DAVIS, FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
Dubai Ports World, One Year After February 07, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House Financial Services Committee today held a hearing analyzing the operations of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) one year after the Dubai Ports World disaster said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, a member of the Financial Services Committee.

Last year, when the administration's approval of Dubai Ports World purchase of management operations at U.S. ports came to light, Davis condemned the deal, citing a grave concern for the lack of oversight in protecting our most strategic assets. Had the sale gone through the United Arab Emirates would have controlled the management at six major U.S. ports- New York, Newark, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami.

The Dubai Ports deal brought to light a number of deficiencies in the process by which the inter-agency panel reviews foreign investments for their national security implications. The committee examined CFIUS reform legislation that has been re-introduced this year. Similar legislation passed both chambers last year, but was not reconciled before the end of the legislative session.

The National Security Foreign Investment Reform and Strengthened Transparency Act of 2007 will require increased transparency, an open review process and a more stringent framework for ensuring that foreign investment in the United States does not compromise our national security.

"Even though it is off the front pages of newspapers and cable news, the public still expects changes in how the government examines foreign investments when it involves our most sensitive, critical infrastructure," Davis said.

CFIUS consists of twelve members of the Bush Administration: the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Commerce, the Attorney General, the Department of Homeland Security, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and is chaired by Treasury Secretary John Snow.