U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) on Jan. 14 led his Republican colleagues in introducing legislation that would add the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to help protect America’s public lands from falling into the hands of the nation’s adversaries.
“Last summer, we were successful in adding the Secretary of Agriculture to the [CFIUS] to counter Communist China’s efforts to purchase American farmland,” Rep. Newhouse said on Wednesday. “Today, I am taking the next step to protect American land by introducing legislation to add the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to CFIUS.”
The congressman sponsored the Keeping Public Lands Out of Adversarial Hands Act, H.R. 7074, alongside four original cosponsors, including U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), to give the Secretary and the Department of the Interior the authority to review foreign investment into lands near public land, and to help identify potential national security threats.
“Our adversaries like the CCP, North Korea, Russia, and Iran have no business owning these lands, and we need to seize every opportunity to ensure they never do,” said Rep. Newhouse.
Specifically, H.R. 7074 would add the Secretary of the Interior to CFIUS to review transactions for land or resources adjacent to land or sites owned or managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.