{"id":1503580,"date":"2022-06-05T07:34:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T11:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1503580"},"modified":"2022-06-05T07:34:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T11:34:19","slug":"biden-nominees-to-government-retiree-thrift-board-consent-to-no-investments-in-chinese-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-nominees-to-government-retiree-thrift-board-consent-to-no-investments-in-chinese-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Nominees to Government Retiree Thrift Board Consent to No Investments in Chinese Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-nominees-to-government-retiree-thrift-board-consent-to-no-investments-in-chinese-firms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1503580&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced on June 2 that President Joe Biden\u2019s four nominees to serve on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) confirmed in writing their belief that Americans shouldn\u2019t invest in Chinese firms or those of any other country that threatens U.S. national security.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe agree that it is unfitting for Americans to invest in companies from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-china\">China<\/a> or elsewhere that undermine U.S. national security. Congress provided the authority to the Department of Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to ban any American from making such investments. We fully support OFAC\u2019s ability to exercise its authority and we commit that any company banned by OFAC, whether based in China or elsewhere, would not be included in any TSP fund,\u201d the nominees told Rubio and Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in a June 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/_cache\/files\/4d450156-e64b-4650-8d6a-bc0c45cee7e3\/D8A3E73952368295ECCB319499271FBF.final-response-to-sens-rubio-tuberville-cotton-6-2-22-signed.pdf\">letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The four nominees are Dana Bilyeu, Leona Bridges, Michael Gerber, and Stacie Olivares. If confirmed by the Senate, the nominees will join the five-member FRTIB. Rubio, who had previously put a hold on the nominations, said on June 2 that he has now removed his hold so the Senate can complete its consideration.<\/p>\n<p>The FRTIB and its Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a vehicle established by a 1984 reform proposed by President Ronald Reagan to convert the federal career civil service\u2019s main retirement program from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution approach, such as those then being widely adopted in the corporate world.<\/p>\n<p>Billions of dollars have since been invested by federal workers in the TSP, making it a potentially lucrative target for sellers of indexed investment tools made up of multiple countries from a wide variety of industries.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Rubio, Cotton, and Tuberville, joined by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), warned FRTIB Acting Chairman David Jones that the board shouldn\u2019t implement its proposed new Mutual Fund Window in the TSP that would include multiple Chinese firms, as well as firms based in other countries that represent serious national security problems for the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cU.S. service-members and other federal employees would likely be shocked to learn that the FRTIB is unaware of which companies make up these approved funds or what risk those companies pose,\u201d the senators wrote in a May 24\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/press-releases?ID=FE4C4D79-7C47-497C-B162-D86E58F25F99\">letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do not want their retirement dollars to underwrite the development of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-ccp\">CCP<\/a>\u2019s advanced weapons systems and military modernization. They do not want to be implicated in sponsoring genocide of the Uyghur people, equipping concentration camps, and trafficking in forced labor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do not want to invest in an opaque mutual fund platform in which Chinese companies do not adhere to federal securities laws or submit to adequate disclosure requirements. When they invest through TSP, they rightly expect the FRTIB will protect them and their investments from these types of dangerous investments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statement by Biden\u2019s four nominees suggests that the new window plan won\u2019t be carried forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know these Chinese companies do not play by the rules,\u201d Rubio said in his June 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm?p=Press-Releases&#038;id=0C8BDC8A-57DE-41FC-BCCC-949EF30B3A03\">statement.<\/a><b>\u00a0<\/b>\u201cThere is absolutely no reason the retirement savings of service-members and federal employees should be funding companies working with the Chinese government and military. It is encouraging that these nominees understand their fiduciary duties.\u00a0I look forward to working with them to ensure retirement funds do not flow to those unaccountable companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Florida Republican, joined by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), first raised the issue in 2019 when he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/senators-question-fed-thrift-boards-investments-in-chinese-firms_3105715.html\">challenged<\/a> then-FRTIB Chairman Michael Kennedy and his board \u201cto reverse its November 2017 decision to change the Thrift Savings Plan\u2019s International Stock Fund (TSP\u2019s I Fund) to mirror the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msci.com\/documents\/10199\/cfb3886f-2b39-44c9-ae95-024ba91c6f76\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Investable Market Index<\/a>\u00a0(ACWI ex-US IMI).\u201d The senators\u2019 challenge was contained in an Aug. 26, 2019,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/2019\/8\/rubio-shaheen-urge-tsp-board-to-reverse-decision-to-steer-federal-retirement-savings-to-china\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The MSCI Index is one of the numerous stock market\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/index-funds-are-the-new-kings-of-wall-street-11568799004\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investment tools<\/a>\u00a0used by individuals and retirement plan administrators in the private and public sectors to direct participants\u2019 funds into selective groups of individual equities, thus, at least theoretically, spreading risks and minimizing potential losses.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese firms with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese military were among those included in the MSCI Index. That worried Rubio and Shaheen, who questioned if board officials had performed sufficient due diligence concerning the many Chinese firms in the index with financial and other records that are purposely designed to conceal their activities.<\/p>\n<p>Among the most prominent examples cited to Kennedy in 2019 by Rubio and Shaheen was AviChina Industry &#038; Technology, which represents the Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC) and its many subsidiaries.<\/p>\n<p>The AVIC complex is controlled by the Chinese government. The entity develops \u201cmanned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles, and other weapons systems for the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force, People\u2019s Liberation Army Naval Air Force, and People\u2019s Liberation Army Rocket Force,\u201d Rubio and Shaheen told Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>The board backed off the plan to follow the MSCI Index after Rubio and Shaheen\u2019s criticisms.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-mark-tapscott\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"names\">\n<p>Congressional Correspondent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Congressional Correspondent for The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced on June 2 that President Joe Biden\u2019s four nominees to serve on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) confirmed in writing their belief that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1503580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}