On paper, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is as ironclad a protection as Americans could hope to have for our strategic assets.
The committee, charged by Congress with guarding against takeovers by foreign companies that might threaten national security, counts among its members the treasury secretary, defense secretary and attorney general, along with the heads of nine other departments and agencies.
CFIUS has a direct pipeline to the Oval Office. If it flags a deal that should be blocked, the president is obliged to notify Congress and take action.
But look at the CFIUS track record, and it is clear that the committee is a remarkably rare entity in Washington: an agency with tons of power at its disposal but little appetite for using it.
Of 470 deals CFIUS has reviewed since 1997, it has sent only two to the president for review. Only one of those deals, the proposed purchase of a Seattle maker of aerospace parts, ultimately was blocked.
The latest non-action by CFIUS led to the takeover fuss that consumed Washington last week. CFIUS greenlighted the takeover of six key U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World, a company that is controlled by the government of the United Arab Emirates. Because the UAE was among the places Al Qaeda used to facilitate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks--and perhaps, too, because of anti-Arab sentiment--the ports deal has drawn bipartisan rebukes from Congress and calls for investigations into how it was approved.
The committee, charged by Congress with guarding against takeovers by foreign companies that might threaten national security, counts among its members the treasury secretary, defense secretary and attorney general, along with the heads of nine other departments and agencies.
CFIUS has a direct pipeline to the Oval Office. If it flags a deal that should be blocked, the president is obliged to notify Congress and take action.
But look at the CFIUS track record, and it is clear that the committee is a remarkably rare entity in Washington: an agency with tons of power at its disposal but little appetite for using it.
Of 470 deals CFIUS has reviewed since 1997, it has sent only two to the president for review. Only one of those deals, the proposed purchase of a Seattle maker of aerospace parts, ultimately was blocked.
The latest non-action by CFIUS led to the takeover fuss that consumed Washington last week. CFIUS greenlighted the takeover of six key U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World, a company that is controlled by the government of the United Arab Emirates. Because the UAE was among the places Al Qaeda used to facilitate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks--and perhaps, too, because of anti-Arab sentiment--the ports deal has drawn bipartisan rebukes from Congress and calls for investigations into how it was approved.
