Senate must prohibit federal retirement savings from flowing to China

VOC’s President, Amb. Andrew Bremberg writes with Michael Stumo for The Washington Times on the importance of prohibiting the federal retirement Thrift Savings Plan from benefitting Chinese companies through investment.

The authors argue that, “As the Senate considers a defense bill, Sens. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, are pushing for an important bipartisan amendment. They want to protect federal employees from unwittingly investing in America’s greatest geopolitical adversary, China.

The Rubio-Shaheen amendment — based on their Taxpayers and Savers Protection Act — would prohibit the federal retirement Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP, from investing in Chinese companies that the U.S. government has identified as national security risks involved in the use of forced labor or aiding the modernization of China’s military.

The TSP is the federal retirement and savings plan for government employees and members of the U.S. armed forces. According to data collected by the Coalition for a Prosperous America, the TSP has been funding China’s military-industrial complex and its forced labor industry.

In June 2022, the TSP introduced a mutual fund window, a new option allowing TSP participants to invest up to 25% of their account in a choice of 5,000 mutual funds managed by providers such as Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and others.“

Read the full article in The Washington Times.

Ambassador Andrew Bremberg is the President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.