Business Roundtable Cautions Against Quick Fix on CFIUS Reform

Calls on Congress to Keep Politics Out of CFIUS Review

Washington, D.C. - Business Roundtable today called on Congress to carefully consider any legislation to reform the review process employed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). In a letter delivered to all Members of Congress, Business Roundtable cited the overriding importance of national security, but cautioned against counterproductive restrictions on foreign investment.

The letter, sent on behalf of all 160 Business Roundtable CEO members, stated: "As the Congress moves forward with new CFIUS legislation, we hope that you will recognize that protecting national security and securing foreign investment are not incompatible goals, and that proposals to reform the CFIUS process need to be balanced and constructive so that they do not place unnecessary, damaging and counterproductive restrictions on foreign investment."

Business Roundtable outlined three key principles to guide the process of CFIUS reform:

• National security should continue to be the principal focus of the foreign investment review process;
• The review process should continue to be objective, fair and, and it should not create obstacles that put a damper on legitimate business activities; and
• Maintaining an open, fair and non-discriminatory investment environment for legitimate foreign investment is important to the U.S. national interest.

Citing the importance of foreign investment to the U.S. economy, the Business Roundtable letter outlined the following statistics:

• In 2004, foreign investors invested more than $115 billion in the U.S., providing U.S. companies and workers with important capital for expansion of U.S. production facilities, increased R&D spending, and other investments to help grow the U.S. economy.
• In addition to employing more than 5 million Americans, foreign companies in the U.S. generate approximately 20 percent of our exports.

For a complete copy of Business Roundtable's letter to Congress, click here.

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Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with over $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and represent nearly a third of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Collectively, they returned more than $98 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2004.

Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with $86 billion in annual research and development spending -- nearly half of the total private R&D spending in the U.S.

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