The US government now has expanded authority to review inbound investments.
President Trump signed the law expanding the powers of CFIUS. CFIUS stands for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency committee of 16 federal agencies, headed by the Treasury Department, that reviews foreign acquisitions of US companies and property for national security implications.
Previously, CFIUS only had authority to review deals in which a foreign person gained control over a US trade or business.
The new law gives CFIUS authority to review transactions where a foreign person takes a minority interest in a US company that owns or deals with critical infrastructure or critical technologies. Critical infrastructure means systems or assets “so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems or assets would have a debilitating impact on national security.”
CFIUS will also have authority in the future to review any purchase or lease of land near sensitive sites, including airports, seaports and sensitive government or military locations, if the site access could allow the foreign person to collect intelligence on activities at the site or otherwise expose national security activities at the site to foreign surveillance.
