WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the Senate Banking Committee favorably reported out of Committee a bill that makes changes to the national security review process for foreign acquisition of U.S. companies. "Chairman Shelby, Senator Sarbanes and Members of the Banking Committee have produced legislation that goes a long way toward restoring confidence in the CFIUS process," said Todd Malan, President & CEO of the Organization for International Investment (OFII). "While this bill is a good first step, we look forward to working with Chairman Shelby, Senator Sarbanes and others on Capitol Hill to address some portions of the legislation that would make the review process overly complicated and could clog the foreign investment pipeline into the United Sates,” stated Malan.
In a joint letter sent to Chairman Shelby and Senator Sarbanes today, OFII, along with other U.S. business associations (Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber etc), commended the Committee for working to minimize the negative economic impact of changes to the law, while prioritizing national security concerns (LETTER).
During the Committee’s mark-up on March 30, every Member of the Banking Committee mentioned the benefits of foreign investment in their opening statements. These benefits to the U.S. economy include:
- U.S. subsidiaries employ 5.3 million Americans.
- U.S. subsidiaries support an annual payroll of $317.9billion and average compensation per employee is $59,981. Average compensation per employee at insourcing companies has risen every year since1992. In fact, it has increased by over $3,000 from 2002 to 2003
- U.S. subsidiaries heavily invest in the American manufacturing sector. Thirty-four percent of the jobs at U.S. subsidiaries are in manufacturing.
- U.S. subsidiaries manufacture in America to export goods around the world — accounting for over 21% of all U.S. exports.
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The Organization for International Investment is a Washington-based business association representing U.S. subsidiaries of companies headquartered abroad. For additional information, see OFII's web site at www.ofii.org.
