Chinese investments spark bipartisan bills to reform secret oversight panel

Bipartisan worries about China’s sudden investment surge in the United States has prompted new legislation that would strengthen an obscure and secretive agency that has the power to block foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies.

Top Senate leaders from both parties are working on separate tracks to produce legislation that would reform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a panel made up of anonymous board members from a variety of government agencies who operate under the Treasury Secretary to approve or disapprove the sale of U.S. companies and property to foreigners.