April 27, 2007

Chairman Chris Dodd
Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs
534 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0702

                                                                                          Re: CFIUS Legislation

Dear Senator Dodd:   

As you know, the House of Representatives passed HR 556 – the National Security Foreign Investment Reform and Strengthened Transparency Act of 2007 – on February 28th.  As attention now turns towards your Committee for possible Senate action, we are writing to express our views on this important matter. 

Should the Senate Banking Committee consider possible CFIUS reform, it is vital that any bill strike the appropriate balance between ensuring our nation’s security, and encouraging foreign investment into the United States.  Foreign companies have currently invested over 1.5 trillion dollars in the US, employing over 5 million Americans, making the US both the largest provider of and recipient of foreign investment in the world.  It is imperative, therefore, that the US protects its reputation for providing an open and nondiscriminatory investment environment. 

 EABC members believe that HR 556 strikes a fairly good balance between ensuring an open investment climate and maintaining the needs of national security.  Specifically, HR 556 should maintain investor confidence and certainty by preserving the initial 30-day review period, providing additional time for more complex transactions.  In addition, the House bill enhances communication with Congress without exposing business sensitive and proprietary information.  If the Senate Banking Committee does consider CFIUS reform legislation, we would encourage you to adopt many of the principles in H.R. 556, with some improvements, including elimination of certain requirements for sign-off at multiple agencies that could create bureaucratic obstacles to approval without improving national security.   We also strongly encourage you to eliminate the “Evergreen” provision that was in the House bill as such a provision could create uncertainty in the minds of foreign investors.

EABC would be pleased to meet with you or your staff, and would be pleased to be helpful in any way we can.

Respectfully submitted,