Senate Bill on Outbound Investment Introduced in House
Three House members announced March 21 that they have introduced a companion bill to Senate legislation that would restrict U.S. outbound investment in China.
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Reps. Andy Barr, R-Ky., a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee; Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., put forth the Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart China Act, or Fight China Act. The legislation was referred to the Foreign Affairs and Financial Services committees.
“The bill creates targeted restrictions to ensure U.S. investors are not unwittingly financing the [Chinese Communist Party’s] military and surveillance capabilities,” the announcement said. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called the proposal “a significant step to safeguard American economic interests and protect national security.”
The bill is the House counterpart to a measure Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced March 13 (see 2503130059 and 2503140030). It's nearly identical to the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (Coins) Act, which Barr and Cornyn introduced near the end of the last Congress (see 2412230038).
The Fight China Act would establish a Treasury Department program to prohibit U.S. investment in certain sensitive technologies in China, including advanced semiconductors, certain artificial intelligence models, quantum computers and materials used in hypersonic systems. The bill would also create a notification regime to increase transparency on certain unprohibited investments, and it would authorize the president to sanction entities connected to China’s military and intelligence apparatus.