At a hearing today of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, entitled "Evaluating the Operations of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)," Chris Pilkerton, Assistant Secretary for Investment Security at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, responded to questions and comments

Congressmen Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Zach Nunn (R-IA) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling for an immediate national security review of the proposed acquisition of iRobot by a company with ties to China. iRobot is best known for its Roomba line of robotic vacuum cleaners.

The Trump administration ordered the divestment of an asset purchase involving a semiconductor company, on the basis that one of the founders of the purchasing company is a Chinese citizen. At this time, there are few public details on the specific security concerns the administration has about the deal.

Last week, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency body that reviews certain transactions involving foreign investment in the United States to determine the effect on national security, released its annual report to Congress for 2024.

In what could be a sign of things to come for other existing Chinese investments in the U.S., the Trump administration is ordering the divestment of a 2020 purchase of a U.S. audiovisual equipment company.

After CFIUS approved a property purchase related to a Chinese company starting a wind farm project near an Air Force training base, the state of Texas took action that prohibited certain renewable energy investments by the company. The Chinese company is now challenging the Texas actions as unconstitutional.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which is the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would "expand CFIUS’s jurisdiction over certain transactions by foreign persons involving real estate in the United States."