Pete Ricketts Asks Trump Nom: Is Chinese-Owned Land Near Military Sites A National Security Threat?

4 months ago

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-OK) asked Christopher Pilkerton, President Trump's nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the Department of Treasury, about Chinese-owned land near U.S. military sites.

Transcript

00:00Senator Ricketts. Great, thank you Mr. Chairman and ranking member for holding

00:06this hearing and thank you to our panelists, our nominees and your

00:10willingness to serve our great nation. The ranking member was talking about

00:14inflation. I might note that on Labor Day the average price of gas was $3.15 a

00:20gallon and that's the lowest it's been since 2020 and people in my state tend

00:24to drive a lot and that's a big factor in household income and inflation and to

00:28me that says that the president's policies of unleashing American energy are

00:32important and that also actually rolls into another thing that's important for

00:36my state of Nebraska which is ethanol. Actually last time I filled up with

00:41ethanol it was saving me 45 cents a gallon versus regular 89 octane. So

00:47everybody can fill up on ethanol, save money at the pump, clean up the

00:51environment, it's great for our farmers and ranchers. You may say why are you

00:54talking about that right now because I'm going to roll into another topic that

00:58is of interest here which is communist China is the threat to America. They

01:03want to supplant us as the world superpower and they've made it clear that

01:08they are going to use every lever of power to be able to undermine our national

01:13security. Confronting this threat requires comprehensive strategy that

01:17strengthens our safety, our financial system, secures our critical assets and

01:21closes loopholes for communist China to seek and exploit things in our system. And

01:27one of the things that includes is combating our foreign adversaries ownership of

01:32American agricultural land and thus to tie in back to my state. In 2010

01:37communist China owned 13,720 acres of American farmland. In 2023 communist China

01:44owned 277,000 acres of that farmland and that is a threat to our national

01:51security. A lot of that sometimes that farmland was located by our sensitive

01:55military installations. Mr. Pilberton, do you agree that that's a threat to our

02:01national security? Senator, thank you very much for the question. I share your

02:07concern. In fact, the Chinese penetration in agriculture, agricultural land, real

02:13estate, critical technologies is something that we all should be very

02:17concerned about from a national security perspective. If I am confirmed to lead this

02:22CFIUS committee, then I would look forward to working with you as well as the

02:27members around the table, including the observing member of the U.S. Department of

02:32Agriculture, Senator, I'm sorry, Secretary Brooke Rollins, who I've worked with very

02:36closely before. So I look forward to the opportunity to work with you, your staff, and

02:40this whole committee on these issues. Well good, I'll look forward to that. Under the

02:46Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of FIDA, foreign entities are

02:50required to disclose the transactions of American agricultural land to the USDA.

02:55That's your comment about working with Secretary Rollins. USDA then shares the

03:00data with CFIUS agencies so they can identify and review the transactions that

03:04pose national security risks. However, the Government Accountability Office, GAO,

03:09published a report on the AFIDA process which flagged incomplete data reporting,

03:14process errors, and delays. That's why I introduced the AFIDA Improvement Act. My bill will

03:20strengthen reporting requirements and improve data sharing coordination between

03:24USDA and CFIUS so that national security risks tied to foreign land purposes are

03:29flagged immediately. I look forward to working with you on this issue and more

03:33when you are confirmed. In your view, what other enforcement gaps or

03:37vulnerabilities in the CFIUS process that pose these threats or what poses the

03:43greatest risk or threat from our foreign foreign affairs? Are there other things in the

03:47CFIUS process we can improve upon? Thank you for the question, Senator. If I had the

03:51opportunity to be confirmed, obviously CFIUS's focus is national security and my

03:57priorities are going to be just that, including focusing on the critical

04:02technologies, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, other areas where America

04:07is and will continue and must continue to be a leader. Another priority that I have is the

04:12non-notification of covered transactions. These are transactions that should be

04:17reported that are not reported. And one of the things that I want to do, if confirmed,

04:21is sit down with the entire team, including the advising groups, the intelligence community,

04:27law enforcement community that plays a role there, and find out how we can use the different

04:32tools and authorities that CFIUS has to advance that. Finally, I'd like to focus on compliance and

04:39enforcement. Obviously, there's a front-end review of the transactions that come through CFIUS,

04:43but many times there are mitigation agreements and ongoing compliance. And we have to stay vigilant

04:48and ensure that folks are abiding by the agreements that they enter into. I'd also like to say that I

04:55think it's incredibly important because I know that CFIUS and national security is a bipartisan matter.

05:01So having that feedback loop with the executive branch, this committee, and your colleagues is going to

05:05be very critical. Yeah, great. I look forward to working with you on this. And one other thing

05:10I'll just mention is looking at process improvement to streamline your processes to be able to do this

05:15more efficiently. And we can talk about that more of that later. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Smith.

Pete Ricketts Asks Trump Nom: Is Chinese-Owned Land Near Military Sites A National Security Threat?

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