Murphy, Panetta Lead Bipartisan Letter to Safeguard U.S. Retirement Savings from Chinese Companies

Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D.'s (NC-03) and Rep. Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) sent a bipartisan letter to Acting Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) Chairman David Jones expressing concern regarding a recent FRTIB decision which could expose U.S. federal employee and service member retirement savings to Chinese companies. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio led an identical Senate version of the letter with Senators Rick Scott, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, Roger Marshall, M.D., and Rob Portman. Read the letter HERE.

"We write to convey urgent concern with regard to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board's (FRTIB) decision to open a new "Mutual Fund Window" beginning next month for federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants," the members wrote. "Such a move could expose billions of dollars in retirement savings of U.S. federal employees and service-members to Chinese companies, including ones currently sanctioned by the U.S. government for human rights abuses or otherwise blacklisted for the threat they pose to U.S. national security."

"When [U.S. federal employees and service members] invest through TSP, they rightly expect the FRTIB will protect them and their investments from these types of dangerous investments. It is evident that the FRTIB cannot live up to that expectation at this time. For these, and several other reasons, we again urge the Board to cancel, or, at minimum, postpone implementation of its Mutual Fund Window initiative until your Board can ensure that no TSP funds are invested in dangerous, non- compliant or opaque Chinese securities, as well as commit to providing TSP account-holders as much transparency as possible about where their hard-earned savings are being invested," they concluded.

"Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants would be distressed to learn that their hard-earned retirement dollars could now fund malign activities in Communist China," said Rep. Murphy. "We urge the FRTIB to immediately reverse their decision and safeguard American retirement savings from entities which could severely threaten U.S. national security."

"The unelected bureaucrats at the FRTIB are once again attempting to invest federal retirement savings in opaque Chinese firms engaged in human rights abuses and a wide range of military-related activities," said Zach Mottl, Chairman of The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA). "It is absolutely unacceptable for the Chinese Communist Party to be profiting from the retirement accounts of U.S. government employees and members of the military. On behalf of CPA and our members, we applaud Senator Rubio and Congressman Murphy for leading this important effort and shedding light on the FRTIB's unconscionable plan to transfer federal retirement savings to China."

Background: The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a Federal Government-sponsored retirement savings and investment plan. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 extended participation in the TSP, which was originally only for Federal civilian employees, to members of the uniformed services, and members began enrolling on October 9, 2001.

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