to the administrative workings of CFIUS including timing of reviews, structure, funding, and examination of resource needs.

In addition to modifying parts of the Export Administration Act, the bill requires the President to establish an interagency process to identify emerging and foundational technologies that are not currently subject to export controls and authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to establish appropriate controls on such technology.

To complement those new authorities, the bill strengthens export control enforcement authorities.

The legislation that we are voting on today represents a very serious, bipartisan effort to ensure that our critical technologies are safeguarded, while preserving important free market principles and an open foreign investment environment.

I am proud to support the final product and again thank my colleagues in the Senate, House, and various agencies for their hard work and efforts to advance this critical legislation.

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