Rubio rips military retirement board for ‘risking American money,’ national security in China
Senators Rubio, Cotton, Tuberville pen letter to FTRIB asking why it wants open mutual fund window for Chinese companies
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., raises national security concerns about investing military members’ retirement funds in China.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is raising national security concerns and formally asking the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board (FTRIB) why it’s "risking American money" and wants to open the doors wide open to invest federal employee and military 401(k) funds into Chinese companies that are controlled by the Communist Party.
"These companies in China, do not at this moment anyway, follow the same requirements that any other companies that are listed follow in terms of transparency and auditing requirements," Rubio told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
On "Mornings with Maria," Thursday, Rubio expanded on the concerns highlighted in the letter he penned along with Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to four of President Biden’s FTRIB nominees who are looking to make the change.
Rubio placed a hold on all four nominations pending confirmation of a commitment to withhold the retirement savings from Chinese firms, according to a press release.
"Add to the irony of this – a lot of the people that are on the [retirement plan] were in the Army or the Navy," Rubio explained, "and you're putting money aside in this equivalent of a 401(k), and they are turning around and investing that money, capitalizing companies in China controlled by the military that are designing the weapons that are one day going to be used to attack you, or kill you or kill your children when they grow up and go serve in the military."
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The senator further noted there’s a "common sense line" that shouldn’t be crossed.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., discussed his efforts to stop the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board from investing federal employees' and military members' 401(k) savings into Chinese companies and firms on "Mornings with Maria" Thursday, May 5, 2 … (Fox News)
"Why are we using American money to fund companies that are building the weapons that are being designed to destroy and kill American troops?" Rubio posited.
Rubio also called out the board for not screening the Chinese mutual funds properly, claiming some have already been sanctioned by the U.S.
"Unfortunately, we've seen this now across equities markets, people who think or believe that their only job, and the only consideration is, 'Can I get a good return for our investors?' Rubio pointed out.
While the senator confirmed this policy issue shares a bipartisan consideration, he’s unsure whether Congress can block these investments.
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on why he’s asking the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board wants to open the mutual fund window to Chinese companies.
"There are a lot of reasons why people either don't take the threat seriously, or they're listening to some of these people that come from Wall Street over here and tell us not to mess around with these investments or give you all the runaround as to why we're exaggerating and it's not a big deal," Rubio said.
"It's a bipartisan position, but unfortunately, it is not a bipartisan priority."