Tuberville Announces Win for U.S. National Security and Federal Retirement Savers

Press Release

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), along with U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), today received a response to their April 12th letter to President Biden's four nominees to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) clarifying that, if confirmed, the board nominees would not permit Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) funds to be invested in Chinese companies.

Senator Tuberville has repeatedly pressed the FRTIB to clarify its position on TSP investment in China, citing national security concerns over the possibility that TSP's international investment portfolio would include Chinese securities. As a result of this clarification from the FRTIB nominees, Senator Tuberville will release the hold, a procedural maneuver to prevent confirmation without a vote by the full Senate, he placed on all four of President Biden's nominees to the FRTIB earlier this year.

The TSP is a 401(k)-style investment fund managed by the FRTIB. It is over $700 billion dollars in size and is utilized by 6,000,000 members of our nation's military and federal civilian workforce. In May of 2021, Senator Tuberville introduced legislation to prohibit investment of TSP funds in any entity based in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Senator Tuberville also wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the national security risk investment in China-based entities poses for the United States, he spoke about the issue on the floor of the Senate and in an interview on Fox Business.

In part, the letter from President Biden's nominees to lead the FRTIB reads, "We fully support the position of the acting Chair and would be highly skeptical of future recommendations to track this or any index that invests in Chinese companies…we would not permit TSP funds to invest in Chinese companies knowing TSP participant and beneficiary assets could be subject to fraud, financial irregularities or other risks…we agree it is unfitting for Americans to invest in companies from China or elsewhere that undermine U.S. national security."

In response to the clarity provided by President Biden's nominees to the FRTIB, Senator Tuberville issued the following statement: "This is a big win for our military and federal civilian employees. The Trump administration halted the FRTIB's plans to invest TSP funds in China, and Senator Rubio, Senator Cotton, and I have fought to ensure the Trump-era ban stays in place. Investing in Chinese companies is a financial risk to Americans that also undermines our national security. I am glad to hear that President Biden's nominees to the FRTIB agree."

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