Nine House Republicans praised for urging Labor Sec. Scalia to divest private pensions from China

July 31, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today in a statement praised the nine members of Congress who jointly signed a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia urging the end of private retirement investments into risky Chinese companies:

“Nine members of the House of Representatives took a bold stand in a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia asking that the Secretary ‘consider amending the proposed rule to require any company seeking eligibility for any retirement or pension investment meet U.S. statutory and regulatory transparency standards.’

“The letter led by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) was signed by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (R-Ariz.), Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) and Rep. Bill Hagedorn (R-Minn.).

“National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray have been unambiguous about the dangers to both our national security and financial security posed by China with O’Brien and Kudlow urging divestment of Chinese assets by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board.  O’Brien and Kudlow also led the way for stopping the federal employee 401(k) plan, known as the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), from investing in Chinese assets.

“The Congressional letter boldly reminded Labor Secretary Scalia of his own opposition to the TSP plan to invest in Chinese assets when the Secretary wrote that these investments ‘would place millions of federal employees and retirees and service members in the untenable position of choosing between forgoing any investment in international equities or placing billions of dollars in retirement savings in risky companies that pose a threat to U.S. national security…’

“In the future those who stood up against child and slave labor in places like China will be hailed as heroes, even as today there are those on Wall Street who worry more about relationships with those who run the slave shops.  It is time for America to divest our nation’s retirement accounts from Chinese assets in their entirety.  Not only are they unsuitably risky due to their lack of any basic transparency standards, but they are also immoral.

“Reps. Webster, Gohmert, Rooney, Perry, Gosar, King, Riggleman, Posey and Hagedorn have shown that they are unafraid of standing on the side of both freedom and retirement security and in doing so, they are on the right side of history.”

Attachments:

Letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia by nine House Republicans, July 30, 2020 at https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MOC-Letter-to-DOL-RE-Proposed-Rule-FINAL.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.

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