Congress Enacts CFIUS Reform Legislation

On Jul 26, 2007, Pres Bush signed into law the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 (the "Act"). The Act was the culmination of a long-awaited effort by Congress to reform the procedures for national security reviews of foreign direct investment in the US conducted by the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the US ("CFIUS"). The Department of the Treasury remains the chair of CFIUS and, under the Act, has a newly created Assistant Secretary specifically responsible for CFIUS reviews. The Act requires assessment of a country's compliance with US and multilateral counter-terrorism, nonproliferation and export control regimes for acquisitions by state-owned companies in the investigation stage. The Act requires CFIUS to publish regulations within 180 days that would impose civil penalties for violations of mitigation agreements or other conditions imposed as part of a CFIUS approval.