Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, delivered the following statement at a Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets hearing entitled, “Investing in our Rivals: Examining U.S. Capital Flows to Foreign Rivals and Adversaries Around the World.”

Each year, billions of dollars of capital from the U.S. are invested into companies owned, controlled, or affiliated with China and Russia, undermining our national security. After Putin invaded Ukraine, I wrote to groups representing U.S. businesses and investment funds to question whether they would divest from Russia. Unfortunately, dozens still have not.

Protecting our national interests is not a partisan issue. We have worked together to reauthorize and reform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. in 2018, the Export Import Bank in 2020, and several measures to isolate Russia and China earlier this year.

I hope this hearing will help us identify further ways to ensure that national security is bolstered by the strength of our private markets. I yield back.

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