Pittenger wants a tougher review of Chinese investments. Trump backs the plan too.

Outgoing Rep. Robert Pittenger of Charlotte moved one step closer to securing what he calls his "legacy piece" of legislation — and President Donald Trump heartily endorsed it.

Pittenger, who lost in May's Republican primary to Mark Harris, has long sought updates to the process by which the United States reviews foreign investments in the country, particularly Chinese investments, that deal with national security.

Pittenger's legislation — the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act — passed the House 400-2 on Tuesday. A version has been included in the Senate's version of the 2019 defense spending bill, which passed earlier this month. The measure is expected to be included in the final defense appropriations bill.

“This is definitely the major legislation that will be a legacy piece,” Pittenger told McClatchy earlier this month. “It has the most transformational effect of any legislation I’ve led on.”

The measure gives the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States more power to review sensitive investments involving China, Russia and state sponsors or terrorism, allows reviews of land purchases near U.S. military installations and ports and could stop key technology from being exported to China and other countries.

CFIUS is an interagency body housed in the Treasury Department that vets purchases and takeovers of U.S. businesses by foreign entities for potential national security threats.

"This legislation," Trump said in a statement, "will enhance our ability to protect the United States from new and evolving threats posed by foreign investment while also sustaining the strong, open investment environment to which our country is committed and which benefits our economy and our people.

"Upon enactment ... I will direct my Administration to implement it promptly and enforce it rigorously, with a view toward addressing the concerns regarding state-directed investment in critical technologies."

Pittenger, who tried to align himself closely with Trump during the GOP primary, has been a vocal critic of China's investments for several years. In 2016, he questioned whether computer maker Lenovo, owned by China with offices and more than 3,000 employees in North Carolina, posed a national security threat because of its sales to the U.S. military and potential for spying.

"For over two years, we have fought for CFIUS reform and the implementation of stronger policies to combat strategic and disruptive Chinese activities," Pittenger said in a statement. "This landmark legislation will take enormous steps to improve our foreign investment review process to prevent further transfers of military applicable technologies to the Chinese government."

Critics of the legislation have called it anti-China.

"It’s never a good idea to politicize foreign economic policy," said John Zindar, a partner with the European-American Business Organization and a former U.S. Army intelligence officer. "If you’re going to always err on the side of ‘Well, it’s China, we’re not going to approve then,’ then there’s a real downside to that. And we believe it will affect the competitiveness of the United States."

Pittenger has made it clear that he considers the threat from China a national security one.

“What America had in the past was the edge in technology, and China wants that edge,” he told McClatchy earlier this month. “If they can’t steal it, they want to buy it. And we’ve given them access in the past to buy it. We’re going to close that door.”

Pittenger was the first incumbent to lose in a primary this cycle, but two other incumbents — Republican Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley of New York — have since lost their re-election bids in the primaries.

William Douglas of the McClatchy Washington bureau contributed.

This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 9:26 AM.