WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today applauded a letter from U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and his colleagues urging Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board’s (FRTIB) Acting Chairman David Jones to abandon its plan to open a new “Mutual Fund Window” beginning June 1, 2022 for federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants. The senators cautioned that the proposal, which is composed of thousands of unvetted mutual funds, could expose billions of dollars in retirement savings of U.S. service-members and other federal employees to Chinese companies, including ones currently sanctioned or otherwise blacklisted for the threat they pose to U.S. national security.
Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Rob Portman (R-OH) also signed the letter, while U.S. Representative Greg Murphy (R-NC) and other representatives sent an identical letter to the FRTIB. Last week, U.S. Representative Jim Banks led a group of House members in a similar letter.
“U.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,” the senators wrote. “They do not want their retirement dollars to underwrite the development of the CCP’s 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. They 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.”
Earlier this week, CPA and a diverse group of human rights and national security organizations launched NoTSPforCCP.org, a website calling on the FRTIB to abandon its unconscionable plan to invest billions of dollars from the TSP — the retirement assets of federal government employees, active duty servicemembers, veterans, and retired civil servants — in companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“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 CPA Chairman Zach Mottl. “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.”
On June 1, the FRTIB will allow current and former federal employees to invest up to 25% of their savings in 5,000 new mutual funds that include CCP-controlled companies, barring White House or congressional intervention. Last month, CPA called on the FRTIB to abandon this plan, calling it economic treason to invest federal retirement dollars in China.
According to research conducted by CPA, within these mutual funds are at least 32 Chinese companies that are presently non-compliant with U.S. federal securities laws and sanctioned by the U.S. government for national security and/or human rights abuses. Despite repeated requests for information, the FRTIB has failed to vet the 5,000 new mutual funds for compliance with federal securities laws, protective disclosure requirements, or if any of the funds are owned or controlled by the CCP. Additionally, the FRTIB has made clear, in publicly available meeting minutes, that it has no intention of screening these mutual funds for the presence of Chinese companies, including U.S.-sanctioned and other Chinese corporate bad actors.
