Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) recently joined forces along with senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) who is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs together with four other senators to introduce the Protect Our Bases Act. The legislation was created to address issues related to the purchase of foreign land close to sensitive intelligence, military national lab sites and is focused on enhancing the supervision by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). *
The Protect Our Bases Act has been a success in gaining bipartisan support. It aims to make sure that CFIUS is able to carefully review purchases of foreign land close to important sites in national security. This is accomplished by requiring that agencies of the CFIUS revise and update their lists of the important sites every year.
Senator Britt in his discussion of the bill, stated “Whether it’s China, the Chinese Communist Party, Iran or Russia We should do everything in our power to keep foreign adversaries from getting access to the intelligence that could compromise our security or strategic advantage. It’s common sense to protect our most important sites for government and military and I’m elated to be a supporter of this bill that will aid in helping CFIUS ensure that they have a thorough and accurate oversight of foreign land acquisitions.”
The ranking member Scott was a similar voice He emphasized the importance of ensuring the security of our nation. He pointed out, “The Chinese Communist Party cannot be allowed to undermine the security of the military and government facilities in our country. Through strengthening the scrutiny of real estate transactions made by foreign investors close to sites that are essential for U.S. national security, this law will improve accountability and ensure that security for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States can take appropriate steps to take action against Communist China and ensure that we keep our nation secure.”
Protect Our Bases Act Protect Our Bases Act boasts the names of cosponsors, which include senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont. ), Mike Rounds (R-S.Dak. ) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).
The need for legislation was made apparent due to an incident that occurred in 2022, when Fufeng Group, a Chinese company that is a member of China’s Chinese Communist Party, announced it was planning to buy land close to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. In this instance, CFIUS was unable to examine the deal for security concerns posed by national security because the Department of Defense’s decision not to mark this base in its list of sensitive location. While the transaction was ultimately stopped, it highlighted an important flaw in the review of foreign land purchases procedure. CFIUS depends on member agencies to update information about sensitive intelligence, military and national lab sites to ensure an accurate assessment of security risk.
The Protect Our Bases Act will make it mandatory for CFIUS members to provide current records of the classified sensitive military, intelligence and national laboratories to ensure national security annually. The law also requires that CFIUS provide annually to Congress that certifies the success of these audits and how accurate its listings of real estate.
