Put the Housing Secretary on the foreign investment committee
What the document says“The President should issue an executive order making the HUD Secretary a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.”
The chapter frames this as gaining broader oversight to address foreign threats, particularly from China, over foreign ownership of real estate in both rental and ownership markets for single-family and multifamily housing, noting the value of real estate secured across the department's portfolio.
What the document actually says“The President should issue an executive order making the HUD Secretary a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.”
Sign an order putting the housing chief on this committee. It reviews foreign buyers.
A committee checks when foreign buyers want American assets. The book says the housing chief should join it. The worry is who owns American homes.
Making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes
2025-11-12 · 139 Stat. 495
Section 739 of Public Law 119-37, enacted November 12, 2025, provides that the Secretary of Agriculture shall be included as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States on a case by case basis for each covered transaction involving agricultural land, agriculture biotechnology or the agriculture industry, and requires that Secretary to notify the committee of agricultural land transactions believed to pose a national security risk, with particular emphasis on acquisitions by foreign governments or entities of concern including the People's Republic of China. That is the same mechanism the passage asks for, adding a Cabinet secretary to the committee to reach foreign acquisition of American real property. The fit breaks down on the particulars: the member added is the Secretary of Agriculture and not the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the reach is farmland and the agriculture industry rather than the rental and ownership housing markets, membership is case by case rather than standing, and it was done by a provision of an appropriations act rather than by the executive order the passage asks the President to issue.
A law of November 12, 2025 adds the farm secretary to the panel that screens foreign deals. The seat is case by case, for deals on farm land or the farm trade. That is the same tool the passage asks for. But the passage asked for the housing chief, for the housing market, and for an order from the President.