1y ago

US to expand security review of land purchases near military installations, Treasury says

www.reuters.com

reuters.com

Cross-posted from https://sh.itjust.works/post/21971374

The Biden administration on Monday proposed to "vastly expand" security review authority over real estate purchases near U.S. military installations conducted by CFIUS, a powerful committee that screens foreign investments for national security risks.

"This proposed rule would add over 50 military installations, across 30 states, to the existing list of installations around which CFIUS has jurisdiction, including over land purchases," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

12 comments

A national security risk is allowing foreign ownership of residential property.
- A national economic risk is allowing corporate ownership of residential property too, and yet here we are.
  
  That’s bad too.
- As well as agricultural property.
  
  Any property. Citizens only. They can rent if they need a place to stay.
- Domestic buyers can be just as much of a risk as foreign buyers. We should abolish land ownership for national security reasons.
  
  And let the government own and control the land? Yikes… I can see that going bad real fast.
I remember reading about one case a while back where a Chinese company bought a solar farm directly overlooking a Navy weapons testing facility; CFIUS forced divestment of that farm.
- I think you're referring to a sale that did not go through. I remember reading about that not too long ago. I assume that potential sale in particular is what led to this change.
  Edit: I read the article. I was mostly right, except the sale did go through but the land had to be sold again promptly.
  The expansion comes less than two months after a previous CFIUS review handed a Chinese-linked company and its partners 120 days to sell property they had purchased one mile from a U.S. Air Force base in Wyoming that is home to part of the U.S. nuclear missile arsenal.
  
  I don't think that the one in the article is the one I remember. I'm pretty sure that the one I'm thinking of was a naval weapons testing facility, not an air force base.

12 comments