Treasury wants to boost foreign investment review powers, as Congress dissects Nippon, TikTok deals

U.S. Treasury wants to enhance the power of a little-known, secretive government committee to review deals made between U.S. firms and foreign investors. A new proposed rulemaking would strengthen powers for the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — known as CFIUS — which is tasked with investigating corporate deals for national security concerns and holds power to force the company to change. This comes as high-profile deals involving foreign investment in the U.S. — like Chinese firm ByteDance’s social media app TikTok and Japanese firm Nippon Steel’s bid to purchase Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. have received increased scrutiny by lawmakers and even President Joe Biden.