Senate principally unified on China provisions regardless of NDAA fights

A measure that will require U.S. buyers of Chinese language tech corporations to report investments overwhelmingly handed within the Senate, underscoring rising worries about China’s speedy superior expertise improvement.

The bipartisan modification to the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, supplied by Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX), handed 91-6 on Tuesday. The NDAA units coverage and funding for the Pentagon.

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The senators who voted towards the measure have been Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).

The modification requires U.S. buyers to report their stakes inside two weeks to the Treasury Division. It additionally requires them to report their investments to different “nations of concern,” reminiscent of North Korea, Russia, and Iran.

"We'd like such a outbound funding notification to grasp simply how a lot ... essential expertise we're transferring to our adversaries through these capital flows,” Casey mentioned on the Senate flooring on Tuesday. “With this info in hand, we are able to start to take management of our financial future.”

The measure is much like the Outbound Funding Transparency Act, which referred to as for proscribing investments to international adversaries, however quite a few senators objected. Not like a model launched in 2021, the modification requires notification of investments as an alternative of prohibition of sure offers. It additionally targets fewer industries.

“When American corporations put money into expertise like semiconductors or AI in nations like China and Russia, their capital, mental property, and innovation can fall into the fallacious palms and be weaponized towards us,” Cornyn mentioned in an announcement.

“This invoice would enhance the visibility of those investments, which can assist the U.S. collect the knowledge wanted to raised consider our nationwide safety vulnerabilities, confront threats from our adversaries, and stay aggressive on the worldwide stage.”

Members have spent the final week debating the NDAA, which units Pentagon coverage and authorizes $886 billion in protection spending for fiscal 2024. The Senate is racing to push the must-pass invoice by means of the chamber earlier than the August recess, which unofficially begins when enterprise concludes on Thursday night. The ultimate model of the invoice won't be decided till later this yr, when the Republican-led Home and Democratic-controlled Senate reconcile their variations in a convention committee. The Home handed its model of the invoice earlier this month.

On Tuesday, the Senate additionally handed an modification to stop future purchases of American agricultural land by international adversaries, 91-7. The modification was supplied by Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) in an effort to stop nations reminiscent of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran from buying American farmland. The senators mentioned there have been considerations after stories of China posing an excellent larger nationwide safety danger by buying U.S. farmland close to army installations.